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Consumers In
Control:
Respect, Trust &
Marketers Learning
to Live With It.
Robert J. Gould, Ph.D.
December 12, 2006

It’s not just about control
and we’re not just consumers
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What people want:
• Social connection & community
• Self expression
• Control
AND, oh yes,
• Entertainment and information
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1950 - 2000
The Era of Vertical Influence
Person to Person
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Remember jingles?
Q:
TO: NET IMMIGRANTS
Remember jingles?
Q:
TO: NET NATIVES
What’s a jingle?
5

Remember jingles?
6

Remember jingles?
7

Remember jingles?
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Seeds of change:
Harbingers of rising horizontal influence
CB Radio
Apple Macintosh
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CB radio
“On-line” community numbering in the
thousands who spent their working lives
communicating with each other over the
wires but who rarely met face to face.
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CB radio
They tended to use low-traffic periods to
communicate with each other, sharing
stories, news, and gossip. Many of these
working relationships blossomed into
romances and even marriages.
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Apple Computer “1984”
commercial
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Horizontal influence:
from a drizzle to a hurricane
• Mobile phones/text messaging
• Internet/broadband/Google
• Wireless
• Digital cameras
• Cheap video production
• VCR/DVR/TiVo/iPods
AND ON, AND ON, AND ON
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The “power boosters” of
horizontal influence
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Power booster 1 –
Horizontal knowledge acquisition & production
• We have rapidly increasing ability to:
• Obtain, organize, share and control information from
both vertical and horizontal sources.
• Produce and share information of rapidly improving
quality (video, graphics, etc.).
• Discuss, question and challenge any information we
receive vertically.
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Power booster 1 –
Horizontal knowledge acquisition
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Power booster 2 –
Horizontal social networking
• We’re social animals. We seek out people who share
our interests and values, and establish communities.
• In the vertical era, limitations of time, space and
media ensured that demographics, geography and
shared vertical media experience dominated social
networking.
• In the horizontal era, people can network with
whomever -- whenever, wherever, and however
many -- along myriad shared interests.
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Power booster 2 –
Horizontal social networking
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Power booster 3 –
Horizontal consensus building
• For “social animals,” conforming to peer group and
cultural norms is a matter of survival.
• New technologies are empowering rapid consensus
building – around ideas, entertainment, products and
services.
BOTTOM LINE
• It now takes minutes, not months, to know what
“we” think about anything.
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Power booster 3 –
Horizontal consensus building
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Power booster 4 –
Horizontal mobilization
• When vertical influence dominated, turning
horizontal consensus into action was very
expensive and very time consuming.
Coordinating meetings, protests, voter drives,
letter writing campaigns, social events or
finding stores with the best prices, made the
step between consensus and consequence a
long one.
• In the horizontal world – with flash crowds,
bloggings, e-mails, and text messaging, the step
between call to action and action is much, much
shorter.
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Learning to live in a world of
rising horizontal influence
NEW RULES
1. “Consumers” are not just consumers.
2. Shakespeare got it right: “The truth will out.”
Now, it gets out faster, and to everyone. So
always tell it.
3. Gladwell’s “mavens & connectors” are out there
and more important than ever. Get to know
them.
4. The MSM will feed its nemesis. This can be all
good, or all bad for you.
5. Nothing replaces “face to face.”
6. Your products and services are an important
part of people’s lives. It’s OK to stimulate and
participate in the discussion.
7. But remember: your corporate behavior will also
be part of the conversation.
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Thanks!