• Use of Media Channels
  Nicholas Scibetta
• Media Preferences
  Gur Tsabar
• Consumers in Emerging Markets
  Wallace Baldo
• Personal Experience in Decision Making
  Paul Rand
• The Way Professionals Communicate
  Susan Brophy

Media Preferences Are More Personalized Than Ever

Traditionally when consumers had a complaint about a product, they mailed a letter to a company’s customer service department. If they had a problem with legislation, they wrote to their congressman. In either case, they often received no response and their issues went unaddressed.

Not anymore. The personal empowerment bomb has been dropped.

The new reality is that nearly every individual has access to inexpensive or even free tools to publish his or her own thoughts. And they’re doing it. Consumers now can share their complaints and problems not just with a company, but with anyone who is plugged into the Web. What’s more, the people formerly known as the audience now have more control over their own consumption of media and their own time. And rather than waiting for a company or a congressman to send them information, they are now better empowered to find it on their own.

Nothing tells this story better than the statistics that highlight the use of search engines. Some 60 percent of consumers are using search engines to customize and request the information they receive from Internet sources. Simply put, there is nothing that gives you what you want and when you want it like search does.

The challenge for communicators is to make their messages something that consumers want to receive—to make them personal. Consumers are saying that if something isn’t adding value to their lives, they’re not going to listen. Communicators have to earn people’s attention and their trust.