What Consumers Want

Author and consultant Joseph Pine delivers an excellent TED talk on what consumers want. His conclusion: authenticity. Joseph’s presentation takes us through the progression of economic value in business and why in today’s experience economy the number one driver for consumer action is authenticity.

His 14-minute talk helps articulate the driving forces behind this conclusion. Pine makes the point that the quickest way a business can destroy authenticity is to advertise its product or brand as something it is not. He also adds that in today’s social media fueled communications environment, companies that are inauthentic can be “outed” quickly by a huge portion of the buying public.

Companies need to understand the implications that this new buying criteria will have on the marketing environment. In the “old days” companies could, to some extent, manufacture certain impressions of a brand because they controlled the messages and the channels of communication. Today, that is no longer the case, and consumers everywhere have tremendous power to affirm or deny whether a brand is authentic or not.