The Deloitte Consumer Review
The growing power of consumers

A Deloitte Insight reportContents
Foreword

1

Executive summary2

The consolidation of consumers’ power

4

The extended path to purchase8

Closing the expectations gap

12

Notes

15

Contacts

16

About this research
The research featured in the Deloitte Consumer Review is based on a consumer survey carried out by independent market research agency, Toluna, on our behalf.
This survey was conducted online with a nationally representative sample of over 2,000 UK adults aged 16+ between 16-18 May 2014.
Please visit http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/industries/consumer-business/research-publications for additional content related to the Consumer Businessindustry.

Foreword
Welcome to the eighth edition of the Deloitte
Consumer Review.
While consumers have always had the ability to votewith their feet, or with their wallets, they now havemore power to influence not only what they buy, butalso what others buy.
Empowered by social networks and digital devices,
consumers are increasingly dictating when, where andhow they engage with brands. They have become bothcritics and creators, demanding a more personalised
service and expecting to be given the opportunity toshape the products and services they consume.
Consumers have been given a voice and they expect it
to be heard. They are also increasingly willing to share
their opinions and experiences with others. In somecategories consumers are reluctant to buy without
independent recommendations and this is disrupting
the traditional path to purchase.

In this edition we discuss how businesses can start
to close this gap, including rethinking the way they
engage with consumers. Businesses not only need togain a deeper understanding of consumer behaviours,
they also need to allow for more open and transparent
relationships with consumers.
We hope this report gives you the insight and data youneed to enhance your understanding of consumers andthe issues facing your sector, and we welcome yourfeedback.

Nigel Wixcey
Lead Partner, Consumer Business
Deloitte LLP

As a result, a gap is emerging between consumer
expectations and the ability of businesses to meetthem. Businesses are struggling to keep pace withan ever more fickle consumer.

Deloitte Consumer Review The growing power of consumers

1

Executive summary
Consumers’ power is consolidating with improving
access to information, ever widening choice ofgoods and services, and opportunities to share theirexperiences more widely. As a result, consumers havebecome more demanding and many are now more
sceptical about the ability of big brands to keep theirpromises. With consumers expecting more, it is harderfor businesses to keep up.
However, while the digital revolution has handed
additional power to the consumer, including more
information and more choice, it has also increased
the complexity of making decisions for consumers.
Consumers have found ways of dealing with this‘tyranny of choice’ and many now use tools such associal media or price comparison websites to informtheir decisions and exert their power.
This shift in the balance of power between consumers
and brands has disrupted the traditional path topurchase. Instead of a funnel-shaped selection process,consumer journeys are now subject to interruptions,diversions and delays. Moreover, when considering
a purchase, consumers prefer to ‘pull’ information,rather than have businesses ‘push’ it to them.
For example, consumers are now actively looking
for inspiration by exploring other consumers’ social
media profiles rather than expecting brands to inspirethem through traditional advertising. Post‑purchase,
consumers are not only actively sharing views that
influence others, but are also becoming more involvedin product development.

2

As a result, beyond simply consuming products andservices, consumers have also become critics andcreators.
Businesses have been slow to respond and haveretained silos that separate their different touch points
with consumers. Moreover, most of those that have
responded are ‘fast followers’ with few consumer
businesses really innovating.
Innovators are those businesses that have started toregain ownership of the consumer journey by:• listening – establishing social command centres orsocial listening posts to track what consumers aresaying about products or services and engage directlywith them• inspiring – developing tools to use customer
advocacy and social media platforms to encourage
consumers to promote products and services• co‑creating – using crowd‑sourced ideas andengaging in conversations with active followers.
With new technologies entering the mainstream,more disruptions to the traditional path to purchaseare expected. These also offer businesses new anddifferent opportunities for engaging with consumers.
The challenge for businesses is how to close the gap
when dealing with millions of individual expectations.

