Consumer empowerment is an undeniable virtue of the internet. Initially built upon price transparency and the ease of comparison shopping, but now that empowerment is driven by the one-to-many messages, or content, consumers are creating at a blistering rate - be it forums, blogs, videos, audio, or whatever, it’s out there and it’s evolving the landscape of marketing as we speak. In the last year many major marketers were quick to “do the CGC thing” by adapting some forms of Consumer Generated Content into more mainstream or even duplicitous individual tactics, missing the strategic opportunity and in the process, bastardizing that which CGC is all about.

First it’s important to make clear that CGC is not a marketing medium, it’s a conversation amongst consumers about the products/services they want to buy, might buy or have bought. The fact that the conversation is about products and services presents the marketing opportunity but doesn’t grant anyone the right to crash the party with their sales pitch. Indeed, participation is welcome but only when the approach adheres to the ethics of the environment.

Among the many points of difference between the broadcast and online models of marketing is the notion of service over solicitation. It’s a core value that consumers have brought to the space and one which smart marketers have been quick to understand - in the world of CGC it’s an imperative for a corporate effort to succeed. But the real opportunity for corporate participation in CGC is not simply to look at the space as a tactical channel to *not* solicit, rather as the cornerstone of an entire marketing strategy.

First, CGC presents a valuable research opportunity - as we previously discussed, CGC is Word-of-Mouth but online it’s also a public record of those conversations and consumer sentiment relative to your brand and that of your competitors. A number of companies have popped up offering technology to capture those conversations for analysis but much of the application of that technology is still quite tactical - measuring the WOM around a particular event or campaign. In fact, the CGC research opportunity is to use that insight on a regular basis and with quality marketing-based analysis to derive valuable insights and identify concerns and opportunities.

Armed with this valuable research data and the insight of experienced marketing analysis, CGC presents the opportunity to engage customers and potential customers at the most critical time in the purchase process - right when they’re looking for the information about a product or service. A significant difference between CGC and WOM is that CGC is on demand - I find what people have written about the new BlackBerry right at the time I’m researching and considering the purchase, rather than via a guerrilla/buzz tactic or whenever someone I know decides to tell me. The timing of this impression is critical to the influence of CGC.

For a brand to engage in this conversation with a strategic approach including a deep understanding of what’s being discussed online and its influence, there is a great opportunity to more effectively reach qualified consumers and position the brand as an authority on the topic. Employing a few simple CGC tactics may provide short term gains but it’s a short-sighted approach to one of the most important drivers of marketing’s evolution.

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