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Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketing is the promotion of a product from one consumer to another through peer interactions. Word of mouth is the traditional paradigm, but with the internet and social media, C2C marketing has expanded to include consumer-created content. This new paradigm can be dangerous for businesses as negative feedback can go viral and disproportionately influence future consumers.
Consumer to consumer (C2C) marketing is the direct promotion of a product from one consumer to another consumer through peer interactions. It is the by-product evolution of traditional business-to-consumer marketing, in which the message that defines a product transforms from a company-controlled campaign to a consumer-driven phenomenon. The consumer in consumer-to-consumer marketing becomes, in effect, a salesperson for the company, whose positive or negative experiences with a product can often carry more weight with other consumers than the endorsement of an industry expert.
Word of mouth is the traditional paradigm for consumer-to-consumer marketing. It includes face-to-face interactions between a current customer and a potential customer. The current customer uses their experiences with the product to convince a friend, family member, coworker, or even a stranger of the product’s merits. Word of mouth can take the form of personal recommendations, reviews, endorsements, referrals, or any other consumer-oriented method of creating product buzz. Buzz is the holy grail of marketing, where the excitement surrounding a product ripples through the audience on a wave of consumer opinion, rather than as the direct result of a marketing campaign produced by the company.
With the development of the Internet and the widespread adoption of social networking, consumer-to-consumer marketing has taken on new dimensions. Through many different social networking sites, consumers are now connected to a worldwide consumer forum that defies traditional geographic boundaries and can respond instantly. Many retail sites have implemented consumer review options for purchased products that make it easy for consumers to voice an opinion about a product that is available to any other consumer who may wish to purchase it. Consumer-to-consumer marketing has expanded to include Internet-based and consumer-created content through websites, forums, reviews, blogs, videos, and microblogging feeds.
The relatively new landscape of the Internet and social media for consumer-to-consumer marketing has become somewhat dangerous for businesses. Traditional word of mouth was always beyond the company’s control, but was limited by geographic realities. With the development of the social network, the geographical reach of a consumer is unlimited and his positive or negative opinion can go viral at any moment. This new paradigm rewards products with positive feedback, but devastates products with negative feedback that cannot be easily deleted from the internet. The impact of social networks on consumer-to-consumer marketing has forced companies to protect themselves from the individual consumer, whose aberrant or erroneous experience could end up at the top of search engine results for a product, disproportionately influencing consumers’ decision-making. future consumers.
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