Businesses need to invest in developing capabilities
to have better consumer‑centric business models.
Consumer engagement needs to go beyond themarketing function, it requires better collaboration
across different parts of the organisation in managing
the different touch points with consumers.
Businesses need to:1.	decide on the appropriate engagement approach fortheir brands’ categories whether it is being actively
engaged in the conversation, monitoring it or simply
ignoring it

Consumer engagement needs to go beyond
the marketing function, it requires bettercollaboration across different parts of theorganisation in managing the different
touch points with consumers.

2.	develop content creation and management
capabilities focussing on informing and educating
consumers rather than just selling to them.
Arming consumers with the right information helps
them move independently through the shopping
journey, creates trust and increases their loyalty
3.	invest in technologies and develop analytics
capabilities to help integrate and track, across allchannels and touch points, every individual journey
to offer targeted response in real time
4.	ensure staff at each level of the organisation
understand the role they play in serving consumers
and empower them to make the right decisionon the appropriate way to respond to dissatisfied
consumers
5.	manage the reputational risks associated with social
platforms by establishing social command centres
to listen to conversations, engage with consumers
and help to share positive stories beyond the mostvalued consumers.

Deloitte Consumer Review The growing power of consumers

3The consolidation of consumers’ power
There is an increasing expectations gap as businesses struggle to keep pacewith more informed, more connected and more demanding consumers.
Figure 1. Attitudes to digital content
Read customer reviews/ratings

81%

Watch video from other users

64%

Visit my personal social networking page suchas Facebook, LinkedIn,YouTube
Maintain a personal social networking page suchas Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube

63%
57%

Read online forums

57%

Update status on a social network site such as
Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Twitter

56%

Read blogs

47%

Add ‘tags’ or dislikes/likes from webpages such as
Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+,Twitter

43%

Post ratings/reviews of products and services

40%

Read tweets

39%

Contribute to online forums

37%

Comments on other peoples blogs/pages

35%

Post update on Twitter

27%

Publish photos on a social platform such
as Instagram

27%

Listen to podcasts

26%

Use news aggregators such as Google News

21%

Upload video content you created to platforms
such as YouTube

18%

Post online articles/stories you wrote

16%

Upload audio/music content you created13%

Publish your own website

12%

Publish a blog

12%

Contribute to/Edit articles on Wikipedia

10%

Source: Deloitte research, May 2014
Base: UK Consumers 16+ (n=2000)

More
passiveconsumers

Mind the gap
There is a growing gap between consumer
expectations of products and services and the ability ofbusinesses to meet them.
Empowered by access to more information, social
networks and digital devices, consumers are now wellequipped to do research and receive satisfaction for
most of their needs. As a result, consumers have cometo expect more, making it harder for businesses tokeep up.
The challenge for businesses is how to close the gap
when dealing with millions of individual expectations.
Businesses need to invest in developing capabilities tointegrate and track every individual journey and offer atargeted response in real time if they want to continue
to grow revenues and profits, while also improving
customer satisfaction.

More
activeconsumers

1 in 2 Consumers

1 in 3 Consumers

1 in 4 Consumers

1 in 10 Consumers

Knowledge is power
Consumers have always had the ability to vote with
their feet and wallets. While the digital revolution has
handed additional power to the consumer, including
more information and more choice, it has also increased
the complexity of decision-making. But consumers havefound ways of dealing with this ‘tyranny of choice’and many now use tools such as social media or pricecomparison websites to perfect their choice and exert
their power.1
Indeed the ability of consumers to distribute information
using a variety of networks, digital media devices andplatforms not only lets them connect with their peers,
it also helps enrich the information shared.
Deloitte data shows that 81 per cent of people read
reviews and check ratings. More than one in three
consumers contribute to online forums or comment onother people’s blogs. A smaller proportion are genuine
content creators with one in ten publishing a blog ormanaging their own website (see Figure 1).

