Marketing is Changing.  Let us count the ways:

One could make the assertion that marketing has changed more in the last 5 years than it has in previous 25.  Power has shifted. The consumer has a bigger voice and traditional ‘tell and sell’ marketing has taken it in the shorts.

Let us count the ways:

[Republished from my original post at 12most.com]

10. Retention is becoming the new acquisition – it costs 10 times the amount of money to acquire a new customer than it does to keep  a current one

9. We heard it through the grapevine – 90% of customers identify word of mouth as the best, most reliable and trustworthy source about ideas and information on products or services.

8. Zip it or Zap it? – 86% of consumers skip TV ads

7. There is always an alternative – over 70% of consumers will abandon a brand because of a bad customer experience

6. Consumers don’t know what they like, they like what they know or their friends know – 67% of all consumer decisions are primarily influenced by word of mouth

5. Pardon the Interruption – in the 1970’s the average consumer was exposed to 500 to 2,000 messages, today it ranges between 3,000 and 5,000 per day.

4. Customer love is a battlefield – 94% of business leaders say customer experience is the new battleground

3. [Word of Mouse] Social media has become a game changer – today’s satisfied customer tells 3 friends, a pissed off customer tells 3,000

2. Double the Pleasure – customers gained through word of mouth have 2x the lifetime value than regular customers

1. Forget about your cross-town rival – your competition is now only 1 click away