I recently watched a video that gave me chills. It’s a teaser for the book The End of Business As Usual by Brian Solis, which is a wonderful read about the consumerism revolution we are currently experiencing.
The video shocked me because it highlights many MAJOR brands that have now closed their doors. I encourage you to watch the video and count how many brands you recognize. Then, recall how many of those brands did you interacted with, made purchases from, or recommend to friends and family.
It’s scary to see such major companies go down the drain. I found myself asking questions like, “Where did they go wrong,” and “What the heck happened?”
WATCH THE VIDEO:
| The End of Business As Usual from Brian Solis |
The video sparked a brainstorming session by asking a few poignant questions:
1. Do we listen to our customers?
2. Do we truly understand them?
3. Do we create experiences, or do we simply react?
How would you answer those questions for your own place of business?
Through the advent of the Internet, social media, and the social revolution, our customers are now hyper-educated. Solis says to attract and maintain clients in this day and age you’ll:
– Have to produce better products and services
– Both listen and adapt to what your audience wants
– Provide social consumers with different types of recognition and engagement – as they are now demanding complete socialization of your business
– Implement human intelligence to allow insight into your customers beyond demographics and hunches about buying habits
– Collect data from all social points to integrate into your business and marketing plans
At the end of his book, Brian Solis makes a very keen prediction based on the questions and points above: “Only the most connected, agile, and progressive organizations will realize the potential in shifting from a reactive customer-centric approach to that of proactive, and ultimately, predictive approach. The predictive business is social, connected, and adaptive.
Are you?
~ Brooke Ballard
Director of Marketing & Social Media
