Today’s society is a consumption society. We are bombarded with messages of things that we ought to buy to make our lives happier and better. Haven’t we all felt that dazzling intoxication holding that new thing which you have been aching for. It might be that perfect computer that just works or that special dress that just fits. It’s that sense of happiness you feel at the time you buy the article or when you first unbox what you have just bought.

In extreme cases you collect so many things throughout the years that you feel locked in. Who hasn’t a cabin full of stuff that might be useful sometime in the distant future.

In parallel to this consumption society where you are expected to receive what is being produced. As well as squander your money and the world’s resources. In the middle of this something else is emerging. Maybe you could call it a customer society.

A customer relation is reflected by a more equal relation between the buyer and the seller. Compared to 20 years ago today’s customer is more careful in what product to buy. Maybe a search on the internet is done or you check a couple of reviews and other opinions before you buy it.

Above all, social networks will play an ever more important role in contexts like these since you’re always connected to the people you care about and who might know a bit better than you in certain areas. There are a couple of good examples of companies that has mismanaged customers or their stakeholders also get to taste the wrath of the customers. Examples range from the Swedish context (Boxer) to the international context (Nestle). To avoid misshaps like these it gets increasingly important for companies to be in dialogue with the customers and listen to what is important.

If the product is in focus in the consumption society, it is the social interaction that is in focus in the customer society, even though a product is being sold in this case as well. I think that this customer related model that is emerging will advance the development towards a society where … and conversation is more in focus. I hope, as a result, that the importance of constantly consuming will therefore lessen.

As Micco Grönholm, brand strategist, wrote a while ago: “We will, I believe, prefer the best persons”