POWER TO THE INDIVIDUALS AND CONSUMERS

By Jack Yu

There was a time when the market functioned such that consumers had to accept whatever goods and services vendors supplied to the market. Even though a capitalist economy is an open market dictated by supply and demand, vendors generally adhered to the needs of groups of consumers. Granted, some vendors positioned themselves in the high-end market, while others were content catering to the mass market. Still, vendors made sure they catered to groups to achieve economies of scale. Individual attention and personalised service were possible only at great expense or at least a premium. Individuals and the man on the street, with their limited budget and voices, could hardly make themselves heard or attract attention.

Growing affluence, a growing desire for individual attention and the advancement of technology have conspired to transfer the power to the individual consumers.

Today, the market could not be more different. Growing affluence, a growing desire for individual attention and the advancement of technology have conspired to transfer the power to the individual consumers. This evolution really started decades ago but recent years have seen a great acceleration of this trend. Let us examine some examples of what has been observed.

Personalised Service

In days past, consumers who needed to travel had two broad choices of public transport: Mass-market transport for group travel, such as bus and train, or personalised transport like the taxi. Taking group transport was cheap but one had to follow a fixed route and make transfers to arrive at one’s eventual destination. Taxis that brought passengers to their destinations directly and comfortably were the only alternative option but came at a premium. Today, anyone with a mobile phone and Internet connection can easily book his personalised transport at a fraction of the cost of hailing a cab. Overnight, technological disruption resulted in the emergence of private hire vehicle operators like Grab and Uber and opened up the transport market. Both business-savvy operators and convenience-hunting passengers are benefiting in this new, disrupted economy.

Overnight, technological disruption resulted in the emergence of private hire vehicle operators like Grab and Uber and opened up the transport market.

38,000 feet above the ground, passengers flying with commercial airlines once had to settle for common inflight entertainment (IFE). Beamed from overhead projectors, movies were screened on large screens installed at the front of the cabins. Over time, this progressed to movies shown on individual screens that protruded from the ceilings above the front passengers’ seats. Either way, the movies shown were common movies for all to enjoy, or to be annoyed by. Gradually, airlines started to install individualised IFE systems at the back of passengers’ seats. Known as Audio-Video On-Demand (AVOD), these systems allowed passengers to choose movies according to their personal taste, from remote controls fitted into their armrests. Today, AVOD is extremely commonplace and is a standard offering even among budget airlines. In contrast with the disruption seen in the land-based transport industry, the change from a common IFE system to AVOD in the aviation market was not so much driven by technology as by the intense fight for consumers’ dollars in the fiercely-competitive airline industry.

User-Contributed Content

News broadcast used to happen in one direction. The press, usually government-run, controlled the dissemination of information and newspaper stories were almost exclusively written by in-house journalists. Even commentaries were filed by in-house staff. Readers’ contributions were restricted to letters sent in response to major issues or to compliment good service received at stores. Fast forward several decades and a good portion of the news one receives today is generated by individuals who post on social media networks. Today, it is common for people to learn about traffic incidents or new government policies even before such breaking news is released by the mainstream media. This development is a double-edged sword, for putting the dissemination of information in the hands of the common citizens, especially in unregulated, viral-based social media networks, may give rise to the intentional spread of undesirable content.

Away from daily news and in the education space, Internet users of today are able to contribute valuable knowledge to online databases like Wikipedia. While user-contributed content needs to be verified for accuracy, such websites contain a treasure trove of information and are nonetheless an easily-accessible resource of ready information. The proliferation of the data-driven Internet has put power – and the associated responsibilities – in the hands of the Internet users.

The proliferation of the data-driven Internet has put power – and the associated responsibilities – in the hands of the Internet users.

Control Over Information and Rights

Along with the commonalisation of personalised service and spread of user-contributed content comes another highly-noticeable phenomemon. The increasing use of personal image-capturing devices has given rise to the transfer of control over information and rights from people in positions of power to the individuals. This has come to an stage where even the authorities are relying on citizen’s contributions for law enforcement. In a departure from past practice, police are no longer relying solely on their own surveillance-based data to obtain crucial information in their investigations. Today, many useful leads come from citizen’s sharing, be they video or photographs taken from mobile phones or footages taken from in-car webcams.

At a simpler level, even photographs taken by supermarket shoppers are useful in resolving disputes. As an illustration, a shopper is enticed into picking a product sold at a promotional price advertised on a wobbler, only to find himself charged the usual price upon checkout. Thanks to a photograph taken at the shelf, the shopper is able to prove to the cashier or customer service officer that the stated promotional price is genuine. In this case, however, in the absence of actually making a trip to the shelf for verification, the staff will have to trust that the supplied photograph is not doctored.

Growing affluence, changing customer expectations, a growing understanding of consumers’ rights and technological advancement have come together to put power into the hands of consumers and individuals. With this transfer of power comes the all-too-important need to uphold integrity and exercise trust and responsibility.

This article was contributed to The Corporate Insider. Visit https://www.facebook.com/CorporateInsider/ to read more research articles.