Catch The Empowered
Customers In A Context Of
Recession
a point of view by Arnaud Huet
arnohuet@gmail.com
June 2009 1

We live in the “Age of the Empowered Consumer” since 2007 and things
have recently evolved especially due to the crisis. The companies that
realize this will rise. Those who fail to grasp this new reality will fall.
Expectations Roles
Knowledge sharing Expert, influencer, p
Social Networking layer
Humanization
+
Recognition
Service Personalization Analyst,
and value Value for money judge
+
Quality
Availability Purchaser, user,
Product Range tester
Simplicity
Price
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Empowered customer is more elusive and unpredictable. He
controls his behavior, makes decisions based on information
previously analyzed and spreads his opinion easily
Informed Multi-role
• Social platform • Users
(advices, complaints, return on • Consumer
experience)
• Influencers (eg: experts,
marketers)
« Empowered …
customer »
Opportunistic
• Brand detachment Agile
• Vertical • Multi-channel
communications are • Ubiquity
filtered and tailored
3

Web 2.0 has favoured the blossoming of empowered customers.
Some of the most active users in social networks has become
experts, marketers and can influence peers in purchasing decisions
With the Web2.0, customers have an unprecedented ability to broadcast
their brand experiences. They can easily express frustration with a product
or service that doesn't meet their expectations.
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
Read-only Read-write
Marketing and CRM
Normal customer Empowered customer
So, one of the main issue for Brands consists in being present in horizontal
relationships by creating « New vertical relationships »
It implies that brands are able to contribute to social networks by delivering
value-added content.
Vertical relationship (brand-to-customer)
Horizontal relationship (customer-to-customer)
New vertical relationship (brand-to-customer-to-customer) 4

It’s clear that recession-related spending constrictions have
worked their way into the behaviors of customer. He evaluates
his expenditures and determines what’s essential and what isn’t
 Food budgets shift in
favor of in-house meals
 Spends more nights in
to save money
 Spends less on
technology. E.g.: spending
delays in PC purchase, TV
purchases relatively steady,
spending less on digital cameras
 Sticks with services that
 Communication maintains the usefulness of
services as internet and products that are already
mobile phone are a owned
must-have
 Won’t travel far from home
Illustrative example applied to one segment
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So, in this context, Brand marketers are struggling to woo the
empowered customers with enjoyable experiences. Because of
the crisis, they must be more agile and align more closely with their
customers
 Adapt the relationship to
the economical context:
– Understand impacts of crisis on
expectations and behavior
– Adapt the answers
– Provide an organic experience
 Warm up the relationship:
– Develop the “New vertical
communication”
– Deliver emotional experiences
that are positive and
segmented
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Business Case: Sony launched a user-generated
advertising campaign on Current TV in 2006 in order to
engage the empowered customer
 Drive passion and emotion across the entire brand:
– Sony realized that most electronics customers aren’t passionate about products. They
place emotional value on the experiences they capture using Sony products.
– In response, Sony designed a series of ads to highlight why customers would use Sony
products that don’t feature any product specifications at all:
• Forum attendees gave to the marketing a resounding round of applause to the Sony ad.
• It features a couple in their fifties attempting to recreate their adult son’s childhood on video by bathing
him in the sink.
 Leverage the full power of the brand:
– Film-related Web site that features an interactive game that drives customers to retail
outlets
– Sony also works hard to harness all divisions of the company around the same idea :
engage customers with Sony electronics products
 Increase marketing credibility by linking to financial metrics:
– Marketing admitted that some key executives were against coordinating across brands
because it required a significant increase in marketing spend
– The CMO identified a metric; Net Promoter, that was tied to business results. Now,
Sony tracks Net Promoter scores in line with sales results
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Contact
For more details or comments
arnohuet@gmail.com
To consult my professional background
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/arnaud-
huet/0/9a3/3b4
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