DPAC4 kicked off this morning with a rather ethereal, but still stimulating presentation by researcher Jim Taylor of Harrison Group.  He put out a bit of a warning to digital marketers.  Lose control, give way to the consumer.   Marketing must engage by being found, and in that way we influence.  He basically predicted the end of the hard sell.  That retching sound you hear is the gasp of every used car salesman in America.

In fact, America is becoming a needs driven rather than a wants driven society, he says. The economy is driving people to change behavior, and now that they have hunkered down, managed their way through crisis, it’s made them more proud of the way they have mastered these challenges.  The recession has forced Americans to become more self sufficient – they have to manage their finances, manage their households, manage their spending and their digital consumption of media.  Many of them have done pretty well!   And they are proud of that.

Taylor says that in the past, the presentation of a good idea was enough to stimulate demand.  Now, given the way families and heads of households have had to make more prudent spending decisions, the influence on one member of the family requires confirmation from other members of the family and/or a spouse.  In Harrison research, both men and women report that important household decisions are shared equally – a shared universe as they look across their choices of TV shows, major purchases, cars, and important decisions regarding children. 

“This communication has done some great things for marriage,”  Taylor says.  Yet, for marketers, the key point is that spending is now a shared, more considered decision.  And the ability to make that decision well is a key part of the loyalty and customer satisfaction.  Marketers must give that decision making success back to the consumer. 

Taylor says that now that American buyers have tasted independence, they are not likely to go back to blissful spending sprees.  All this makes me think that there are some things we can do today to embrace these trends:

1. Present information as factual, rather than hype. Audit your website and organic search landing pages. Do they have credibility for a buyer who wants to make the decision from a position of knowledge?  Include factual info in your welcome and life stage email messages.
2. Embrace testimonials.  Use share to social in your email messages, include product reviews on web and email newsletters, welcome new email subscribers with information about doing comparison and finding content.
3. Go multi channel.  Be where consumers are, even if it’s not on websites that you control.   Taylor says that the price gap between retail (in person) and online shopping is down to 10% from 30% last year. That means there is less of an incentive to go online, and the premium for personal service is much more affordable.  That could also create great cross channel promotion opportunities. 
4. Let content be portable.  Port out helpful content not just to mobile devices, but to any application or publisher that provides information or allows the easy sharing of information.  If decisions are being made collectively, then information must be able to be shared collectively.
5. Celebrate buyers.  Taylor says that the “happiness” factor is higher these days, despite the lousy economy.  Consumers have great confidence in their ability to deal with crisis, and their ability to step up and succeed in a difficult environment.  If they choose you, celebrate that.  Embrace the self sufficiency.  Help consumers see that your product/brand relationship will help them forecast a better year for themselves.

Despite the proliferation of ads on social networks, in many ways, social media is not commercially relevant yet, but it sure is socially relevant.   Taylor says that consumers are abandoning the internet as a viable place to learn something they didn’t know before.  Brands are losing their power to influence.  Yet, consumers do want to have relationships with brands and product.  They want to consume content that helps them succeed. Marketers can leverage these needs, and once tapped, become essential and build loyalty.

The business of serving consumers may not be controlled, Taylor asserts.   Consumers optimize their access to content that they want through a series of decisions and a sharing process.   There is a new sense of self sufficiently and confidence in their ability to figure it out – borne of the recession.   That content optimization is now a literacy skill, not a computerized process.  People develop their own processes, despite marketers’ efforts to control the path.

Advertising and marketing has to adjust to address this.   I’m still absorbing Taylor’s comments and how that impacts digital content and marketing.  What immediate ideas come to mind for you?