As in the past, clients will continue to demand from their agencies quality of service, strategic counsel, excellence in media and analyst relations, creative programming, and so forth. With greater migration of people across borders, societies are becoming more heterogeneous, including a mix of languages, cultures and religions. The diversity of peoples requires that communications be tailored according to the needs and interests of different life styles and life stages. Evidence of this trend is the emergence of highly targeted cable channels and publications that target various age, ethnic and gender groups. Layer on top of this diversity burgeoning Internet usage.
People now expect to receive more in-depth information in more entertaining formats.
People also expect to be able to interact with this information seamlessly and to engage in dialogues with the larger community. This cynicism can be seen in both the marketing arena and in the realm of corporate reputation. In the marketing arena, consumers are increasingly resistant to conventional marketing messages and even hostile when they think they are being sold to. In the corporate arena, we have seen protestors utilize the Internet to organize demonstrations in Seattle and in Geneva against the World Trade Organization, in Europe against genetically modified foods, and against corporations operating low-cost factories in Asia. These demographic and social changes have major implications for marketing and public relations.