The Customer’s Voice
Much has been written about the impact of the Internet—new, faster and sometimes more cost-effective ways to access and target our audience, and how interactive media are supplementing (and sometimes replacing) traditional media. I don’t think anyone doubts the importance of interactive media, and I have not run into any company without some kind of interactive component in their marketing communications mix. Yet, I get the sense that perhaps we are not quite there. As James Chase, editor-in-chief of MM&M, puts it in their Interactive Guide 2009, “Will 2009 be the year that [widespread adoption of the digital space by pharma] finally happens?”
One telling sign that healthcare lags in interactive is the frequent mention of technology vs. content, which comes first and who should lead (interactive vs. traditional agency). In fact, I caught myself reacting rather indignantly when someone told me that more clients are now looking to their interactive agencies to lead the communications effort and thus interactive agencies are looking to shore up their talent beyond the technology side. The truth is that we’ve been thinking and talking about two sides of an imaginary fence for too long. The traditional agencies see their interactive counterparts (sometimes with envy) as tacticians who know how to navigate new technologies and apply our brilliant creative ideas. And interactive agencies, for all too long, have seemed willing to confine themselves to their niche, building up technology infrastructure and paying relatively little attention to shoring up their creative offerings. Now that clients, frustrated by not getting the integrated solution from their traditional agencies, have begun exploring a direct path to the interactive agencies, the center of gravity is shifting.
At the heart of all of this, though, is not who leads, or winning vs. losing. The more important issue our audience—yes the customer. The fact is that interactive media have given the customer a voice, so that yesterday’s monologue, where the brand talks to (or at) the customer, must be replaced by today’s dialogue, where the audience can and will talk back, and the audience can and will tune us out if we don’t listen. Whoever finds a way to build that dialogue, leverage it to deepen the understanding of the customer and thereby improve communications with the customer, whoever is able to tap into the power of social media (after all, it’s newspeak for peer-to-peer communications) to promulgate goodwill and messages . . . they are the success stories today and the ones who deserve the business. Your thoughts?