10/02/2009 10:26:04 AM 
The CEO is Andy Bond of UK grocery store, Asda (owned by Wal-Mart).
To bring home his point Asda organized a media event where they invited political strategist, Philip Gould to explain the change.
His big themes.
1. Waste no more- less waste and no waste spending. Gould does not believe things will go back to normal
2. Empowerment- The internet has given consumers control over information and the power to purchase and learn. Signing petitions online, etc. Transparency emerges as knowledge is shared. Want information to be shared and debated. Consumers looking for openness and honesty.
3. New Responsibility- Consumers thinking about the future for their kids and this means thinking about the planet. Thinking more about corporate values.
4. New Trust- The decline of trust in everything. No confidence in politicians and parties. People trusting supermarkets more than political parties. Supermarkets are now more trusted than teachers and social workers. 86% trust family and friends.
5. New Creativity- People will get by using creativity. This might not mean making art, but does involve writing reviews. Middle aged, Middle England is comfortable on the internet. UK housewives are spending 47% of their leisure lives online.
Gould's analysis suggested that the new consumer has taken control and a new world has emerged. He described a shift in power where consumers are demanding to know, are living by their own values and trust friends, not power. A world where everyone is an innovator.
In summary, Gould believes consumers have moved from shoppers to participants.
None of this is surprising for any of us who live with this stuff, but it's what happens next that's important.
Most companies have access to the same information, but do very little with it and certainly don't use it to drive big strategic change.
Asda's CEO has taken these insights and done something with them to force the company's next evolutionary phase. In essence, he sees the emergence of a new consumer democracy, that's been present in politics, as a new business model.
Armed with these insights, Asda plans to put customers at the center of its business, and s looking for customers to do and be more than participants in simplistic market research.
Asda's goal is to harness customer participation through three initiatives.
1. Chosen By You
A shift in power using the consumer to make decisions on purchasing. This is an evolution of an 18,000 person panel the company is already using. Customers are going to be consulted on and in every aspect of the business.
2. Your Asda
Transparency is the next initiative. It involves a number of employees blogging directly on the real goings on inside the company. They are also using webcams in key areas of the company, so people can look inside and see what's going on. They want to reach a point where customers know the source of all their products. To push this to an extreme, they are also going to open a transparent store where people can see what's going on behind the scenes. The goal is to gain trust.
3. Bright Ideas
Harnessing ideas to drive innovation. Asda's looking to capture great ideas from consumer. They are going to reward customers who have ideas to save money, if the idea is implemented, the consumer will get 5% of the total saving.
None of these ideas are especially new. Many other companies are doing versions of all the initiatives being implemented by Asda, but it's radical for a company to make this new democracy the center of the brand.
It seems like a very bold move and it remains to be seen how it plays out in the future.
It should also be noted that Asda has to do something radical in order to compete with the UK's two biggest grocery retailers, Tesco and Sainsbury.
One thing is for certain, Asda's going to have a lot of people watching it very closely.
Posted by Ed Cotton
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