Just in case you thought that the ideas behind the shifting control of marketing were intangible, conceptual or abstract, please consider the Weighty Marketing Matters ‘06 post from the Church of the Customer blog.

Between November 20 and December 22 Ben McConnell is collecting and weighing the ‘unwanted, unsolicited catalogs our household receives during the holiday season.’ Ben clarifies in the comments that it’s not catalogues he’s against, it’s the crap that he doesn’t want that he hates.

And his blog provides him a venue to communicate and illustrate his point, which he does very well. He takes the purveyors of the catalogues to task for their crap practice. Last year he collected 14 pounds of unwanted catalogues.

That’s 14 pounds of wasted paper, ink and glue, not to mention the additional cost of the labour to produce the catalogues and the cost to the world around us to no longer have the trees killed to make the catalogues. For something unwanted, something that works against its purpose by actually associating a negative emotion with the retailers.

People pay attention to these things. In the past they paid attention to them in isolation, or in small, personal groups. Now on the web the whole world can see them, not just today but into the future. Every person has as much shot of contributing to the perception of a company as any other, including those working for the company.

So what’s a company to do? Get active. Engage with its customers. ‘Fess up and speak in a human voice. Solicit input, provide feedback and treat the world humanely. Hiding won’t change anything.

Want to know more about how your organization can work with the shifting control of marketing? Get in touch and start the conversation.