Interactive communication: Consumer power and initiative

Abstract

In this special issue of the Journal of Marketing Communications on technology and communication, new and technology-inspired developments in marketing communication will be discussed. These developments pertain to the possibilities of information technology (IT), in particular the Internet and other interactive media, more consumer power initiative and retailer power versus disintermediation. These changes have such important consequences for marketing communication that it is not unreasonable to speak of a 'paradigm shift' in marketing communication. The other papers in this special issue have the same paradigm-shift orientation. One paper argues that marketing communication in the next century will employ many channels and media and, what is even more important, that IT will give more power into the hands of the consumer. Another compares the use of the Internet by British and German businesses for exports to foreign markets. German businesses seem to adopt more structured approaches to the World Wide Web for their international marketing. A further paper discusses interactivity, conversation and the extended information search of human consumers. This paper also saw the development of 'artificial consumers', i.e. browsers and other search engines for information search on the Internet. For all of the papers, the conclusions are that as traditional marketing thinking and practice may become obsolete in the future, new ways of interacting with customers have to be found. These new ways will have considerable consequences for marketing theory.

Keywords:

• Interactive Communication
• Internet
• Disintermediation
• Consumer Power