4

The issue of trust
During the economic slowdown consumers developed
recessionary behaviours which are still ongoing. They
continue to be more selective and many have become
more sceptical about the ability of big brands to keep
their promises.
Many consumers prefer to turn to independentsources to access information rather than go directly
to businesses. This presents a real risk for businesses
as they have less control over the information being
circulated and used by consumers to make decisions.
Deloitte’s research shows that for the majority of
consumers, family and friends, consumer reviews andindependent experts are the most trusted sources of
information. Only around one in ten consumers findproduct manufacturers or service providers to be theirmost trusted source (see Figure 2).
There is no doubt that consumers have become‘professional’ shoppers. Their confidence has grownalong with a better awareness of their rights.
Consumers’ ability to exercise their power has also
reduced their perceived level of risk, and with consumers
increasingly knowing where to get the information theyneed, more prefer to ‘pull’ information, rather than havebusinesses ‘push’ information to them.

Case study – KLM Meet & Seat
Launched in 2012, KLM’s Meet & Seat programme has now been piloted with
60,000 passengers and is being rolled out across the business. The systemallows passengers to choose ‘seatmates’ with shared interests or businessconnections based on their Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. This is an optin service and has proved particularly popular on flights to US west coast
destinations such as San Francisco.3

Case study – ASOS
The #AsSeenOnMe campaign encourages consumers to share photos ofthemselves wearing the retailer’s clothing and footwear via Twitter, Facebook andInstagram or upload them directly via the Asos.com website. Asos has createda separate channel that uses a visual commerce engine provided by Olapic topull all of the images into a system that staff can then use to link directly tothe transactional website. Consumers can browse through the images on the#AsSeenOnMe channel and purchase directly. The images are also added at thebottom of a product page.5

Figure 2. Most trusted source of information on products and services
60%

60%

43%

16%

Family/Friends

Customer
reviews

Independent
product/
serviceexperts

Store staff/
Retailerwebsite12%

Product
manufacturer/
serviceprovider9%None ofthe above

Source: Deloitte research, May 2014
Base: UK consumers 16+ (n = 2,000).

Deloitte Consumer Review The growing power of consumers

5Case study – Coca Cola
Coca-Cola launched its first TV commercial created with user generated
content. The advert, aired during the final episode of American Idol,
was produced by Wieden + Kennedy. It features content generated by acompetition that challenged teenagers to submit short video clips “sharing
what it feels like when they take a sip of Coke.” Forty clips were selected fromover 400 clips and include content from consumers from different countries.
The campaign is an example of how consumer businesses are increasingly
turning to consumers to co-create not only products and services but also
marketing communications and creative content.2

Case study – Amazon
Amazon has announced a partnership with Twitter that allows users to
add products to their shopping baskets. Users can do so by replying to
tweets containing a link to an Amazon product with #amazonbasket.
Users then need to go to Amazon to pay and complete the purchase.
This move highlights the importance of offering s-commerce functions,allowing for a trigger such as a tweet to start a shopping journey andthis as seamlessly as possible.4

Figure 3. Actions taken when satisfied or dissatisfied with a product or a service
42%

Told friends and family

32%
15%

Posted a comment on the service provider’s orproduct manufacturer’s webpage

8%
13%

Emailed the service provider or productmanufacturer customer service

35%

Posted a comment on my own social media page(e.g. my Facebook page, my LinkedIn page,
my Twitter feed account)

8%

Wrote a review on an independent review website(e.g. Trip Adviser or Reevvo, Trusted review)

7%

Posted a message/comment on a consumer
forum(s)

6%

12%
10%
8%

Called the service provider or product manufacturer
customer service

7%

Posted a comment on the service provider’s orproduct manufacturer’s social media page(e.g. their Facebook page)

7%

Sent a written letter the service provider or
product manufacturer customer service
Contacted a newspaper or a magazine

Source: Deloitte research, May 2014
Base: UK consumers 16+ (n = 2,000).

