The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple’s then-chairman Seve Jobs on 24 January 1984 in a huge splash of promotion and a massive media event. Apple has continued its habit of huge media splashes for product launches, but times have changed.
Back then anyone in the market for a personal computer would get their information from magazines and brochures, or by asking a friend or colleague they knew to be knowledgeable. Only people in the industry or related fields, or ‘hobbyists’ would be expected to hold any valuable knowledge or have a valid opinion regarding the relative merits of a potential purchase (and back then being known as a ‘geek’ was definitely not cool).
The same applied to everything – not just personal computers. Possible sources of opinion or review were limited to magazine editorial or advertising, or a handful of dedicated ‘impartial’ review publications such as Which? We were forced to rely on sparse and potentially biased opinion, or to trust the advertisers (did we ever do that?). Publishing cycles meant that a review appearing in a January issue of a magazine had been written in October to meet a November deadline for a December print and distribution. Often opinions were based upon no more than the public perception of the brand – “It must be good or they wouldn’t put a {XXXXX} badge on it.” or “It won’t last long, it’s from {XXXXX}.”
But that was then.
Now the availability of the Internet and the proliferation of connected devices means everyone has at their fingertips a resource which has reviews and opinions from millions of people, some of whom have shared their experience of a product or service from as recently as a few seconds ago.
This is fantastic news (although it’s not really news) for the consumer, but means that the manufacturers, producers and providers are losing whatever control they previously enjoyed over what their existing and potential customers heard and read about them.
It’s not all bad, though. The public and open nature of the Internet; blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more, means that a savvy businessman has access to all the same conversations. If he’s clever he can make good use of this free customer research and feedback. He can react to public sentiment about his product or brand and respond to individual customers regarding their public comments – good or bad.
Of course the same openness and popularity that makes the Internet such a valuable source of free information makes monitoring and managing the volume of data a potentially huge task.
Thankfully there are tools available to help. Take a look at ours… Social Churn