I am writing this a bit late, but I was pretty excited to pen my first Ad Age China “Viewpoint” column a couple of weeks ago. The topic was the recent Consumer Day. In addition to the typical ‘Crisis 2.0’ case studies that readers of my blog will be familiar with, I did explore a trend that is becoming more prominent and that is the more ‘active’ role that community owners are taking in bringing awareness to or even promoting brand related crisis’. Unlike social media platforms in the US, in China, the platforms for blogs and BBS which remain the key drivers in brand related conversations are very commercial (see my discussion of this topic on Adam’s blog here). I play with Pete Blackshaw’s “social media is a megaphone for consumers” metaphor when I write:

The fact that IWOM platforms are open to such commercial influence is a key difference between social media in China and in the West. In China, consumers can voice their opinions, but ultimately it is the community owners which control the megaphone’s volume and the on and off switch. In western markets, consumers are more in control.

Interestingly, in the summary of his recent Ad Age (US) column, Pete Blackshaw also points out that the consumer is not alone in influencing the conversation, although the competing influence in the West comes in the form of PR and marketing folk dominating the conversation on platforms like Twitter:

…we at least need to recognize and acknowledge the disproportionate voice of marketers in the conversational stream. Even I’m a bit guilty of over-romanticizing the “consumer voice” when in fact the earliest buzz-building megaphones are being sounded by the folks I regularly rub shoulder to shoulder with at industry conferences.

What all this means is that the often quoted line that the “consumer is in control” is, in fact, not so accurate. Certainly consumers have a much louder voice than before, especially in the face of traditional advertising. However, it would be a stretch to say they are in control of the conversation. Whether in the West or in China, it is important for marketers to understand that effectively participating in the conversation is becoming more and more nuanced.