Interesting post from Harvard. I wonder.
Link (is dead): HBS Working Knowledge: What Do YOU Think?: Where is Consumer Generated Marketing Taking Us?.
There is a kind of “always on” communication system shaping up between the most outspoken and committed of the tech-minded users and those that supply them. We might term it “consumer generated marketing.” Is it time to ask ourselves whether these trends are always in our best interests as marketers and customers? Is it possible to be too well connected with one segment of customers? Is there a danger among marketers and more generally the media of paying too much attention to the Internet-savvy early adopters and activists and too little to other early adopters that tend to keep their behaviors and ideas to themselves? Might marketers be too sensitive to Internet prompts, responding too rapidly on the basis of noise as opposed to truly developing trends? What do you think?