Developing offers in tune with consumer movements

In this article we are talking about consumer movements. A frame is offered for discussions towards the needs of an organization to plan and act driven by demand. With the advance of digital media and new forms of communications, we face e new era where consumers are even stronger. Communication platforms, group discussions, complaining sites and others brought even more empowerment to the consumers.

The possibility of protesting and really damaging brands and images got stronger, and almost for free. Consumers just need to use the existing platforms, and if it gains a viral expansion, reaches audiences all over the world.

In the other side, the concern over environment, people, planet, local communities, small companies, overconsumption and several other topics increased within consumers and organizations (companies). Several practices of what is called “corporate social responsibility (CSR)” gained attention in the last decade and companies really involved in these topics are anticipating their movements, discussing these topics from the beginning of any project.

The idea here in this article is to share several questions that may help a company in thinking and planning a new offer to the market, already linked to these emerging needs.

I will divide the questions in 4 major blocks.

The first will address questions related to environmental and green movements.

The second block will address consumerist movements, well know for criticizing the sales and marketing approach of companies, and linked to responsible consumption.

The third block is quite linked to the second, is the societal concept of marketing, which means more inclusion, more linkages of social causes and others.

The fourth block considers questions related to ethics, rights and regulatory framework, mostly coming from Governments, but pressured by NGO’s and other types of organizations.