6

24%
6%
4%
9%
2%
3%
Satisfied

Dissatisfied

To counter this, businesses have been engaging with
consumers directly via social media platforms. However
some practices used by businesses undermine thepotential of social media as a tool to engage openly with
consumers and can impact negatively on consumers’ trust.
In an effort to ‘sanitise’ the content that appears on social
platforms about their brands, many businesses have takensome of the negative consumer conversations offline
while encouraging people with positive experiences
to share them more widely. This can be detrimental tobusinesses as they run the risk of being removed from theconversations about their brands altogether.
The issue of trust also highlights the growing
importance of reputation and consumers’ desire formore transparency. Businesses that keep their promises
and act more transparently tend to be rewarded asconsumers are more likely to talk about their experience
when they are satisfied than when dissatisfied.
Our data shows that 42 per cent of consumers will tellfriends and family about a positive experience, but onlya third will talk about their experience when they are
dissatisfied. One in ten satisfied consumers will post acomment on their social media page (see Figure 3).

Crowd-based power
Empowered consumers are also a significant driverof growth as their behaviour intensifies competitionand drives innovation. Beyond creating, accessing
and sharing information to help them make the rightdecision, consumers have recognised the power behindcollectively influencing the products or services theybuy. Empowered consumers are actively sharing theirviews, and as a result are becoming more involved in
the development of products and services.
The ability of like-minded people to compare
experiences and promote their collective voice allows
the most active consumers to demonstrate the powerof the crowd. Such power has become a force inthe consumer market, going beyond reviews andrecommendations into co-creation. Some companies
are even using crowd-based power to help themdevelop their products and services.

Case study – Lego
Lego Cuusoo is a crowdsourcing platform where people post their Lego creations.
If the creation gets more than 10,000 supporters, Lego will commercialise it and thecreator will receive royalties.6

Case study – Bethany Mota
Bethany Mota has recently been hitting the headlines in the UK. The 18 year old
Californian is known for her YouTube videos where she talks about her fashion
purchases. Her regular video blogging about fashion has already earned her morethan 5.5 million channel subscribers and 2.4 million fans on Instagram. This is morethan Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Glamour and Cosmopolitan combined. Finally at theend of last year, the Bethany Mota Clothing and Accessories line for Aeropostale, aUS retailer, was launched and brands like J.C. Penney and Forever 21 in the US arelooking into developing similar collaborations with Bethany.7

What should businesses do?
• Consider new touch points such as social
media and online as opportunities toengage more openly with consumers• Develop new capabilities such asencouraging sales on social media(s-commerce) and social customer
relationship management (Social CRM)
• Develop content to inform and educate
consumers and help them move throughthe decision process. Arming consumers
with the right information helps themmove independently through the
shopping journey, creates trust andincreases their loyalty• Manage the reputational risks associatedwith social platforms by establishingsocial command centres to listen toconversations, engage with consumers
and help to share positive stories beyond
the most valued consumers.

Deloitte Consumer Review The growing power of consumers

7

The extended path to purchase
The path to purchase has changed with more opportunities for businesses
to engage differently with consumers.
Disrupted path to purchase
The growing power of consumers is changing theway consumers interact with brands when deciding
to purchase a product or a service. Enabled by digitaltechnology and extensive information sources,
consumers can choose how engaged they want tobe across the different touch points of their path
to purchase. Typically consumers tend to be highly
engaged for more expensive items and will limit theirinteraction with providers to the minimum when thepurchase is more of a commodity.
This has disrupted the traditional path to purchase, butoffers businesses new and different opportunities forengaging with their consumers. Two additional phases
have now been added to the traditional customer
journey and have helped to create a ‘cycle’ instead of a‘funnel’ (see Figure 4).
While in the past consumers could only consider what
is on offer, now they can start with an idea or a needand browse online for further inspiration to help refine
and locate what they are looking for. This process
is enabled by access to search engines and social
platforms to narrow and discuss options among otherthings.
As a result consumers are now more involved in
imagining and conceptualising the product or service
they are looking for. Businesses that make it as easy
as possible for consumers to refine a need or an idea
while inspiring them will get one step closer to making
the sale.

