The Shift in Brand Power - Essay Example

THE SHIFT IN BRAND POWER College THE SHIFT IN BRAND POWER Introduction In the 21st century, marketing is one of the areas in business organizations that have experienced a paradigm shift. For a long time, customer-centric models of marketing have gained popularity within the business environment. Dahlen is among scholars who have observed the shift of power from the institution to the consumers. He suggests that the contemporary business environment has posed challenges that have rendered tradition brand communication models obsolete. As many organizations depend on the customer behaviours, it is evident that customers play a central role within the business environment. As organizations develop their business models, they consider the customers as a priority and all products and services are designed to suit the customer tastes and preferences. This is contrary to the traditional marketing strategies where the consumers were positioned at the receiving end and contributed little to product design. Notably, customer-centric models are business strategies that focus on increasing the number of customers for the organization as well as the loyalty they attach to their products. Secondly, customer-value models play an important role in understanding the consumer behaviour which helps in design desirable products (Quinton, 2013). Besides, customer based models seek to detect changes in customer behaviour patterns and hence helps the organization to adjust its business strategy. Consequently, the shift of power to the consumers has led to change in the business communication strategies. The Shift in Brand Power to the Consumers Marketing strategies within an organization has generated a lot of attention within the modern business environment. Marketing seeks to create product awareness within target markets as one way to ensure that customer understand products and are attracted to the organization distribution channels (Cheng & Dogan, 2008). Therefore, marketing ensures that companies push their products towards the customers, as one way of increasing sales within the market. Today, many organizations have appreciated that a customer-centric model is one of the best marketing strategies. A customer-centric marketing model puts customers at the heart of the business and all strategies are directed towards winning the customer (Niininen, Buhalis & March, 2007). The role of a customer within the modern market has increasingly generated attention. With increase is competition within the modern markets, customers are becoming important factors while designing marketing strategies. As competition increases, the profits decrease and the consumer bargaining power increases in the market. Resultantly, organizations are competing for available customers to ensure that they survive the harsh market times when customers have many options to choose from. Generally, organizations that have higher customer share within the market will survive while those that lose customers will eventually collapse. As such, customer based models of marketing have gained favouritism due to increase in competition for market share. Dahlen et al (2010 p.448) argued that in the 21st Century advertisers are no longer in control of their brands. The power has shifted from brands to consumers. The implication is Dahlen’s statement is that brand managers have surrendered the power to design their products to the consumers. This is similar to the customer-oriented marketing models that indicate that customers’ tastes and preferences are more important in designing products rather than the managers’ personal ideas. In the traditional marketing models, the brand managers designed products from their personal knowledge. The customer had to consume products designed by the managers without their personal input (Parmentier, Fischer & Reuber, 2013). For instance, television brand advertisements were taken as absolute truth by the consumers. However, the contemporary market trends have changed this situation and there is evidence that customer input has become the basis for product design (Chahal, 2014). As a result, the managers have to shelf their ideas and take the customer’s ideas if they expect to win the customer loyalty. Besides, customers have learnt to judge brands the same way they judge other human beings. Human beings judge one another from the way they speak, interact and the value that they gain from relationships with them. The same way, customers use form relationships with products from the value they get from interaction with them. Customers are attracted, not by the names of companies but by the quality and flexibility that the products offer. Therefore, it has become a challenge for organizations to develop products that satisfy the diverse population characteristics. The complexity of human behaviour in different target markets has posed a challenge for organizations to satisfy different customer tastes. As organizations go international, they encounter customer behaviours that they have to satisfy if they have to survive in the market (Puzakova, Kwak & Rocereto, 2009). Therefore, it has become crucial for organizations to develop products that have desirable qualities for specific target markets. Delivering human-like products that can speak for themselves has been the ultimate solution to challenges of the new market environment. The shift of brand power to the consumer underpins the emergence of the customer-centric business models. One importance of customer-centric marketing model is that helps to understand the customer behaviour that may influence their purchasing pattern. Customer behaviour is complex factor that influence their choices and preferences within the market. One factor that contributes to complexity of customer behaviour is the uniqueness of their tastes and preferences. Customer tastes and preferences vary depending on their culture, race and even personal preferences (Hu, Chand & Evans, 2013). A customer centric model seeks to understand how such factors influence customers and the way this affects their choice of products. Understanding customer behaviour is crucial in product development. The priority of organizations is to provide products that suit customer tastes, to ensure that there is efficient flow of buyers. For instance, while customers within the Middle East countries may prefer spiced foods, customers from US market may prefer food free from such spices (Papadatos, 2006). Therefore, a customer-centric marketing model ensures that organizations understand the nature of customer tastes, hence positively influencing the product design. The result of the brand power shift is the emergence of new marketing communication strategies. A customer centric model helps organizations to win customer loyalty within the organization through effective marketing communication. Customer loyalty is an important aspect within an organization as it influences the ability of organizations to survive within the market in the long-term (Kaufmann & Panni, 2013). In a competitive business environment, companies are struggling to establish lasting relationships with their customer to avoid negative impacts that would accompany loss of customers to competitors. Loyal customers contribute to optimal organization performance as they ensure that the company sales remain high even during harsh times of the market. Losing customer loyalty is