New Consumer Marketing Trend

Customers today perceive fewer real product differences and show less brand loyalty, and they are becoming more price and quality sensitive in their search for value. Consider what consumers have today that they didn't have yesterday:

1. A Substantial Increase in Buying Power : Buyers are only a click away from comparing competitor prices and product attributes on the Internet. They can even name their price for a Hotel Room, Airline Ticket, or Mortgage. Business buyers can run a 'Reverse Auction' in which sellers compete to capture their business. They can readily join with others to aggregate their purchases and achieve deeper volume discounts.
2. A greater variety of available goods and services : Amazon.com quickly became the world's largest bookstore but has since branched into retail sales of music and movies, clothing and accessories, consumer electronics, health and beauty aids, and, home and garden products. Buyers can order goods online from anywhere in the world, bypassing limited local offerings and realizing great savings by ordering in countries with lower prices.
3. A great amount of information about practically anything : People can read almost any newspaper in any language from anywhere in the world. They can access online encyclopedias, dictionaries, medical information, movie ratings, consumer reports, and countless other information sources.
4. Greater ease in interacting and placing and receiving orders : Today's buyers can place orders from home, office, or mobile phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and quickly receive goods at their home or office.
5. An ability to compare notes on products and services : Social Networking Sites bring together buyers with a common interest. Compareindia.com provides comparitive information, mostly based on consumer reviews, prices, features, and users' experiences pertaining to a variety of products. These incude electrical and electronic gadgets and equipment, kitchen accessories, and office equipment. Another website, that provides comparative information and reviews of gizmos and gadgets is Techtree.com. Similarly, Mouthshut.com provides consumer feedback and users' experience of products classified into different categories. Many people, particularly the younger generation, who are more comfortable with the Internet, visit some of these Web sites to make informed choices.
   
6. An amplified voice to influence peer and public opinion : The Internet fuels personal connections and user-generated content through social media such as Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, and single-use social networks such as Flickr(photos), Del.cio.us(links), Digg(News Stories), Wikipedia(Encyclopedia Articles), and, YouTube(video). In late 2004, Kryptonite, a firm that makes high-priced bike locks, found itself in an awkward position when several blogs showed how the firm's U-shapped locks could be easily picked using only the plastic casing of a Bic pen!