The Age of the Consumer Gives Way to The Rise of The Connected Individual
TAge The Age of the Consumer Gives Way to The Rise of The Connected IndividualThere is another dynamic at work affecting marketing, beyond the highs and lows of media. Forrester refers to this dynamic as The Age of the Consumer[1], the changing basis of market competition. In 2012 Forrester mapped four historical ages of business.
Age of Manufacturing
The first age, from 1900 to 1960, was characterized as the age of manufacturing. In this age companies competed on their ability to manufacture goods and services at scale. Companies would produce vast quantities of products in large plants in order to drive costs to their lowest possible point. This strategy crushed personalization and everyone got the same thing. Supply reigned. It was at this time Henry Ford famously said “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he/she wants so long as it is black.”
Age of Distribution
The strategy of manufacturing and mass production, as do all strategies, eventually became a commodity and by the 1960s a new strategy and basis of competition emerged, the age of distribution. The distribution age brought with it the birth of regional retail, big box retail, modern shipping and modern advertising. Walmart, Costco, UPS, Federal Express, Wunderman and others learned to compete on their ability to distribute and market mass market products and services.
Age of Information
The age of distribution eventually gave way. It gave way, in 1990, to the age of information. In this age we saw the birth of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and others. In the age of information, the companies that could master connected networks, supply chains, information controls and dissemination reigned. In the age of information, we began to see the spark of a new breed of consumer. In this age, through vehicles like Amazon recommendations, Google search and social media, people began to express themselves and wield a control over the commercial processes that was not previously possible before.
Age of The Consumer
Like the ages before, the age of information gave way to a new age in 2010, the age of the consumer. In this age, Forrester recognizes that, due to the adoption of smart devices, like the Smartphone, people’s behavior, influence and expectations have changed. Today, people are empowered buyers and with this power they can demand and expect to have any information at their fingertips in order to help them make informed decisions. By some accounts, 90 percent of people are using their smartphone while in-store to guide their shopping.[2] It’s estimated that by 2020 smartphones will influence 90 percent of all commerce[3]. Moreover, in this age, no longer does the marketer have sole control over their messages, the marketer’s message is increasingly influenced and controlled by the people.
Age of The Connected Individual – Connection, Personalization, Low Touch
Forrester has the age of the consumer continuing for the foreseeable future. However, in reality a new age is on the horizon, the age of the connected individual. In marketing years, the appearance of the connected individual has been sudden. It took 60 years for the manufacturing age to give way to the distribution age. It took 30 years for the distribution age to give way to the information age. And, it took 20 years for the information age to give way to the age of the consumer. It will take less than 10 years for the age of the consumer to give way to the age of the connected individual.
Today, the average person in developed countries has 3 connected devices associated with them[4]. It is estimated that by 2020 the average person will have 10 connected devices and over 140 sensors associated with them. Connected individuals will have smartphones in hand, smartwatches on their wrists, smart clothes on their backs, smart collars on their pets, smart TVs on their walls, smart cars in their driveways, smart sensors in their implants, interactive counters and appliances in their kitchens and laundry rooms and every other place imaginable in their lives.
Individual’s Expectations Rise in the Age of the Customer
The connected devices and associated services are helping people monitor, analyze and synchronize their digital and physical experiences. Therefore, connected individuals will expect more from marketers. They will expect to be individually recognized, to receive individual and personalized products and services that are synchronized both physically and digitally. They will expect to have any and all information available to them and have requests and orders initiated at the touch of a screen, the wave of a hand or the vocalization of a command. This transition is just the beginning.
People are increasingly expecting personalized experiences. The age of the connected individual is shepherding in an era in which marketers are expected to engage, interact and communicate with people as individuals, not as anonymous targets. However, this does not mean people will want to talk to other people. It’s important to note that the majority of the interactions between people and companies will not include a human on the company’s side. According to Gartner, by 2020 roughly 85 percent of all the interactions people will have with a business will be with machines, not a human. On the businesses side, the majority of interactions with people will be processed through automated cross-channel messaging.
References
[1] Age of the customer in everything (2016). Forrester. Retrieved from: https://www.forrester.com/search?tmtxt=age%20of%20the%20customer&searchOption=0&source=typed
[2] Sterling, G. (2015). Survey: 90 Percent of Retail Shoppers Use Smartphones in Store. Marketing Land. Retrieved from: http://marketingland.com/survey-90-percent-of-retail-shoppers-use-smartphones-in-stores-135759
[3] Navigating The New Digital Divide, Capitalizing on digital influence in retail (2015). Deloitte Development LLC. Retrieved from: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/consumer-business/us-cb-navigating-the-new-digital-divide-v2-051315.pdf
[4] Average number of connected devices used per person in selected countries in 2014 (2014). Statistic. Retrieved from: http://www.statista.com/statistics/333861/connected-devices-per-person-in-selected-countries/.
Michael Becker is an intentionally recognized identity & personal information management solutions strategic advisor, speaker, entrepreneur, and academic. He advises companies on personal information economy business strategy, product development, business development, and sales & marketing strategies. He also represents them at leading trade groups, including the Mobile Ecosystem Forum. Michael is an advisor to Assurant, Predii, Privowny, and Phoji. He is the co-author of Mobile Marketing for Dummies and a number of other books and articles related to mobile marketing, identity, and personal information management. He is on the faculty of marketing of the Association of National Advertisers and National University. A serial entrepreneur, Michael founded Identity Praxis, co-founded mCordis and The Connected Marketer Institute, was a founding member of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), and was on the MMA board of directors for ten years and was MMA’s North American Managing Director for three years. In 2004, Michael co-founded iLoop Mobile, a leading messaging solutions provider. In 2014, Michael was awarded the 2014 Marketing EDGE Edward Mayer Education Leadership Award for his commitment to marketing education.