Marketing experts Don Peppers and Martha Rogers said: “Without customers, you don’t have a business.” It is such a simple, nevertheless, a scary thought. We live in a world of consumerism, in which the customer’s wants and desires greatly exceed their basic needs. Even though many see this concept as a threat to modern world society, it has created the extremely competitive marketplace for businesses. The companies are competing everyday to win over as many customers as possible by offering products that create irreplaceable value and benefit to those customers. Many companies will succeed in getting the customers to buy into their value and benefit however, the true success of a business is not linked only to getting new customers. It is considerably linked with keeping those customers around and winning over the customers from their competition. Companies work hard to develop creative marketing schemes for their products so that the company is recognized and perceived as valuable and beneficial to the customer. However, I believe that all strong companies start from the same point: listening to the customer. The extraordinary merits of information technology, such as the internet, cell phones, social media, television, radio, etc. have made the world we live in a global village. Thanks to the information technology, distance has never been less of an obstacle to communication amongst people. Technology has made information essentially accessible to everyone, everywhere, at any time making consumers, “more educated and informed than ever. They have the tools to verify companies’ claims and seek out superior alternatives” (Kotler & Keller, 2009, p.121).
Consumerism and technology have made it possible for the customer to be heard. They can share interests, as well as positive and negative reviews for others to see. Companies follow and act upon those interests and reviews. They analyze all the information and