Marketing in the Participation Age: A Guide to Motivating People to Join, Share, Take Part, Connect, and Engage

Chapter 13

The Future Marketer

The Nurturist

The Participation Age is here for good. Information, communication, and technology have forever changed people and the way in which they relate to products and markets. They have different expectations and different relationships with the companies from which they purchase their products and services. The new participants are more knowledgeable and more demanding than any consumer has been in the past. Using the computers in their pockets, they expect to access what they want, when they want it, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Participation Age has also forever altered the companies that are struggling to thrive in this new world and to deliver their offerings using what they know. Brands are still using the traditional reach broadcast media model whose goal is to reach as many people as possible and try to influence or persuade them about a product or service. Persuasion was always the key skill here, because the message was the most important deliverable. Then, about 20 years ago, we moved into the direct model for marketing to customers. As it was with the reach model, marketers were still in control; this time, however, they used technology and data to choose which customers to have a relationship with. Even though it was not really a reciprocal approach, we liked the idea that we could choose the so-called good or right customers for a smart marketing investment—as the media landscape continued to evolve and technology became ...