The whole world is talking about the economic crisis. And in a way most of us are affected by it in one way or the other.
There are explanations and theories about how and why this occurred.
Experts who were so gung ho about the booming markets, who never saw this crisis coming have got over the sudden shock and now are once again busy in predicting how long it will stay. They are busy consulting companies about how to get over this.
But in my view, the crisis is deeper than and perhaps different than what we are focussing on now.
Companies are busy taking care of the bottom lines and financial wizards are controlling the decision making in companies. May be in the short term, that's what makes sense. May be that's needed for their survival.
But the real crisis is not exactly this. Even if companies get out from their financial problems, they have to face more harsh realities.
The consumer--company relationship is changing.
The power is slipping from the corporate world!
There was a time when the corporates were strong and could wield all the power in their hands. The Consumer was too little to challenge them in any way. So the communication was mostly one way.
Companies could pay dollars to create positive publicity. And consumers were what the marketers called "target audience"!
But not anymore, with the advent of social media and communication revolution, now the consumers are not just an audience.
They have enormous power in their hand. And they are enjoying it.
They are writing reviews, rating products, recommending it to friends and influencing buying decisions.
A single person in a remote corner can tweet and within hours it can travel the world.
Hence the days are gone when companies used to say "consumer is the king" but in real life used to treat them as slaves.
Now they have to tighten their belts. They have to be up to mark in terms of product delivery and consumer service. Obviously it also means more investments in these areas. Plus training and monitoring the execution.
The new open world has put the "word of mouth" on steroid. Now a smaller player can fight the biggies even without having huge marketing and advertising budgets.
So big players just can't depend on their reputation, they have to deliver. They have to listen to what the consumers want and they have to innovate. Otherwise a new player is always ready to take them on.
So the real crisis is this. The businesses have to be really accountable. They have to listen to consumers and innovate. "New improved" with just a change of packaging won't do. Businesses have to seriously put consumer relationship in their business models.
Just tweaking the accounting books is not enough. It needs a change of attitude. Those who will embrace the changing world will survive. Otherwise experts will have more sound bytes about how another giant went to the dust.
Author Resource:
Puneet Bhatnagar is a Creativity and NLP Trainer from India. He has a solid 18 years of experience as a creative professional in advertising and media. He is a rare talent who blends creativity and business for his clients. Now he runs his own training company: The Creativity Mission. He writes and speaks with his own experience and convictions, to find out more and share your views join him at http://www.thecreativitymission.com .
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