Buy Our Lemonade… Wait, Someone Set up a Stand! New Media has created a space for the business to flourish or fail depending on their use of online forums and social networking. Flourishing means that you’ve got people on this new technology. And failing means a failure in savvyness. You can’t encourage people to do transactions online and trust its efficiency without some major work put into it. “These firms are encouraging people to contact them but not equipping their [call centre] staff to be of help,” said Galat (Muncaster).

For a business, its all about profit and progress. What happens to that model when it shifts to the internet? Shwooom… out the window. Without in-person interaction, how can a business know who its customer is? They have to rely on other methods, such as monitoring the number of downloads or comments posted, but the ease of this feedback makes it less meaningful?

A dynamic source of information and interaction, the website might often offer more than they bargained for. Murphy said “Some of the forums pose questions regarding certain products, like flat-screen TVs and cameras, while others discuss what type of beer is favored among CityCenter members.” What happens when the space is no longer about the product? Have these retailers stopped being effective? or have they reached a new (and better?) way of reaching the consumer?

Would I trust a site that allowed its customers to talk about beer brands when it sells radios? This kind of freedom is what the people want. And many progressive sites like CityCenter cater to that. The power of the consumer has been amplified and enhanced with the new technology and they use it to talk to each other about products they like and products they don’t like. At this point of the newness of it all, it’s about who’s in on the ground floor, who is setting up the best of Customer Feedback breeding grounds. Communities are setting up shops around brands, these days. The Cult of Nike. AA for Coca-Cola fans. CityCenter is raising the bar. The landscape of consumerism is changing, becoming digital. All of the trust we put in paper from money, to receipts, birth certificates, bank statements… it’s gone. It’s replacement? Online snifflers and thick-rimmed glasses wearing computer monkeys behind brand names that think their interface is obvious when the customer is clueless.

Questions:
(1) How does online retailing entail products or concepts that have little to do with product quality and efficiency?

(2) What does the “brand community” have that geographical communities don’t?

(3) How can trust of brands be misused in online commerce?