Current IMC Practices & The Rise Of Consumer Empowerment

Edited: 05/09/2020

Since its inception, one of the continued fundamental principles of integrated marketing communications (IMC) has been positioning the customer at the center of all marketing activities.

This philosophy paired with dramatic improvements in technology and dynamic communication channels has resulted in the (potentially unintended) empowerment of the consumer. “Today – perhaps more than ever before, markets are driven by customers, consumers and prospects.”

Meaning a company’s success is now based on listening what your audience wants and not telling them.

What is consumer empowerment? 

Social media has played a significant role in driving this empowerment, providing platforms for over 2.6 billion users globally to actively engage in the five forms of empowerment, including:

• Information: Consumers have better access to information allowing them to make more informed choices.

• Aggregation: Consumers have the power to amplify their voice through sheer numbers i.e. having enough people voicing the same message, increases its potency.

• Participation: Consumers are now involved in shaping a brand, through user generated content.

• Relationships: Consumers can decide to opt-in and opt-out of communications.

• Self-Liberation: Consumers have gained the platforms and power to influence others.

How Airbnb made made consumer empowerment their driving force.

These forms of empowerment have not been limited to social media and many companies have successfully leveraged the increasing power of the consumer to their advantage – integrating empowerment across multiple touchpoints.

For example, marketers at Airbnb use empowerment as the driving force behind their product offering and as a means of managing quality. Here, empowerment via information, aggregation and participation can be seen with the company neither owning nor directly managing a single property. Airbnb simply provides a digital platform which enables consumers to share their home with other consumers, relying on users to generate; descriptions, photos, experiences and reviews. Furthermore, they strive to enable empowerment, providing streamlined access to professional photographers, copywriters and property management courses. This encourages users to get the most out of their listings, which in turn elevates the brand.

This successful enabling of consumer empowerment in IMC has been demonstrated to positively effect attitudes, with consumers more likely to view touchpoints they’ve co-created favorably. Airbnb also utilises empowerment as a means of managing quality and assurance, encouraging consumer reviews through a digital ecosystem which lends itself to openness, to ensure their brand doesn’t decay into a symbol of unreliability and false promises. This transparent approach to consumer empowerment is supported by research which indicates, consumers reviews via e-WOM fosters trust for an eCommerce product or brand, which in turn improves conversion rates – making it an attractive strategy for practitioners.

So, although Airbnb has relinquished some control of IMC functions to the consumer, it has done so intentionally with the support of a strategic framework backed by research, which operates as a series of checks and balances to manage empowerment while driving engagement.

The dark-side of consumer empowerment.

On the other side of the spectrum, a number of companies have struggled to manage these shifts in power, due to an increasing number of variables not directly controlled by marketers.

This is especially true for communications on social media, where the rise of empowerment has seen brands attacked or questioned on these platforms – with the consumer having an increased ability to proliferate negative brand perceptions via aggregation.

For example, in 2017 Starbucks launched a campaign encouraging customers to discuss racial issues on social media and with its baristas, as a means of shedding light on inequality. This campaign had the best intentions, however within 24 hours there was significant community backlash, with consumers hijacking the campaign’s hashtag #racetogether, to mock the juxtaposition between ordering a coffee and launching into an intense political discussion on race with the teenager running the till.

While there has been a range of studies investigating the best approach to handle negative comments on social media, research on the Fortune 100 found that most companies sill implemented strategies which involved censorship or simply ignoring comments. This approach has been proven to have negative effects on attitudes and flies in the face of consumers increasing demand for empowerment, indicating that practitioners have not yet seen a viable approach in research to implement.

So, while companies have attempted to leverage empowerment on social media to extend their campaign’s platform, the Starbucks example demonstrates how consumer empowerment (through participation, aggregation and self-liberation) can backfire, altering a brand’s intended message, leaving limited recourse for managers to control dialogs, highlighting the need for additional strategies supported by further research in this area.

Where to from here?

While research has been able to identify and develop a multi-faceted construct to examine the growing effects of consumer empowerment, there are still significant gaps that future research needs to examine, to ensure managers are better prepared to handle these shifting power dynamics. Specifically, how consumer empowerment on social media can be funneled towards positive interactions for consumers and brands alike, encouraging companies to move away from traditional strategies, embracing the positive aspects which come with an empowered consumer.

Surprisingly, these shifts may involve divesting direct control of certain communication aspects, as this may be the key to successfully leverage consumer empowerment – as demonstrated by Airbnb.

Consider if your business is set-up to manage increasing consumer empowerment. Get in touch with me for a chat about how could you leverage the voices of the many, while avoiding the pitfalls of communications run wild