Occasionally, it is interesting to pick up a random business / marketing magazine from at minimum one market cycle ago (generally 3 years plus) and skim through the pages to see if there are any predictions that seem to have hit their mark.  And to be sure, everyone has an opinion about a particular company (Apple is an easy choice), technology platform (cloud computing) or person (90% of the CEOs in this magazine are gone).

The magazine that was used for this experiment is the March 2004 issue of Fast Company. The cover story is, “What we learned in the new economy.”  And to be sure, EVERYTHING referenced in this post comes from that edition.  Except for the interpretation.

There is a section, starting on page 61, that is titled “Boom-Time Buzz:”  Remember we are talking about a time in which the internet is coming out of the dark ages, a post-bubble market and realities of online-business.  The first Buzz (not yet a Google Colloquialism meaning to steal an entire business plan from Twitter), is “Free Agent Nation is a utopia.  The Brand Called  You makes you more marketable than ever.  Cold Reality: Free Agent Nation is a jungle.  The Brand Called You is the only way to survive.”  The company profiled here was dead before the article came out, but it foretold a truth to come.

The next Buzz to draw my attention was this: “The Internet gives the customer new, limitless power.  Cold Reality: New power yes, limitless, no.”  Curious about what this power is that is being transferred to the consumer allowed for a quick skim of the content.  The take was on the ability of the internet to provide transparency.  In this case, for the consumer to have access to information to allow for greater decision making when purchasing products.  The reference here is to the ability to accumulate not only information from the manufacturer, but information from the consumer of the product.  The beginning of product recommendations and word-of-mouth online.  Another layer pulled back, but still the picture was a bit fuzzy.

It got more interesting when this statement jumped out, “Value does not reside any longer in the products and services that people create.  Now it is the experience that creates the value.”

According to a reference to a Fast Company columnist Shoshana Zuboff, and I’m somewhat paraphrasing here, but using quotes, “we are entering an era in which consumers and companies must create value jointly.”  The next statement tied it together, and again since I know NOW what they didn’t know THEN, and as you are about to hear me conclude, it all made sense to me.  According to someone named Prahalad reference earlier in the article, “The relationship has become mandatory.”  The article claims that the true power of the Internet is that there is a relationship between parties.

What I believe is being discussed, and in some ways foretold, is Social Media.  They didn’t know it at the time, but it seems all too obvious.  Social Media is creating value for a brand.  Companies can no longer take the approach that communication is one-directional.  There are conversations being had, communication taking place that in many cases intentionally excludes the manufacturer.  Your buyers are talking about you, but telling friends / followers / linking people they don’t know, all behind your back.

If companies choose to “listen” to those conversation, if only for informational purposes, then they are in fact part of the conversation.   Choosing to take action in the form of adjustments to manufacturing, product features, greater diversity of choice or simply by reaching out to that one person in Idaho that didn’t like the color of your widget, is truly transformative.

I suppose the article could have been pointing to behavioral marketing and the use of cookies and algorithms in predicting buying behavior.