Does the 2.0 revolution warrant renaming business functions?

Does the business world need Marketing 2.0, CRM 2.0, and even IMC 2.0—or just ‘Customers 2.0’?

Recent changes in internet functionality and consumer online behaviour, originally described as a far-reaching change in internet communications and colloquially titled “web 2.0” by Tim O’Reilly, involve (in part) a shift from an internet serving as a largely broadcast-structured one-directional medium to an internet where users contribute and collaborate extensively. The most apparent, current hallmarks of this shift include the exploding popularity of online networking, blogs, social communities and a general increase in the level of interactivity available online. Many successful commercial websites have embraced the trend by encouraging customers to contribute content in blogs, reviews, forums and other online facilities. Video games have evolved to include team collaboration and real-time communication among any number of remotely-located players.

Web 2.0 pundits suggest that this shift in online behaviour indicates a crucial new direction in consumer behaviour that entails a pervasive and growing expectation on the part of consumers that they should be able to engage with and contribute to whatever communities or entities they make contact with online.

That this appears to be borne out by the very nature of many online success stories—businesses such as Flickr, Facebook and Amazon—has led some in the business community to consider 2.0 trends as a pivotal shift that calls for a redesign or redefinition of business functions such as customer relationship management (CRM), public relations (PR) and marketing.

The lessons that are extracted from these changes, however, reflect in many respects established theory and practice in each field. In fact, lessons for business that are being touted as changes necessitated by the advent of web 2.0 echo some of the key lessons highlighted in the field of CRM for many, many years. The past two decades’ literature on the design, implementation and conduct of CRM overlaps extensively with ‘2.0’ ideas, and these overlapping indications appear to revolve somewhat upon consumer orientation.

Web 2.0 is described by some as a revolution that necessitates a significant redesign of communication with commercially important audiences. This has led some writers to suggest that new fields of thought and practice, with new titles such as ‘Marketing 2.0’, ‘CRM 2.0’ and ‘PR 2.0’, should be adopted to denote the differences to traditional practice.

Is a shift in the field of IMC toward a new era of ‘IMC 2.0’ called for, or would this essentially be giving a new name to pre-existing best theory and best practice in marketing communications?

In my next several posts I will review CRM, CRM 2.0, Marketing 2.0 and the current state of IMC—let’s see if this leads us toward IMC 2.0…

This post is part of a developing series:

1. Web 2.0 Marketing: Consumers’ online behaviours boost brand engagement
2. Does the 2.0 revolution warrant renaming business functions? (you are here)
3. Definitions and critical success factors for CRM
4. Is CRM 2.0 something new?
   
5. What is Marketing 2.0?