Brand Mix

As I mentioned earlier, I have been invited to participate in Seth Godin's virtual book tour for Meatball Sundae. I just finished the book. It's a great read. Also thought-provoking, so I thought that I would share some of those provoked thoughts with you leading up to Seth's scheduled tour stop at this blog on January 16th.

So, thought #1 - you're damn right - the consumer's voice is LOUDER than it used to be. This is Trend #2 of 14 trends that Seth says are ushering in the fourth industrial revolution. A revolution that replaces mass marketing with new approaches that recognize that technology and competition "has led to a world where many people can get what they want, when they want it." And one of the things they want is respect.

Case in point - it's a lot more risky for hotel managers to insult their guests than it used to be. Back in the day, hotels could treat their guests badly and the worst that would typically happen is that guest wouldn't go back to the hotel and perhaps a few of their close friends would hear about it and they wouldn't go there either. But now there's TripAdvisor and many other places for people who've been done wrong to make loud their protest. Here's my tirade, for example, against the 3Peaks Resort and Beach Club where I stayed on my recent ski trip.

As Seth points out in the book, "the Web remembers forever" so my review is a permanent record of my experience and could still, potentially, be influencing people for years to come. It just isn't going to make financial sense to be rude anymore when any guest could be that person who will take the time to warn others of what they might expect.