The New Consumer Online

It’s a new world online, where consumers can publish their writing and gain a public presence, even a mass audience. This book links together blogging, writing reviews for Yelp, and creating pinboards for Pinterest, all of which provide ordinary people the opportunity to display their tastes to strangers. Edward McQuarrie expertly analyzes how the operation of taste in consumption has been changed by the Internet and offers a fresh perspective on why websites like Yelp and Pinterest have become so successful.

What was once just the desire of a few has now become a mass movement. The everyday shopper may still be searching out the value items but now they are also questioning the ethics of products and brands. Ethical products are increasing in sales year on year and those brands that have ignored it as a value are paying in reduced sales. Empowered, the new consumer is using the pound in their pocket to make a point not just a purchase. But ethical marketing isn’t just about environmentalism, it’s far bigger than that. This book challenges a lot of conventional thinking and introduces you to a wider range of ethics and the many types of ethical consumers. As a brand manager or producer, it’ll give you useful tools to help you understand your Key Ethical Values. How to market and sell them. It’ll blow away a few myths and probably surprise you with a few new facts and statistics. It looks at the positive and negative sides of big brands. And how to avoid greenwash, ethicalwash and becoming a victim of Brand Terrorism. A must for anyone in the eco-ethical market or who wants to enter it. An essential guide to understanding the new consumer and why they buy, what they buy and what they don’t. The book comes with a support website –www.ecoethicalmarketing.info – to allow comment, feedback, links and brands to publish their own case studies.

Unearths the essence of new consumer behavior, explores the drive for authenticity over commodity and looks at why this is

The New Consumer's Revolution: * Why buzz beats hype * Why cheap is chic * Why brands must be authentic * Why segmentation is dead * Why advertising must reinvent itself * Why New Consumers loathe 'doing the shopping' * Why individuals' Tastespace will triumph in the marketplace New Consumers are revolutionizing the world of business, our culture and social expectations. No longer confined by gender, age, ethnicity or income, they are breaking down barriers, shattering stereotypes and redefining the very meaning of consumerism and the marketplace. From traditional to online retailing, from tracking coolhunters to exploring tastepace, The Soul of the New Consumer unearths the very essence of New Consumer's behavior - their drive for authenticity - and goes far beyond the simple concepts of how we shop or what we buy to answer the most important question of all: why. Every facet of the new economy, from buzz marketing and new retailing technologies to internet shopping, has dramatically altered not only how we buy but what we buy and why. In an era of 'cheap is chic', wealthy shoppers haggle to win even the smallest discounts ; gray consumers buy more rap and techno music than anyone else and are the fastest growing group of internet users ; and the Web and the power of micro-marketing have revolutionized forever the means of wooing new customers. New Consumers are taking over the world and redefining the very meaning of consumerism and the marketplace. As likely to be affluent over-fifties as ambitious under-thirties, New Consumers defy traditional marketing concepts and segmentation by age, gender or income. In pursuit of the authentic experience, New Consumers come together in their defining drive for all things 'real', in everything from food to fashion, foreign holidays to furniture, technology to spirituality. Their attention and interest have shifted from commodity to authenticity. In an affluent world now saturated with affordable products there are three new scarcities - time, attention and trust. This major book shows how these can be won by 'giving the soul control' rather than putting customers on the 'customer is king' pedestal. Over the past decade, Lewis and Bridger have been at the forefront of researching the New Consumers - studying their lifestyles, observing behavior and watching the steady rise in their numbers, influence and economic power. Here, for the first time and with example from Starbucks to Dyson, they report the results of their work, including Amex's use of computer technology to create intimate protraits of individuals - what the author's call 'tastepace'. Regardless of product or service, for companies large and small, The Soul of the New Consumer gathers research from marketing, psychology, social trends and economics to present the first ever profile of the independent, individualistic, involved and well-informed consumers who are challenging the way marketing, selling and business are done.

Where we are now -- What consumers want -- Lessons learned on ebay -- The business case for resolutions -- Bringing consumer advocacy online -- Ethical considerations -- Envisioning a global redress system -- The design: newhandshake.org -- How it could succeed and how it could fail -- Case studies -- What's next -- Conclusion

Presents a broad range of international findings in online consumer protection. Covers the nature of online threats, consumer concerns, and techniques for online privacy protection.

Social media (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Groupon, Twitter) have changed the way consumers and advertisers behave. It is crucial to understand how consumers think, feel and act regarding social media, online advertising, and online shopping. Business practitioners, students and marketers are trying to understand online consumer experiences that help instill brand loyalty. This book is one of the first to present scholarly theory and research to help explain and predict online consumer behavior.

First Published in 2012. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Online Consumer Psychology addresses many of the issues created by the Internet and goes beyond the topic of advertising and the Web to include topics such as customization, site design, word of mouth processes, and the study of consumer decision making while online. The theories and research methods help provide greater insight into the processes underlying consumer behavior in online environments. Broken into six sections, this book: focuses on community and looks at the Internet's ability to bring like-minded individuals from around the world into one forum; examines issues related to advertising, specifically click-through rates and advertising content placed within gaming online and wireless networks; provides readers with reasons why consumers customize products and the benefits of customization; discusses the psychological effects of site design; asks the question of whether the Internet empowers consumers to make better decisions; and discusses research tools that can be used online.