network power undermines brands

09/28/2004 09:21:00 AM
One powerful feature of the Internet is its ability to let consumers access and share reviews and personal experiences with products and services. Consumers can get behind the hype of advertising and see for themselves if the products, brands and company are any good before investing their hard earned cash. To date, beyond Amazon, feedback has been based on loose informal networks.

However, intermediaries are now rising to aggregate this information. Planet Feedback is one such service, as is the recently launched Judy's Book, describing itself as "friends helping friends get the best of everything."
PlanetFeedback.com
Judysbook.com
With mass media, it was easy for companies to control and manage opinion through PR, now it's harder. One only has to look at the recent scandal surrounding CBS, to see how powerful web forces can be.
PR Feul Article

To see aggregators in action, look at a simple arts and entertainment review system, like Metacritic, where consumers can access multiple reviews for new films and music.
MetaCritic.com
Now imagine if consumers start populating and using these reputation management systems in significant numbers. In such an environment, brands are going to find it almost impossible to control perception.
MIT Sloan School of Business Article

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/140/report_display.asp

In response, we can expect to see the PR industry redefine its scope of service and mass media like magazines use their brand strength and reach out to the web to mobilize the opinions of their communities, while carefully avoiding sensitive advertiser issues.
Revolution Magazine Article

As for brands, they could use the web to organize their heavy users or fans, like Hallmark and Scion are already doing. But for most brands, it's the simple things that will become even more important, things like making good on their promises and delivering on customer service.
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