Brands are now more than ever at the hands of the consumer in that they are now looking to online communities for innovation as well as for gaining consumer insight.

“Even if a brand doesn’t want to engage with consumers on that level, it will be forced to,” says David Cousino, conusmer marketing insights global category director at Unilever.

If you seriously consider what’s happening online, not just on the social networks, the consumer has a voice as never before and brands need to sit up and listen.  Indeed there are two distinct ways of doing so.  One, you could wait for something to go wrong and then use the community to fix it. Or two, why not leverage the creative ability in the community that’s already out there through forms of digitally enalbled public relations?  More than ever beofre brands need to incorporate consumers in the marketing planning.

However, there is much to be said about handpicking your audience, regarding a velvet rope approach being adopted by an increasing number of brands online.  This has been applied most successfully by the giant that is Unilever.  Forget about simply listening to its customers’ conversations on social networks, they’ve gone that nifty step forward creating bespoke invite-only communities around its brand to tap into customers’ excitement for product development.

This supports what was touched upon on the latest blog referring to the luxury brands adoption of ecommerce.  The answer for these brands is a form of rigorous digital PR, restricting access to their sites to pre-vetted customers.  To understand this, Fabergé will go as far as to phone prospective customers to ascertain their suitability for the site – similar to having to ring the bell to enter a physical store – which enables them to be taken personally through the site.  Not so straightforward, but neverthless they too cannot escape the lure of success through online adoptions.