The future of the B2C relationship

While going through the medicine cabinet at home, I saw about eight bottles of vitamins - all different brands. It dawned on me, there is a real lack of brand loyalty in this world. We all love that word 'new' and hate that word 'old'. We seek new products because we love that first trial.

There really shouldn't be any loyalty when you think about it. We would walk into a pharmacy and they would recommend a particular brand of vitamin, and you would think, that if we trust one product in a brand's range, we would trust them all.

With the rise of local 'chemist's own' type brands, it seems people are starting to question why they are perhaps paying another $5 per bottle to get Cenovis Vitamin C, rather than $5 less for a homebrand product. Are they simply just paying for marketing? Or quality?

There is a fantastic episode of Seinfeld where George and Jerry enter a drug store and pick up two containers of what appear to be similar products. They jokingly compete with each other reciting ingredients with one manufacturer having less of one particular ingredient and one having more. The fact that neither knew which was better for them really enscapsulates the current relationsihp that consumers have with pharma brands - there is NO TRUST. That scepticism that we all have may just be the reason why there really is no loyalty in the pharma industry.

The Gruen Transfer looked at this industry with a fine comb recently and really tore it to pieces. Advertisers make outlandish statements about their products and trick consumers into thinking that they need to buy a particular shampoo because it removes 97% of dandruff instead of 96%. So it really is no wonder, that they don't trust these companies.

So maybe - what these brands need to be doing - is incentivising their customers. Consumer loyalty programs seem to be a thing of the past. But my belief, is that they will become increasingly more important over time, given how cluttered our supermarkets and pharmacies are at this point in time. I don't need 34 different shampoo brands, I need one.

I really see digital advertising as being the pivotal medium to facilitate the growth of the one-to-one B2C relationship. Recently, a blogger in the US wrote about his dissatisfaction with the service of Dell Computers. Dell trolled the web for these comments, acknowledged their flaw, and compensated for their lack of service by sending the unhappy blogger a new Dell computer with a customer service guarantee.

What advertisers needs to do is give consumers an extra reason to purchase their products. Given how homogeneous most of these products are, they need to be thinking about added value - monetary or non-monetary.

First of all, by giving your consumer added value, you may be starting a conversation. Once you have them hooked, not only can you then continue to incentivise their purchases but also talk to them, gauge their reactions on new product releases, get their feedback and actually start to LISTEN to the people who actually want you to hear them

Advertisers should be setting up online portals that facilitate this direct relationship. All their media, both digital and traditional should be driving to this. I see this as being a more relevant area for those industries with particular homogeneous product offerings - banking/finance, health/pharma, FMCG cleaning products.

Here are just a few ideas of how an advertiser can give a consumer added value
- Give them additional volume of product
- Discount their product
- Invite them to take part in a customer survey in exchange for discount or additional volume
- Invite them to be part of a consumer forum perhaps in an exotic location (all expenses paid of course)
- Set up a competition for consumers to come up with a new name for a new product
- Let these consumers be the FIRST to try your new products - have an exclusive product launch party

Anyway, until next time, say hi to your mum for me (or something along those lines)