So the dreaded deadlines are over, the exam is complete, and I’m feeling strangely free (and no I’m not thinking about my rather enormous dissertation to be done – minor detail at this point).

It’s nice to have some free time on my hands, and some lounging around at home time, it has also been different to spend some time on my computer which doesn’t involve frantic checking of word counts every 2 minutes or commiserating on facebook with classmates about work!

So, I thought this week I would peruse the magnificent web for some undiscovered fun, but I found it strangely boring! Being on my computer just seems to give me sore shoulders (and ‘mouse-arm’) these days! And sad to say my internet routine remains fairly predictable, my homepage is BBC news so I run through the headlines there, then I head over to facebook (of course), then I check my email, and Spotify will be already up and running by this time.

I suppose I’m one of those hard to reach audiences, I really don’t seek out new stuff online, I’d rather wait for someone to send me a link or suggest something to me, I’m what ‘word of mouth’ was invented for! But I’m not the only one out there, so savvy PR practitioners and marketers have to come up with some pretty interesting and attention grabbing stunts to create some buzz. I and my other lazy web users won’t come looking for you; you have to come to us.

I’m sure we’ve all seen Blendtec’s ‘will it blend’, which is ridiculous yet vaguely compelling; it’s proved a pretty successful marketing campaign despite its silliness. Some organisations do these kinds of PR stunts really well; I found one that really tickled me. Science and technology website Scenta had commuters in uproar over a new Cloning Scenta which was really just an advertisement for the website but had some gullible people thinking that a human cloning centre was due to open.

These are the new rules of engagement for PROs and marketers, it’s their job to make apathetic people like me sit up and take notice of their organisation in a cluttered business and consumer environment.

Faith Popcorn

Uber-cocooning.

If that sounds a little strange, that’s because it is. But according to Faith Popcorn, renowned trend predictor and marketing consultant, it’s what 2009 is all about. Her BrainReserve predictions for the year ahead are significant in discussing the changing roles of PR and Marketing, especially in the current global economic climate.

Popcorn gives us 4 R’s to define 2009; reclaim, retrench, reset, reinvent.

Popcorn’s key message is about how we will be reframing our relationships with the companies we engage with. Cocooning, the notion that consumers want everything from entertainment to goods available from their homes, has been around for the past three decades. But uber-cocooning, Popcorn states, is born from worldwide economic uncertainty and the desire of consumers to stay in their homes and familiar surroundings, to ‘retrench’.

Popcorn goes as far to say that consumers should no longer just be called consumers, but citizens; citizens who ask questions, who do their own research and can demand exactly what they want. The power relationships in business and the public domain have shifted; there is a new kind of consumerism. Central to this concept, as Popcorn says, is the essential need for organisations to rebuild trust relationships with their citizens, especially governments, Fortune 500s, and of course, banking institutions.

Whether you tend to agree with Popcorn or not, her predictions sound pretty accurate to me. When I think about my behaviour as a consumer it further cements this. I buy most of the things I want online, including entertainment and music, and I don’t really have to leave my house for anything if I didn’t want to! In addition, I don’t trust my bank or its bosses and I feel let down by my government.

PR practitioners and marketers are beginning to realise the potential of online tools in business and communication. Twitter, although not particularly new in the fast-moving online world and already a favourite of many, has appeared daily in the news and media as the ‘next big thing’, and it inevitably won’t be too long before a new site pops up to take its place. Faith Popcorn is critical of practitioners who fail to spot these trends or recognise the advantages of social networking and Web 2.0 in their practice. The best way to build, or indeed, repair a reputation is on the web. Word of mouth is the best PR, we listen to and trust our friends and family’s recommendations, and more importantly, we read their tweets and updates and online posts. If they are saying something good about your organisation they we are more likely to agree with it too.

So while uber-cocooning might be a rather corny title, we would be remiss as students, practitioners, consumers and citizens if we don’t take notice.

Sourced from:  http://www.faithpopcorn.com/