8

Similarly, at the end of the journey consumers haveaccess to networks and communication tools to share
their experience with others who themselves might
use this information to select a product or a service.
Hence the customer journey is now more of a cycle,
where one consumer’s experience feeds into anotherconsumer’s decision process whether to buy a productor a service.
Product or service awareness, which used to beachieved through broadcast media, is now being
replaced by Internet searches and mobile access.
Products in store aisles and on shelves are becoming
part of the global digital marketplace where there
are no geographical boundaries and multiple choices.
Transactions are becoming simpler, seamless andintuitive. The supply-driven world is becoming ademand-driven one where the consumer is in charge.
More disruptions to the traditional path to purchase arelikely to arise as new technologies enter the mainstream.
The increasing adoption of wearable technologies will
facilitate searching by image, voice and gesture. For
example, the latest version of Siri included as part ofApple’s IOS 8 software update will allow consumers
to make voice-activated purchases via iTunes. This will
increase the speed of response, giving consumers theability to buy a song while listening to it using the song
recognition service Shazaam (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. The disrupted path to purchases in the p a t h t o p u r c
phase
hase
w
e
N

y

log

Yesterday’s tec

log

Today’s tec

hno

techn

hno

Geo-location

Evaluate& select

Cloud

Touch
and feel

Cash

Onlinebanking

RFIDchnology

Shopping
experience

TraditionalMedia

chnology

Transact

Awareness& locate

y’s teConsumerjourney

Telephonetechnology

Service &advocacy

Communities

Social media

ay’sCall centres

Imagineng teChangee rd

Personalisation

Social media

e rg iyiBeacon

a
Tod

olog

SocialListeningstYe

E m e rg i n g

Finding inspiration
to create ideas

EmyShare experiences
and influence others

Online reviews
Digital assistant

Biometric

StoresContactless
Shop staff

Facialrecognition
Multichannel

Crowd-based
power

Click & Collect
Augmented
reality

Mobilepayment

Smart trolleyomnichannel

iBeaconSource: Deloitte research, May 2014

Deloitte Consumer Review The growing power of consumers

9Figure 5. Heat Map of pre-purchase activity by category*Sports and LeisureBooks, DVDs, Music andGames

Clothing and Footwear

Furniture and Homewares

Major household appliances

Mobile phone, Internet andCable/TV subscriptions

Electrical equipment

Going out/Entertainment

Restaurant booking

Car hire

Train tickets

Packaged holidays

Hotels/Accommodation

Flights% of consumers who shopped the category in the last three months

Ask family and friends for recommendations
or advice

22%

13%

10%

14%

19%

20%

19%

14%

15%

15%

7%

19%

9%

12%

Read reviews in the press or magazines

13%

12%

5%

8%

14%

13%

13%

10%

5%

11%

3%

16%

6%

5%

Look for information social media sites

13%

7%

5%

5%

11%

12%

7%

6%

6%

8%

4%

14%

4%

7%

Look for information on blogs

12%

6%

4%

7%

7%

8%

8%

3%

4%

8%

3%

11%

6%

4%

Use online customer review sites

30%

19%

11%

17%

31%

19%

29%

10%

10%

19%

5%

30%

24%

12%

Use a price comparison website

23%

13%

6%

12%

23%

19%

21%

5%

5%

21%

11%

19%

25%

26%

Use a web search engine (e.g. Google)

42%

26%

16%

21%

32%

23%

31%

17%

12%

22%

15%

29%

28%

28%

Browse the company’s catalogue/brochure

26%

10%

13%

20%

23%

12%

15%

6%

4%

15%

4%

29%

9%

7%

Visit the website of the company from which
you made your purchase

51%

47%

38%

43%

47%

39%

51%

34%

26%

42%

43%

56%

56%

59%

Visit the website of other companies selling
similar goods or services

39%

25%

21%

32%

36%

24%

38%

9%

7%

26%

17%

33%

30%

34%

Use an app created by the company from which
you made your purchase

11%

7%

4%

4%

6%

5%

6%

5%

3%

13%

8%

9%

5%

6%

Use an app created by another company otherthan the one from which you made your purchase

