NHL Flyers Fans Demonstrate Consumer Power

3-26-2014 4-14-56 PM

A great example of how much power consumers have gained in the Corporate-Consumer Relationship.

Companies are no longer completely in-charge of their brand image. See this example of how things can go horribly wrong when passionate fans use the power of open social media to expose the bad behavior of a brand seeking to gain some media attention. The moral? Make sure you’re ready to answer hard questions about your organization and its performance before you go public. OH, and don’t mess with Flyers fans (of which I am one!). #AskNeal @FlyersNation

The original story–complete with copies of tweets here at CrossingBroad.com: http://www.crossingbroad.com/2014/03/the-penguins-askneal-twitter-hashtag-went-horribly-wrong.html

Definitioner

Corporate-Consumer Relationship

is a term first used by David Giannetto in Big Social Mobile to describe the ongoing battle for power between consumers and for-profit companies. Giannetto breaks down the relationship into three main stages: 1) pre-capitalism where consumers dominated due to the inability of most companies to operate in areas that exceeded the 'word of mouth' that their reputation created, 2) capitalism, beginning with the creation of a wage-labor economy, where corporations gained dominance and could (eventually) utilize marketing methods that drown out their local reputation, forcing consumers to make a buying decision based upon perceived value and not true value, and 3) social economy, where the market dynamics of capitalism still exist but are counterbalanced by consumers having an independent voice (via social media) that allows them to share information outside of corporate controlled platforms, forcing companies to consider the true value they deliver and shying away from marketing based solely upon the use of perception to increase their (nonexistent or lacking) value proposition. See graphic 3.1 in Big Social Mobile.

NHL Flyers Fans Demonstrate Consumer Power

Share this:

Order On-line