Consume: that’s what unthinking farm animals do, feeding at the trough. Consumption: that’s what they used to call cancer. Neither image is particularly appealing, is it?
Being a passive, force-fed consumer is so 20th century. It’s what “command and control” marketing was all about: a quiet contempt for those ignorant, easily manipulated masses. With the right ad agency and enough money, you could stuff almost anything down their bovine throats.
I remember a cartoon strip I saw in the 1990s, making a joke about how mass-production had become mass-consumption: consumers had replaced widgets on the production line. Too true.
Well, thanks to the Internet, the 21st century is already proving to be very different. No more passive consumers. Today it’s all about being a customer – no matter whether that is a business customer or a Joe Public customer. It’s all merging together as the old, lazy labels and demographics (horrible word) fade into memory. The Internet is levelling the playing field as a maze of new marketplaces spring up. Instead of yesteryear’s marketers and consumers (invariably referred to as “she”!) today we see simply buyers and sellers, a la eBay, who need to be brought together on an equal footing.
Hence the name of this blog and why I will do my level best from now on to banish the word consumer, with all its nasty connotations.
The equation is simple: You are a seller; I am a buyer. You want my custom; I am your customer.
Posts