8%

3%

3%

4%

7%

5%

3%

3%

3%

7%

3%

7%

3%

4%

Call customer service

8%

3%

2%

6%

7%

18%

7%

4%

11%

15%

4%

14%

8%

6%

Visit the store from which you made yourpurchase

35%

22%

40%

38%

37%

25%

32%

14%

13%

13%

10%

12%

6%

6%

Talk to in-store staff

21%

6%

9%

18%

18%

20%

21%

6%

10%

17%

6%

13%

3%

5%

Used an in-store touchscreen

11%

3%

3%

6%

7%

8%

5%

4%

3%

10%

4%

6%

2%

3%

Visit other stores

28%

14%

26%

29%

27%

14%

24%

5%

4%

12%

3%

10%

2%

4%

*Use this map to check either by activity or by category what is more popular in comparison to other categories or other activities:
Pre-purchase activity less likely to happen compared to the average
Pre-purchase activity more likely to happen compared to the average
Source: Deloitte research, May 2014
Base: UK consumers 16+ (n=2,000)
10Different levels of engagement by category
The amount and type of activities consumers undertakeprior to completing a purchase reveal some strong
differences at the category level. Consumers undertakea higher number of activities for categories such as
sports and leisure, major home appliances, electricalequipment and packaged holidays. However, whenplanning a purchase in categories such as books, DVDs,
music, going out or buying train tickets, consumers
claim to engage in far fewer activities.

What should businesses do?
• Decide on the appropriate engagement approach whether it is being
actively engaged in the conversation, monitoring it or simply ignoring it• Gain a deeper understanding of consumers, including their behaviours
and the value they derive from products and services• Adjust the marketing mix to account for new channels and theextended path to purchase, with less direct branding and moremanagement of unbranded content on social platforms andcommunities

Some activities are specific to certain categories andhighlight how people plan their purchases. For example,
consumers are more likely to visit the website of acompany when they are looking to buy flights, hotels or
packaged holidays. This demonstrates how important
it is for businesses to provide ample opportunities
for consumers to engage with the product or theservice across all touch points. Businesses also need toappreciate the value consumers derive from different
products and services (see Figure 5).

• Invest in monitoring and understanding how consumers become aware of
their products and services beyond the traditional marketing channels• Use social media to extend customer support beyond the product andtransform it into an experience• Help consumers share content on brands or businesses but also to create andcurate their own• Empower all staff, regardless of what level of interaction they have with
consumers, to make decisions and respond to consumers directly topersonalise the service they receive.

Deloitte analysis shows that there is a correlation
between the level of consumer pre-purchase activity
and their level of spending. High spending categories
such as travel and holidays or major household
appliances have higher activity levels, while categories
such as clothing and footwear or train tickets, which
are considered more as utilities with lower averagespending, show lower activity (see Figure 6).

Figureg
6. Level of pre-purchasep p
activityy by
y average
g spendingpg and byy categoryg yMean spending range£700

Packaged holidays (e.g. cruises)

£600

£500

£400

Flights

Major household
appliances

Electrical equipment£300

Furniture and Homewares
Hotels/Accommodation£200
Train tickets
Clothing and footwear£100

Restaurant booking

Going out/
Entertainment

Mobile phone, internet
and Cable/TV subscriptions
Books, DVDs,
Music & GamesCar hireSports andLeisureActivity level£0
Low
Source: Deloitte research, May 2014
Base: UK consumers 16+ (n = 2,000)

