Prosumer power
Conor Dignam. Marketing. London:

Abstract (Article Summary)
Alvin Toffler coined the phrase prosumer in his 1970 book Future Shock, when he said the future would see an erosion of the line between production and consumption. There are three main factors most marketers identify in the rise of the prosumer: access to two-way technology, greater brand-literacy, and the ability to allow mass-customization. Or alternatively, the average customer now wants a greater say in the products or services they spend their time and money on - and they believe they have the tools to do so. But the future of the consumer is not only about marketing and brands - it is about politics too.


Sarah Clarke played her part in next week's relaunch of Sunny Delight. She provided input on the packaging, and on the taste. She observed how young children consumed it, and she was aware of the controversy surrounding the drink in recent years.

She relayed all this to Sunny Delight's manufacturer Procter & Gamble. And she feels P&G listened to what she had to say. So Sarah hopes the 12m Sunny Delight relaunch and introduction of four low-sugar flavours on March 18 will be a success.

But Sarah isn't a P&G employee or an executive at one of the company's agencies. She is a 36-year-old West Midlands mother of two, a former nurse who describes herself as a housewife.

For about one hour a week she visits the P&G web site and goes to its Community Centre. Here she joins other consumers giving their views on the FMCG giant's business. They are greeted by a message from P&G that says: "We are glad you have decided to make your voice heard".

Sarah is a big fan of the site, and by extension of P&G's thinking in creating it. She is planning to buy the new low-sugar Sunny Delight, but her commitment runs to the extent that, if asked, she would promote it to other mothers. "Will I tell other mums to try it?" she asks. "Yes probably, if it came up in conversation, I would certainly point out the changes."

So has Sarah become more than just a conventional consumer? Has she, through the power of the web, been transformed into a 'prosumer'?

Alvin Toffler coined the phrase prosumer in his 1970 book Future Shock, when he said the future would see an erosion of the line between production and consumption.

In the future, said Toffler, there would be a communications process where the consumer and producer were fused together to create the prosumer. The prosumer would become an integral part of a brand's inception, development, and delivery.

Today, 32 years after the phrase was first used, we are all - one way or another-prosumers. Whether we do our own banking via the web, check our own health via a virtual doctor, go to restaurants and put our own meals together at the table, or create our own pop idol by calling in to vote on a TV show.

There are three main factors most marketers identify in the rise of the prosumer: access to two-way technology, greater brand-literacy, and the ability to allow mass-customisation. Or alternatively, the average customer now wants a greater say in the products or services they spend their time and money on - and they believe they have the tools to do so.

"The web, SMS, interactive television, are all channels that allow greater control to be given to consumers," says Niku Banaie, innovation manager at Carat International. "We're seeing the creation of groups of consumers who are willing to do more than just consume the brand. They are prepared to get involved in a much more developmental way, creating a two-way dialogue."

Banaie points to initiatives by brands such as Adidas, in which consumers can visit a store and design their own sports shoes, or visit the web and do the same.

"It's also about a growing number of consumers who are more brand-- savvy, who feel comfortable with the language of brands and communication, and are confident about making their views known."

But the future of the consumer isn't only about marketing and brands -- it's about politics too. The consumer is often the political football kicked around by politicians and pressure groups on one side - and the marketing industry on the other.

Strength of the consumer

Speaking at ISBA's annual conference tomorrow, director-general Malcolm Earnshaw will make the point that those who support more legislation to curb freedom of advertising often seek to underplay the real strength of the consumer.

"There are single-issue pressure groups and some politicians who seek to portray the consumer as this passive, receptive, manipulated person who has no influence over the brands and businesses that seek their custom," says Earnshaw.

"In fact it's quite the opposite. Two-- way communication means the new consumer has regular dialogue with the brands he or she chooses to. They have an understanding of brands and of commerce and they are probrands. It's the consumer who is being made stronger by such communication. But politicians too often want to regulate or legislate to over-protect a consumer who doesn't want or need that protection."

In fact it may be the brand - not the consumer - that becomes vulnerable in these two-way relationships.


PROSUMERISM IN ACTION
Pop Idol
Concept: Create your own pop star by voting for the winner of this ITV show in which 10,000 wannabe stars were auditioned for the chance to win a record contract. Nine million viewers voted by telephone on the final sing-off between Gareth Gates and Will Young. Young became the Pop Idol. Three weeks later he hit number one in the UK charts with the fastest-selling debut single of all time.
Result: More than 1.1 million pop prosumers went out to buy the record of the star they'd created.
 

Levi's
Concept: Help design the jeans of the future, was one of the ideas that Levi's took to panels of hip young consumers in style capitals around Europe, including Milan, Berlin, Paris, and London. The iconic red-tab brand had become more famous for clothing 40-something men than trendsetting youngsters, and was in need of a brand makeover in order to rescue ailing profit margins.
Result: Levi's executives developed the concept of Engineered jeans. The panels still take place around every six months.
 