expensive for organizations since it leads to heavy financial losses resulting into a business crisis (Sheth, Sisodia & Sharma, 2000). A customer centric approach to marketing detects changes within customer behaviour by constantly working hand in hand with the customers. Since the customer is close to the organization, the marketing personnel can easily detect changes within the market environment and design strategies to satisfy them. Customer theory shows that customer is loyal to organizations that consistently remain flexible to satisfy the customers. Therefore, this approach in marketing ensures that companies has loyal customer who can support the business in the face of competition. Another crucial feature of customer based brand marketing, one of the modern communication strategies, is that it supports organizations in conquering the international markets. The complexity of international market is a factor that a multinational company cannot ignore. Most companies venture in the international market to broaden its geographical coverage and to benefit from the increased number of target customers. The company has to consider diversity within the international markets as part of letting the people design their products (Gamble & Thompson, 2013). For instance, color preferences of automobiles vary from one person to the other and from place to place. For instance, in Africa, the majority of citizens prefer dark Mercedes models rather than silvery ones. As such, color diversity of the Mercedes brands is an important idea of making products that are appealing to the customers (Kamel, 2006). From another point of view, the size of the car model is an issue that affects the customer tastes. For instance, majority of women prefer to use small cars while majority of men prefer large cars. Therefore, modern marketing communication demands that brand managers establish the consumer feedback before designing their products (Mathieu, 2014). This completely different from the traditional marketing models where the design was primarily dependent on the organizational managers creativity. Through emotional value proposition, integrated marketing communications seek to provide customers with satisfactory services. This model is aimed at providing a comfortable and conducive environment for the customers to satisfy the material as well as emotional needs (Fader, 2012). It is aimed at providing an atmosphere that allows visiting customers to relax and enjoy their services at their own pleasure. Basically, their emotional value is taken care of at no expense by the organization. For instance, couples and families will prefer to shop in a serene environment, enjoy bargaining, and relax all at the same point. This means that it is possible for a company to differentiate itself from the competition by adopting this type of value proposition (Randall & Seth, 1999). International organizations such as Wal-Mart have used customer value marketing models by providing the best shopping experience as part of their marketing model. In Wal-Mart, the marketing agent establish two communications where the sellers can explain the value of their products and customers can bargain the best deals for the products they intend to purchase (Smith, 2013). Their aim is to provide an experience that lasts for their customer to ensure that there are yearning to visit the shops at all times. Therefore, customers have power to bargain for their products, which signifies the great influence they have on market communication strategies. In an era of business technology, marketing communication models emphasize on two-way communication over one-way communication. The organization needs not only to advertise their products but also find ways of using the feedback that they obtain from the customers. Filtering of information is crucial as social media provides people with the liberty to express both negative and positive opinions on the products (Chand, Cummings & Patel, 2012). This is different from traditional communication channels such as television that provided one way communication. To use the feedback appropriately, the organizational managers have to evaluate the economic impact of the social media taking into account of the opinions provided in this platform (Harper, 2011). The economic value of social media will only be realized if organization use a customer based marketing approach to create two way communications within their online presence (Cheng & Dogan, 2008). For instance, platforms such as Facebook allow customers to comment about products, a source of feedback that marketers can use to understand the customer behaviour. Through customer oriented marketing, companies such as Apple Inc. have benefited by engaging their customers in dialogues that contribute to organizational value. In their Facebook page, they pose questions that are fundamental for communication strategies. The brand managers use this information to design new products that best suit the consumers (Chand, Cummings, & Patel, 2012). Therefore, the emergence of a two-way communication model is a symbol of the shift to modern marketing organizations. The challenges of marketing have result to the shift from the institutional era into the human era brand marketing. In the ‘human era’ brand strategy, managers have to personify their brands in a way that brands communicate to their customers (Ahmad & Thyagaraj, 2014). Modern marketing strategies require that brands be capable of establishing a warm relationship with the customers. Unlike in the institutional era when organizations communicated the value of their products, the human era requires that brands speak for themselves (Duboff, 2014). The evolution of technology has fuelled the internationalisation of business, hence reducing human to human interaction. Online business has disconnected managers from their customer and brands have to establish unique relationships with their customers. Therefore, managers need to develop new tactics to promote their products to communicate efficiently with the customers if they have to survive the challenges of the ‘human era’. Conclusion In conclusion, the shift in brand power underpins the complexity of modern marketing communication strategies. In an era of increased business competition and market complexity, organizations are faced by the challenge of attracting more customers as well as winning the loyalty of those they have. The numbers of customers that purchase from an organization have a direct impact on the organizations profitability. Unlike traditional customer who consumed products invented by brand managers, modern day customers have the power to influence the design of products. As a result, new marketing designs have evolved to accommodate the customer ideas, tastes and preferences. Customer-centric marketing seeks to identify customer tastes and preferences, as part of the strategy of modelling quality products that match the needs of the market. Besides, the customer oriented marketing helps to conquer external factors such as culture and technology that often pose a great danger to product sales. Companies that focus on the customers are able to satisfy their needs more efficiently and hence enjoy a higher flow of the customers. Therefore, such companies are guaranteed to survive in the short as well as long-term, which is essential for organizational viability. 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