High
Average

Deloitte Consumer Review The growing power of consumers

11Closing the expectations gap
Businesses need to consider how they can engage with consumers bothas individuals and as communities across different stages of the path
to purchase.
From ‘fast followers’ to innovators
The traditional path to purchase has been disrupted
and businesses need to consider how they can engage
with customers as both individuals and as part ofcommunities and collectives. Many large businesses
have been slow to respond and have retained silos that
separate their different touch points with consumers.
Moreover, most of those that have responded are‘fast followers’ with few consumer businesses reallyinnovating.
Innovators are those businesses that have started toregain ownership of the consumer journey by using
consumer data and insight to inform the businessstrategy and by changing their operating modelaccordingly.
• Listening – establishing social command centres orsocial listening posts to track what consumers aresaying about their products or services and engage
directly with them
• Inspiring – developing tools to use customer
advocacy and social media platforms to encourage
consumers to promote products and services• Co-creating – using crowd-sourced ideas andengaging with active followers into conversations.
Consumer generated content such as reviews andrecommendations can improve conversion rates
and help increase the top line. Giving consumers
the ability to share and create content can also
encourage loyalty.

12

The value of trust
Trust has always been an issue in the value exchange
between a seller and a buyer. Social engagement can
improve trust and transform negative experiences
into positive ones, helping businesses become moretransparent.
To increase consumer trust, businesses must engage
more closely with consumer communities, openly
encouraging dialogue, acknowledging suggestions andconsumer sentiment.
Businesses should personalise responses to their mostvalued consumers, recognising that they are the main
advocates of the brand and that they can be critical in
helping to enhance a business’s good reputation in thesocial media environment.
However, given the multiple touch points consumers
have with a product or service, staff at each level need
to be empowered to respond and assist consumers,
including being able to make the decision on theappropriate way to respond to a complaint from adissatisfied customer.

Risks of ignoring the growing power of consumers
Consumer activism – Consumer activism should be on
the risk agenda for all consumer-facing businesses given
its rapid growth over the last few years. Risk issues
include data security, reputational risks, the protectionof consumers’ rights and customer satisfaction. Given
the growth of digital platforms as customer service
channels, businesses need to mitigate their risks byimplementing enterprise control platforms to monitor
what content is shared and by whom.
Consumer communities – Social communities are
incredibly powerful. Not having a presence in thesocial media environment could prevent consumers
from reaching out to a business and choosing insteadto vent their concerns or views on a competitor’ssocial platform. Businesses should be confident that
if they offer great customer service, social media
activity around their brand will reflect that. Businesses
need to see this as an opportunity to build stronger
relationships with their customers.
Enterprise-wide transparency – Reputational risk is
an issue that needs to be managed across the entire
supply chain and is not just the responsibility of thecustomer service function. Building consumer trust isdependent on brand messages being consistent withthe consumer’s experience of the product or service.
This requires the entire value chain to engage behinddelivering the brand’s promise.
Loyalty – Digital has changed the conventionalpurchase funnel, and what used to be a linear routefrom awareness to loyalty is now constantly disrupted.
A more demanding consumer is harder to convince,
and in a more competitive market will be enticed by
the wide choice available to him or her. Businesses
need to develop the capabilities to remain relevant
and responsive across all touch points of the customer
journey including enterprise-wide customer relationshipmanagement capabilities.

Developing customer-centric operating capabilities
Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM)– CRM activities have evolved from being a companycentric process into a consumer-centric process.
Developing such capabilities allows a business to:• develop a more collaborative relationship with
consumers and place them at the centre of theinnovation cycle• develop a richer profile of consumers and their wider
community• engage in conversation that generates real value toimprove the product or service• gather consumer insights from all employees who,in their different roles, come in contact with theconsumer.
Content management – Businesses need to develop
a set of processes and technologies that support thecollection, management and publishing of information
created by consumers about their products andservices.
Content creation – Content management has
become critical and has changed the way businesses
communicate with consumers. Businesses need
to focus on informing and educating consumers
rather than solely selling to them. Making as muchinformation available to consumers as possible, will
help them move more independently through the
shopping journey.

