Consumers are not listening

The days when marketing and advertising consisted of unilateral broadcasting of an advertising message on the part of the company or brand and receiving on the part of the consumers have disappeared with the dust of the one-way messaging system. The advent of social media has put an end to traditional methods of advertising that no longer work in our dynamic social media environment. Marketing has changed drastically since the days of the flashing banner advertisements and pop-ups and other intrusive marketing methods. In the past, fewer ads reached and were viewed by more people with undivided attention than the ads today which bombard the consumer with messages. They reach fewer people who are paying lesser attention. Statistics show that the recall value of an advertisement viewed on television during evening primetime hours for an adult male viewer has dropped to 10% from the nation average of 1965, which was 35% Reasons for this phenomenon include product proliferation, media proliferation, access proliferation and the digitalization of media. Users today are spoiled for choice. There are millions of products to choose from, fragmented media to listen to and a multitude of devices from which information can be gained instantly and easily. All of which lead us to draw certain conclusions: Consumers are not listening to the messages we want them to listen to Consumers are choosing to ignore interruptive advertising They are creating and publishing their own valuations of products via social media Consumers are getting organized and leaving advertisers behind They are selecting the messages they want to hear and discarding the messages that do not appeal to them These five conclusions I have mentioned are merely the tip of the iceberg. They indicate the revolution that has been brought about by social media. Consumers have become creators of content and they are changing the way they react to advertisements. Advertisers and brands must realize that one-way messaging no longer works in today's scenario. Messages must be interactive and inclusive. As consumers, we don't want to hear what you have to say - we want to talk about how your brand will fit into our environment, how it will adapt to our created actions, and respond to our concerns. Advertising can no longer be static; it needs to become dynamic. Like the consumers it targets!