The plot was simple enough: put Breaking Bad dolls on Toys R Us shelves and sell them. Yet true to the nature of AMC’s hit series, the plot could only twist and turn and end badly. In fact, as a reaction to the action figures, a Florida mother launched a petition on www.change.org, demanding that the retailer immediately stops selling the dolls. In a matter of days, the petition attracted 8,000 signatures and Toys R Us pulled the Breaking Bad dolls. In comments given to the Associated Press, the toy retailer said that the dolls – which are based on the series about a high school chemistry teacher who turns into a crystal meth dealer – are taking an “indefinite sabbatical”.
That is customer power for you.
Defining a business, the products and services it develops and markets, the market it operates in and its contribution to a country’s economy as well as to society would require the kind of wordcount that would keep a team of academics busy for a century. And yet, it’s all so simple: you develop a product, decide on a profit margin, and sell it. But for that to succeed, you need a customer. After all, the whole reason of any business’s existence is the customer.
Gone are the days when there was such a limited selection of products and services that customers would buy anything that came with a price tag. Nowadays, customers have the power to influence what products sell, where they sell from, and what brands go up or down in the desirability index.
One simple example will suffice. Trawl your local supermarket aisles and for every traditional product, you will probably find an environmentally-friendly product. Dishwasher liquid: you have the normal version and the green version. Coffee: there is the brand that you’re used to and another brand which promises the sustainable sourcing of coffee beans and better trading conditions to coffee bean farmers. The increasing demand for environmentally-friendly products will encourage companies to switch to more sustainable production practices and sell greener products.
What has given customers such unprecedented influence is a combination of choice, purchasing power and social media.
Social media has given businesses more reach. By being more social, businesses can act in ways that are closer to their existing and potential customers. Therefore, businesses investing their time and money in social media can amplify brand marketing, engage and build a more personal, trusting relationship with their customers. Through social media, businesses can decrease their marketing costs, yet at the same time achieve higher conversion rates and give their brand more credibility.
Yet social media, and the internet as a whole (if you can define the “whole”) is more than just a marketing and branding tool. When the Florida mother objected to the Breaking Bad dolls, she just launched a petition on www.change.org and Toys R Us were savvy enough to heed to the calls of 8,000 people, that is, 8,000 existing or potential customers.
This is how customers are using social media to influence business attitudes and act in what they perceive is greater social responsibility. That, in turn, is moving businesses towards a more sustainable practice of capitalism.
The leverage and influence of social media, and its ability to link millions of people around the world, is giving customers increasing influence in what products and services they want to see in shop windows. Businesses that adapt to such influence are reaping the rewards and achieving increasing customer and brand loyalty. On the other hand, businesses that ignore this influence, act in unethical ways, or simply don’t give good customer care, are being punished online.
Of course, there will always be critics who say that social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are just the flavour of the day and will eventually go away. However, they will not and customers will increasingly recognise the power that they have in making or breaking a brand. And they will use it.