Deloitte Consumer Review The growing power of consumers

13

To increase consumer trust, businesses
must engage more closely with consumer
communities, openly encouraging
dialogue, acknowledging suggestions andconsumer sentiment.

Case study – Ford
In an effort to adopt an ‘always-on’ approach, Ford is using social media to
attract different consumers as it accelerates away from focusing its online
channels solely on awareness building. A real-time strategy is being developed
to make accessibility, transparency and authenticity the point of difference of its
content. Ford says that the most compelling communications come from theirconsumers discussing their product so they aim to facilitate conversations andnot broadcast.
Customer assistance teams alongside other divisions such as IT and legal arebeing called upon to speed up content generation so that customers and fansfeel like they are having a “two-way dialogue” with the brand. The businessintroduced initial elements from the strategy around this year’s Champions
League final when it worked in partnership with a social media agency topromote the European launch of the Mustang. Ford integrated all consumerfacing parts of the business such as customer assistance ‘live chatters’ andcommunity managers alongside the communications teams and the team
generating real time content. A combination of influencers, TV, paid and earned
media sold 500 pre-orders within the first 30 seconds of the match.8

14

Social commerce – Using social platforms to increase
sales is more subtle than on a branded e-commercesite. On social media, personal relationships are key
and it should be left to individuals to decide whether
content is valuable or not – or whether a brand’s
product or service deserves their attention or purchase.
Real time and targeted response – Not only has
one-to-one communication replaced traditional
segment-centric marketing methods, businesses
also need to adopt tools to shorten the lag time
between a consumer action and a targeted response.
Real-time digital marketing techniques that sense
consumer behaviours and respond, such as instantgeotargeted alerts via ‘push’ message, or automatedand personalised emails based on activity on a website
or social platform, are becoming standard in one-toone communication. This type of marketing requires
continual optimisation of content in real time, yetmany teams still operate under traditional annual andquarterly campaign calendars.
Businesses need to respond to these new shopping
activities by developing strategies and structures thatenable products to be created, manufactured anddelivered on the basis of real-time demand and traffic.

Notes1.	The tyranny of choice: You choose, The Economist, Dec 2010. See also: http://www.economist.com/node/17723028
2.	Coca Cola Company, Unbottled, Our Blog, May 2014. See also: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/coca-cola-unbottled/cocacola-to-debut-first-tv-ad-made-entirely-with-user-generated-content
3.	KLM Meet & Seat. See also: http://www.klm.com/travel/gb_en/prepare_for_travel/on_board/your_seat_on_board/meet_and_seat.htm
4.

See http://www.amazon.com/gp/socialmedia/amazoncart/ref=amazoncart_surl_amazonbasketlp

5.	ASOS ‘As Seen On Me campaign’, May 2014. See also: http://www.drapersonline.com/news/ecommerce/asos-launches-asseen-on-me-community/5060648.article?blocktitle=Most-popular&contentID=-1
6.

Lego Ideas. See also: https://ideas.lego.com/howitworks

7.	From bullied to bank: How Bethany Mota created a YouTube and fashion empire, Yahoo Finance, June 2016.
See also http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/driven/bullied-to-bank--bethany-mota-s-youtube-empire-133655143.html
8.	Marketing Week, Ford takes real-time plan beyond marketing to ensure content is taken ‘seriously’, June 2014. See also:
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/4010992.article?cmpid=mwbreak_382095

Deloitte Consumer Review The growing power of consumers

15

Contacts
Leadership team

Authors

Nigel Wixcey
Industry Leader, Consumer Business020 7303 5007
nigelwixcey@deloitte.co.uk

Ben Perkins
Head of Research, Consumer Business020 7307 2207
beperkins@deloitte.co.uk

Nick Turner
Digital Lead, Consumer Business020 7007 3591
nickturner@deloitte.co.uk

Céline Fenech
Research Manager, Consumer Business020 7303 2064
cfenech@deloitte.co.uk

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