Listening to Your Customers

I think what the marketing world needs to get ready for is a much more active public. I think consumer’s expectations have risen in recent years and along with those rising expectations they now have a means to talk back and I think that kind of ongoing conversation is what marketers need to be prepared for, they have to be not just ready to engage, but willing to engage and to understand that it’s not a one-off anymore. It is an ongoing conversation that goes on as long as the public wants to have the conversation going on right.

Bill Cosby thought he had put all the allegations about his personal behavior to rest years ago… These days you can’t put an end to the conversation. People decide they want to talk about it and he has to deal with it, even someone who is one for the most powerful entertainers in the world cannot control the conversation about his own career and that is the new reality about the world we live in.

I would say marketing used to be about talking, now it’s about listening. My advice would be to enter the profession with humility – that strikes me as the most important trait to learn about this conversation between consumers and brands.