Nike
Concept: Users of Nike's web site were invited to design their own shoe - picking colours and trim. They could also include a single word ID-tag on the shoe ordered over the web. But then a student tried to put the word 'sweatshop' on his shoe. The company refused to carry the word and became embroiled in an e-mail conversation about its refusal.
Result: The Nike site continues to be a success, but the anti-Nike e-mail appeared in newspapers and TV globally
 

MTV
Concept: Make your own TV messages. MTV is inviting viewers to send messages by text. The messages then pop up in little speech bubbles on the screen during programming. MTV Live, the broadband TV channel in Sweden and France, lets viewers assemble virtual environments and e-mail their creations for consideration as background images.
Result: The channels have received thousands of messages and it's become a cult activity in Sweden and France.
 

Sony
Concept: Join in the making of ads that appear on Japanese TV.
Sony in Japan (www.sony.co.jp) is inviting users to access a web site where they can help develop graphics that will be used in the brand's television advertising.
Users can also access the 'connected identity' from kiosk points around Tokyo.
Result: Thousands of people each day trying to get their image on the television screen.
 

Procter & Gamble
Concept: Become P&G's marketing partner by joining its Community Corner web site. The site is a forum in which P&G customers can talk about existing products and brands, suggest ideas for changes and contribute to surveys. There is also a chance for people with the patent for a new product idea to discuss it and show it to P&G.
The Result: P&G won't discuss the results or the number of people participating in the web club.


Take Nike, the global sports brand that gave consumers the chance to design their own sports shoe on the web,and add a word on the back of the shoe. All very well until Jonah H Peretti, a graduate student at Massachussetts Institute of Technology, sent a request to put the word `sweatshop' on his sneaker. The resulting electronic correspondence became one of the most widely circulated e-mail conversations in the world.

The end result was that although 'sweatshop' never appeared on a Nike trainer, millions of people around the world heard the story or read the e-mail. The story was covered around the world, on TV and in magazines including Time. The PR damage to Nike was enormous.

Vigilante approach

The empowered, enlightened consumer doesn't do the expected. When first launched in the UK, the TiVo box contained a microchip that could store up to 40 hours of programming. But senior executives admitted that customers in the US had already worked out how to break into the box and alter the microchip to increase the number of hours of recording time available. "We don't support it, and it negates the warranty," said a TiVo executive. But that didn't stop computer-literate customers doing it, and going online to tell others how to.

The danger for brands is that consumers work to actively undermine them, becoming consumer vigilantes rather than prosumers. Indeed, there is a growing industry dedicated to watching exactly what the consumer - or prosumer - is up to on the internet when it comes to mentioning specific brands.

Infonic is a London-based research company that has a staff of 25 carrying out two main services: web-based promotions and research on behalf of brands, and monitoring what is being said about them on the web. The company has carried out work on behalf of major clients such as BMW and Halifax. Brands will sometimes intercede if they see inaccuracies about them on web sites.

"Clients want to know what people are saying about them, but the web is just too big for many of them to monitor it themselves," says Infonic director Mark Bunting. "Halifax was going into some sites and if a person had made a point about it that it felt was incorrect or it wanted to clarify, it would put it on the site. That was based on our information. Most of the people it responded to were impressed that a big company would go to that much trouble."

But is prosumerism restricted to the world of technology? Can prosumer relationships exist outside the web or digital communications? Key brands believe they have prosumers working with them in many different ways.

Levi-Strauss believes it has prosumers working on its behalf. Paul McGowan, global managing partner for Added Value, has worked with Levi's on the company's attempts to revive the brand's fortunes. A fundamental part of that has been to work with some of Europe's most progressive, fashion-conscious young people in major cities such as London, Milan, and Paris and ask them about where the brand should go.

"We talked to them about everything and asked them to pick the brand apart and then put it back together again," says McGowan. "They became our own product ambassadors, and were an important part of Levi's development of Engineered jeans. We tapped into attitudes and thinking, and they in turn got involved with the development of a brand they all knew."

Engineered appeal

McGowan says the process helped define Levi's new product development initiatives and fed in across many aspects of the brand and its marketing.

Are we about to witness fundamental changes in the way brands and marketing campaigns are conceived?

Probably not. Graham Bednash, managing partner at communications agency Michaelides & Bednash says prosumerism as a concept has its limits - namely the point at which the professional marketer and its agencies still have the critical role of innovation and creativity.

"You don't get new ideas from consumers - that's what brand managers are there for. People weren't crying out for mobile phones or for the Sony Walkman until they were created," says Bednash. "Prosumerism is about people wanting to be more involved, and to be able to customise in a world that has homogenised. But it is a question of developing relationships rather than handing the marketing job over to the consumer."

So just how far will the relationship between brands and consumers go? Some argue that two-way communication between producers and consumers could lead to a world where the brand rarely experiences damaging press coverage, or releases a product that is open to bastardisation by the consumer.

"Brands are measuring, understanding and communicating with consumers on a one-to-one basis, but will that lead to a world where nothing backfires?" asks ISBA's Earnshaw. "No. There will always be rogues who form a minority, but government is often persuaded that they are a majority, which leads to intervention that limits the full consumer benefit of two-way communication."

If direct intercourse between producers and consumers penetrates thoroughly enough, they will each protect the other, which strengthens the case for self-regulation. "There will always be the need for laws such as the Fair Trading Act, which can act as a deterrent," says Earnshaw. "But the more the industry can be engaged to self-regulate, the better."