The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World

This article caught my attention with its title, and I was curious to find out what is this Web 2.0 World. It turns out that it is a set of tools that enables sharing of information and building connection between people in virtual worlds. What this means in the marketing world is the new opportunity for business to effectively engage consumers and sell products and services in a non-conventional way.

What is interesting about this article as I read through it is that it really echos to many of the new concepts of marketing we discussed in class. One important theme in the article is the new emerging principle of collaborating with consumers on product development, service enhancement, and promotion; making the end users as participants of the marketing process rather than the recipients. In our class, we talked about the emerging role of customers as co producers, and marketing as a process of doing things in interaction with the customers. Customers are essentially operand resources. The users of Web 2.0 clearly understands this concept and utilize these tools to create virtue space that many consumers are already familiar with, such as blogs, wikis, social networking sites, and online communities to tab into the interesting conversation and insights consumers have on their products or services.


The secret of successful marketing is not guaranteed by the usage the Web 2.0 tool, rather it is the management's understanding of what makes these tools successful and how to effectively use them to receive the benefits. Simply putting up a blog of the CEO talking about the great products or services the company developed misses the point of using the tools, so would the use of heavy advertisements in these online spaces. It is important to understand that these online communities should not be all about the company, but more importantly the consumers who participate. A successful use of the tool would be creating a space where consumers can network among themselves on topics of their own choosing, write their own blog, share experiences and expertise, and express themselves freely. It is the conversations among the consumers, negative or positive, that are resourceful to the company. Thus only when the managers of the company understand this concept and fully explore the tools to involve the consumers in the development and marketing of the products or services, can we say that they find the secret to marketing.