The Consumer’s Voice

Jason makes some interesting points in his article about ‘new rules for reviewing media’ where he discusses some of the reviews he’s seen on Amazon recently that were not about the product but were about the format it was supplied in (for example, not available on the Kindle and the theatrical release available before directors cut).

What I find interesting about it (and I’d seen the ones about Lord of the Rings) is that people use reviews on services like Amazon to provide feedback to content distributors (I almost said producers but that’s pushing it).  Doesn’t this suggest these companies need to do several things better:

1. Talk to their prospective audience before release
2. Have someone actively looking for and compiling these responses to react to and learn from
3. Provide a better way for people to provide feedback to them rather than drag down the review rating by posting about the format

We’re into the social media age now where the conversation between companies and consumers is no longer one-way and dictatorial, the companies that want to make it to the top and stay there are going to have to response to consumer’s wishes faster and more directly.