PAUL FELDWICK
50
Has the growth of digital really changed
the fundamental relationship between
the consumer and the brand, as some
would have us believe?
Martin Deboo, consumer goods analyst, Investec Securities
......................................................................................................................................................
There is a widely repeated narrative that goes and brilliantly marketed – consumer brand.
something like this: the internet has changed A key part of such ‘world has changed’
everything. The new generation of consumers narratives is the implication that everyone
is sceptical, ‘empowered’, and no longer sus- before the present generation (who mirac-
ceptible to advertising as we have known it. All ulously appeared last week) were obedient
previous marketing knowledge is irrelevant. patsies, who responded uncritically to every
There are plenty of examples of this ‘message’ they received. But I don’t believe
around in the ‘blogosphere’, such as Zeus yesterday’s consumers – people such as me,
Jones’s slideshow at http://tinyurl.com/nbsbx9. you and Richard Scase – were much more
But I hope Richard Scase will forgive me if I credulous or naive than today’s.
take his article in Market Leader Q1 2010 as Let me suggest, instead, that advertising
a reference. As Emeritus Professor at the has always worked by a more complex proc-
Univers ity of Kent and author of over 20 ess of suggestion and seduction. Successful ad-
books, he is a respected authority, so when he vertising may have infl uenced our choices, but
makes use of this narrative, it offers a useful it never ‘told us what to buy’. We may choose
focus for challenging it. a brand that comes more readily to mind,
Scase has a dig at ‘old school’ market- or one we associate with positive feelings:
ing professionals (“predominantly male, pale these factors can be infl uenced by advertis-
and stale”), who don’t understand that “the ing. We also often choose what we see other
consumer market is being revolutionised by the people choosing, what we have bought many
radical new psychologies of Generation Y and… times before, or what others recommend to
the iPod generation”. These are “highly educated us. These, too, are infl uenced by advertising,
and talented young men and women”, ethnically but are also (and always were) social pheno-
and nation ally diverse, who will rep resent many mena. The internet has created new channels
of the affl uent consumers of the future. They through which all this happens. But it has
watch little TV, because “the iPod generation not made the old channels obsolete. People
lives in an almost completely digitalised world… (even young, educated ones) still read maga-
in which interpersonal com munication is spon- zines, watch TV and talk to each other. I have
taneous, egalitarian, and supportive of intense seen no evidence that anything has changed
information and decision making fl ows”. He the fundamental psychology of brand choice.
concludes that “the iPod generation is in control. I can spend an hour trawling through
No-one tells them what to buy… As consumers, Trip Advisor or any of a thousand comparison
they are not persuaded by the marketing and sites, reading masses of contradictory indi-
selling strategies of corporations.” vidual opinions, and sometimes this may be
No evidence is produced for any of these useful. But applied to every decision I make
generalisations. It may sound like a plausible (see Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice),
hypothesis, but, even given its vague wording, I it would become impossibly diffi cult and time-
fi nd it hard to sustain against my own observ- consuming, while reducing my satisfaction with
ations. For a start, TV viewing among young, whatever I selected.
upmarket people is far from being as low as Campaign magazine’s ‘Campaign of the
Scase implies. Certainly, the internet is hugely year 2009’ was for a brand (CompareThe
important to them (and to many other people). Market.com) in a category that, fi ve years ago,
But what evidence supports the huge leap to hardly existed – the comparison site. Com-
the ‘radical new psychologies’ that supposedly parison sites may offer to make decis ions for
make this group immune to advertising and us, but in a competitive market, we still have
brands? Are we to believe they no longer buy to choose which site to use. The Compare-
coffee at Starbucks, drink Coke or PG Tips, TheMeerkat campaign has shown that, even for
wear clothes from Primark or Uniqlo, fl y the ‘iPod Generation’, such decisions can be
Virgin or aspire to drive a Porsche? The choice powerfully infl uenced by the creation of
of the iPod (launched in 2001) to defi ne this a strong brand, and even by a TV-based cam- If you have a question that you would like
new, sceptical, empowered generation of über- paign starring a furry meerkat called Alexsandr Paul Feldwick to answer, please email it
consumers seems ironic: it is itself an iconic – with a funny voice and a catchphrase. to him at paul.feldwick@warc.com
ADMAP FEBRUARY 2010
ADM Feb 50 Feldwick factor.indd 1 1/22/2010 15:07:15
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