The 360°Consumer
I recently attended a very interesting talk hosted by the AIM Policy Center. The title of the forum was The 360° Consumer, and it is the 72nd installment of the Globalization Lecture Series.
The talk had four parts-- the main lecture by Junie Del Mundo of EON, reactions to the lecture by Prof. Jose Faustino of AIM and Ricky Alegre of the Philippine Marketing Association, an open forum and the synthesis of the lecture from Prof. Federico Macaranas of the AIM Policy Center (He's also our professor in Macroeconomics).
So, who is the 360°Consumer? The focus of Junie Del Mundo's lecture is the Millennial Generation (the youth born between 1980-1995 ) who consumes media via the the traditional and the new channels with regularity. He went to described the buying capacity of the youth (Php 37 Billion!), how we consume media (preferring the internet over TV). describing our attitudes (skepicism, techno-savvy, high expectations to name a few) and how to reach out to us.
One very interesting point he raised was that the new wave of consumers value trust and "the person like me." That is probably why blogs, social networks and the whole Web 2.0 smorgasbord has been successful-- the consumer has more or less evolved to use familarity as a filter for the huge amount of media clutter. Junie was quick to trumpet the success of blogging as an emerging media for viable applications. (Music to my ears!). The lesson here probably for bloggers such as myself is to come across as someone people can relate to via the blog postings and tone of writing.
The reactions of Ricky Alegre and Prof. Jose Faustino were insightful as well, although Prof. Faustino's part was very much like a class discussion. (I even raised my hand and answer a question that he fielded to the audience). I was very excited about the topic that I shared my blogging experience and validated Junie's points during the open forum portion of the program.
On the final and closing part, Prof. Macaranas wrapped everything up and had avery good synthesis and even raised the issue of possible government regulation (or intervention?) to the betterment of society amidst rapid techology change; a question brewed in my mind: What policies should make sense then?
All in all, the talk was very relevant and full of insights. It's a talk an MBA student should definitely attend.
The talk had four parts-- the main lecture by Junie Del Mundo of EON, reactions to the lecture by Prof. Jose Faustino of AIM and Ricky Alegre of the Philippine Marketing Association, an open forum and the synthesis of the lecture from Prof. Federico Macaranas of the AIM Policy Center (He's also our professor in Macroeconomics).
So, who is the 360°Consumer? The focus of Junie Del Mundo's lecture is the Millennial Generation (the youth born between 1980-1995 ) who consumes media via the the traditional and the new channels with regularity. He went to described the buying capacity of the youth (Php 37 Billion!), how we consume media (preferring the internet over TV). describing our attitudes (skepicism, techno-savvy, high expectations to name a few) and how to reach out to us.
The 360°Consumer: Junie Del Mundo gives his lecture.
One very interesting point he raised was that the new wave of consumers value trust and "the person like me." That is probably why blogs, social networks and the whole Web 2.0 smorgasbord has been successful-- the consumer has more or less evolved to use familarity as a filter for the huge amount of media clutter. Junie was quick to trumpet the success of blogging as an emerging media for viable applications. (Music to my ears!). The lesson here probably for bloggers such as myself is to come across as someone people can relate to via the blog postings and tone of writing.The reactions of Ricky Alegre and Prof. Jose Faustino were insightful as well, although Prof. Faustino's part was very much like a class discussion. (I even raised my hand and answer a question that he fielded to the audience). I was very excited about the topic that I shared my blogging experience and validated Junie's points during the open forum portion of the program.
On the final and closing part, Prof. Macaranas wrapped everything up and had avery good synthesis and even raised the issue of possible government regulation (or intervention?) to the betterment of society amidst rapid techology change; a question brewed in my mind: What policies should make sense then?
All in all, the talk was very relevant and full of insights. It's a talk an MBA student should definitely attend.
Ceremonies after the talk (L-R): Prof. Jose Faustino, Junie Del Mundo, Ricky Alegre, Prof, Federico Macaranas and the representative from Konrad Adenauer Foundation 
Comments
---> Hi! I forgot to introduce myself in yesterday's talk re the 360 degree consumer. I'm Yaan Sarmiento from EON. I was the one who got your blog information (thanks, by the way!)
Last time I heard, our legislators have yet to draft / pass bills (or at least, enough bills) concerning internet regulations, which ultimately makes information in the net harder to regulate and internet offenses harder to prosecute(remember the "I love you" virus?). Now that we are seeing the internet as a major player in communication, it is true that we need the government to step up and create laws that can help create a safer and trustworthy environment in the cyber world.
Lately we have had a growing number of clients interested in conducting "blogger parties" to get bloggers interested in writing about their products and services. Blogging, we think, is becoming popular because it is a step above simply advertising or writing a press release; its basis and objective is really to build trust and opinion leadership, and as stated in the talk, that is what the skeptic generation is looking for.
We would be glad to keep in touch with you for future projects and even for a simple exchange of ideas. It was nice meeting you! :)