sparking curious mind

According to Mr. Kent Oldham, associate director and GBS consumer view solutions manager at P&G, “now more than ever, consumers are owning our brands, and we not only have to understand that they are owning our brands. But we also have to embrace that idea and understand the implications of it.”

Finally P&G admits it. The change in consumer's attitudes towards brands is irreversible. Consumers have the need to be in control, people are becoming more self-expressive on a scale not possible before -- with family, friends and even strangers on the Internet, thanks to new technology. “They have ways of networking with each other that they have never been able to before,” Mr. Oldham said.

Marketers don’t control all touch points, and those touch points, as a result, have a great impact on the way consumers view brands. The implication of not learning from every touch point a consumer has with your company or product or service can be costly. “No matter how much great brand-building work you do, and how much equity your brands have, all it takes is one negative consumer experience to destroy all of it."