Brand Owners Still Fail To Win The Trust Of Consumers

http://www.warc.com/News/TopNews.asp?ID=26734

Incredibly important information from Alterian, one of the leaders in Social Media Monitoring and advanced consumer behavioral analytics. A few key paragraphs:

“Alterian, the consultancy, conducted a survey of 1,000 adults in the US and UK and discovered that a “deep rooted cynicism” was observable among its participants.

More specifically, 62% of people in the UK and 54% in the US argued corporations were “only interested” in selling them products, even if the brand concerned was “not the right one for me”.

“The old forms of mass broadcast do not give the 21st century consumer sufficient information to assemble their personal take on a brand,” Alterian’s study said. “Individuals are increasingly used to interacting with content, rather than passively receiving messages. Individuals are not content with being told something; rather, they compare information.”

If one of the key value propositions of MR is to help marketers discover the keys to consumer brand engagement, then these findings should have a profound impact on how we approach the problem of understanding how the relationship between consumers and brands has changed, as well as the channels available to researchers to further understand, and ultimately help marketers transform, this relationship.