session 10

In Brand Digital, Allen Adamson explores how successful brands deal with the changes that have been brought by the digital media. In many ways, the empowerment of consumers by digital media (e.g., blogs, tweets, facebook) has meant companies have to be aware that consumers with digital literacy are no longer voiceless. They can express their opinion about products and services and their opinion can spread in a manner we have never seen before. As Adamson says, when a consumer whispers a rumor, “it has the potential to turn into a verbal tsunami.” As David Kirkpatrick says in the Foreword to the book, there is one good explanation for why the relationship between consumers and businesses has changed. That explanation is about technology. According to this view, as digital media become cheaper and more powerful, consumers gain more communication power. Statements such as, “Consumers can track and monitor corporate behavior with the same speed and fluidity that corporations can track consumer behavior,” reflects a fundamental shift in “market power” made possible by digital media.  

Brand Digital is the kind of book I had never read before. It is written by someone who wants to help marketers understand how they can manage their brands in the digital age using digital media.  Although I am used to reading academic books, this one talks about issues that I have experienced directly. I have seen how a company like amazon.com uses the digital media to communicate with me (and how reviews by consumers are used by the company). I have seen individual use blogs, MySpace and even Facebook wall posts to communicate thoughts and feelings about a brand. Adamson talks about how the ability in “digitally listening” and “digitally watching” consumers has significantly improved the quality of insights the brand organizations employ in coming up with branding and marketing strategies.  One thing I did not expect in this book was a useful list of terms as “a digital language.”     



Book reviews posted by consumers are used by many parties involved.