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S. Ramachander

Given a demanding consumer and the many options, where is interactive marketing headed?

INTERACTIVE marketing is the new buzzword, but only in some sense a new reality. The oldest and most familiar of service markets have always relied on one-on-one, face-to-face meetings. Think of an example where the customer and service provider meet, talk, create a mutually satisfying and yet entirely episodic relationship, where the service is entirely personalised and tailored to suit the individual and a flow of chatter giving instant feedback is normal. The result is matched exactly to the person and with reasonable effort, satisfaction as well as a return visit after a few weeks is guaranteed.

Where do you think this happens? No need to blush, this is no trick question - it happens at your neighbourhood hairdresser's and beauty parlours! If you think about this for a few seconds, it will be obvious that in many categories of consumption we simply do not have the time or the patience to participate completely and get instant gratification. The way the consumerist-capitalist society is structured simply will not let us return to the era of first-hand experience. We must take our place in the queue willy-nilly, and accept what the mass marketers provide, giving up our individual needs and idiosyncratic preferences. Or so it seems, in many product/service categories. But where do we see this heading?

Technology as a mediator tries to provide a halfway house in some respects - but clearly only in some. One can see five variations on this theme through examples:

First, there is the case of suppliers and consumers meeting on that virtual-world stage, the Internet. The process of search, conversation, visual sampling, auction, choice, and purchase are all completed on the Web site. The real world intrudes only when the physical product has to be delivered, which turns out to be a not very trivial task, as Amazon found out. Physical delivery capability or the `last mile phenomenon' continues to be a major limiting factor; otherwise the shopping malls and department stores should have been empty, and cybercafes would be overflowing with net shoppers.

Second, there is the Web-based trading in derived products (such as money itself, besides cheques, stocks and their derivatives). Here the object of consumption is in itself in some sense virtual and not `real'. Therefore, the two parties exchange all needed information, bargain, set a price and put through the deal as well as the payment. A combination of online trading and payment when it works well is a complete marketing process which in many ways is a far superior alternative for the retail investor.

Thirdly, there is a customer experience that doesn't necessarily involve a visible purchase or sale but features a clear contact established - as in Net banking or phone banking for the retail customer. Unfortunately, the reality here is a far cry from the glowingly presented potential of anytime-anywhere customer service. As you struggle through multiple levels of `Press Enter' and `Press 1' type instructions, one often comes across the Web page that refuses to open or a wrong or broken telephone connection. Far from being a facilitator, technology can create `Web/phone phobia', an analogue to road rage, in the irate customer.

Fourth, there is the customer interface for a specific purpose; for example, obtaining information alone. This presents few real obstacles and makes the experience far more convenient, secure and sometimes free of hassles or embarrassments. One can refer here in particular to the fast-growing market in various kinds of advisory services and virtual exchanges such as Tamilmatrimony.com, whereby far greater information can be passed on to a potentially huge audience - yet keeping control of security and confidentiality.

Fifthly, there is the example of the growing belief that value creation is a collaborative effort and there is no single person who discovers, or for that matter, designs the value. The often-cited example is that of a beta-version of Windows system in which thousands of users contributed to product specification, design and testing in actual usage conditions. This, of course, is a special albeit very important case that sets the standard for many new industries that will operate in the virtual market space in the years to come.

Having said that, there are five cases of technology mediation, the picture or the scope of interactive marketing is still far from complete. In my view, the demanding consumers of today are not merely more exacting in terms of quality standards in tangible product-performance; they also seek machine-like precision and take for granted a level of flawless, no-hassles delivery even where the interaction takes place offline.

Markets are no longer just transactional spaces or meeting places where buyers and sellers try to outwit each other and appropriate value from one another. From customer satisfaction we seem to have moved on to customer involvement, although it is not clear if this is just a passing fad or a major breakthrough in the way we do business. For example, an emerging trend in the more affluent economies has been labelled for some time now as the post-modern consumer. She is the consumer who can no longer be taken for granted, easily manipulated or managed and who, due the very success of marketing-led prosperity, has become more selective, sceptical and critical in accepting the persuasive messages. In other words, society having moved from an agrarian to an industrial to post-industrial or information/knowledge stage over the last three centuries, there is a corresponding transition if not transformation in the relationship of the buyer and user of goods and services to the providers thereof.

In developing economies, the mobile economy has arrived at breakneck speed, within a decade, which accelerates this process of consumer satiety or being in a constantly `over-fed' state as regards messages and blandishments of all sorts. Indigestion is but a natural state when one is forcefully over-fed and this applies to the general arena of consumption as it does to food. The first response of the consumer is one of resistance, arising from a natural reluctance to be bombarded. In consumption of media and entertainment, this shows itself in the familiar phenomenon of zapping channels, which means no programme or channel can ensure loyalty for long. TV channels respond with newer variations on the familiar themes and soon all programming begins to be nearly identical and fitted to a formulaic understanding of what goes down well now.

Moving on to other sources of infotainment, the consumer begins surfing the Net aimlessly. She has a choice of search engines that flood her screen with an enormous variety of options in mind-boggling numbers in a second. Then she literally takes to the street and runs into a cacophony of sounds and an overdose of visual stimuli, from ever larger and ever more intrusive neon and plastic hoardings which hide the sky from view. Her obvious stop is either at an eating house or a shopping mall, the answer to the modern man's primordial herd instinct and wanderlust. Here again the stimuli and the choices are far greater than the ability to absorb them either through the senses or the wallet - and it is not a wonder that boredom results all too soon. Meeting the expectations of a technology-savvy community of buyers who have been spoilt by the promise of zero defects and anytime availability even when offline, is going to be the true challenge in the years ahead.

(The writer is Director, Institute for Financial Management and Research, Chennai.)

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