“The customer is King.” We’ve all heard that before, and have used it in our favour. Today, however, this slogan enters a whole new realm: The customer is the ultimate king when it comes to delivering and to giving them what they want. Due in large part to the rise of, and importance of, social media, the customer’s voice is now louder and more powerful than ever before. As the creative director of a luxury goods brand, I would, in times past, simply be influenced by customer input, rather than feeling I had to stay on top of it 24/7; now, the customer is knocking me out of the driver’s seat, so to speak, and, as a result of voicing his or her preferences, can make or break a new brand, service, or product in record time.

The most obvious example is on Facebook, where users have the opportunity to talk about a certain brand, product or place by joining fan pages or groups. Facebook users have a very visible venue to broadcast a “LIKE” for the brand so that their friends can see which brands they approve of or do not approve of. They spread the word of the trendiest place to be, or the coolest thing to own. In terms of location-based promotions, the latest incarnation is Foursquare.com where users “check in” as they eat and shop their way through the world, and are rewarded with various “badges” for these activities, developing more power and credibility within their circle of friends/followers, and hence building their power to influence others.

Back to fashion. One of the latest sites is Styledon.com that just launched, where users can post “inspiration” photos of the visual elements they find intriguing. Whether it’s a certain pair of shoes or a lamp spotted in the window of a boutique, this is yet another way for the customer to spread the word, displacing what would have been done in the recent past by the brand’s marketing director. And what about the new fashionista bloggers! They are like the “bouncer at the door of a night club” deciding whether or not you’re cool enough to enter. Bloggers—whoever they are—have this newfound ridiculous power to make or break a brand, personality, or service. In the same vein are those being followed on Twitter by the faithful masses, dying to see where you go to eat, where you shop, or what you are doing on a Saturday night.

In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell writes about how a brand can become the hottest thing by word of mouth:  supposedly, if you hear of a brand or product three times, it’s practically sold! Moreover, if you see it on Facebook, then Twitter, and then a popular blogger’s page, well, you will probably end up buying it, if statistics serve. Seems easy, right? According to Josh Mendelsohn a vice president at Chadwick Martin Bailey, if a business doesn’t have a presence on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, they risk being seen as “out of touch” while missing out on valuable word-of-mouth and even sales. “Companies not actively engaging are missing a huge opportunity and are saying something to consumers – intentionally or unintentionally – about how willing they are to engage on consumers’ terms,” says Mendelsohn.

Word of mouth has always been the best, cheapest and most guaranteed way of getting increased visibility and reputation for a new product. Although over two-thirds (68 percent) of Facebook users say they would be more likely to visit, or make a purchase from, a retailer if it had been recommended by a Facebook friend, we are inundated today with so much information and visual advertisements, that we count on our friend’s recommendations even more. If I wanted to find a table for 10 friends to go have a fun dinner party, I would not go looking on the Internet, but would be more likely to ask my friends which restaurants they would go to, trusting more that friend who had gone to the restaurant and had great things to say about it. That’s where “the customer is King” kicks in: if my friend had a bad experience at a particular restaurant, that would immediately discredit the place for me, no matter how well it was ranked on a list compiled by a so-called authority.

Have you ever heard of a “T-call”? Well it’s a “testimonial call,” and it usually happens on QVC or HSN, when a caller who has recently bought your product calls in to tell the whole world about what he/she thinks about it. Please read carefully the following:  The caller makes no money promoting the brand; neither QVC nor the vendor pays the caller; and the caller doesn’t get anything out of it. In effect it’s free brand promotion. The caller’s testimonial is genuine, unbiased and priceless. On the other hand, if a caller doesn’t like your product, they can genuinely dissuade thousands—or millions—from buying your product.

The world is a smaller place now then when my father started his luxury goods company, Charriol. Just 25 years ago, Hong Kong was truly the other side of the planet, taking two days to get there with multiple stop-overs. Faxing was the newest miracle in communication. Companies could dictate what was the best, creating the demand, leading their customers to the water and making them drink. It was very much the marketing manager too who drove a brand forward. Consumers had no voice, were not as brand savvy, and had nowhere to really get knowledge. Customers may have relied on “word of mouth” to some extent, but they really trusted that the brand was telling them the truth, which most did. If a magazine said that a purple bag was the “it” bag for the season, then it was. If after seeing the endorsement in the magazine, you saw the purple bag in the store, you would buy it.

Indeed, the magazines have stood up and taken notice—and have forged a front with certain sites to garner response, since those sites have themselves garnered a powerful following with millions of viewers. PeopleStyleWatch.com is one that recommends products regularly to their readers. StyleWatch, a breezy spinoff of People that shows readers how to knock off celebrities’ looks, has used readers’ response to products it promotes to persuade marketers to advertise in the magazine. StyleWatch isn’t the first to seize on the growth of online shopping:  Hachette Filipacchi Media’s Elle magazine matched up with shopping site RueLaLa; and Condé Nast’s Vogue struck a deal with the couture e-commerce site Gilt Group that lets its members buy from the pages of the fashion bible.

However, today customers have a voice and know what they want, and the marketing manager has been replaced by this new viral method of marketing. Customers will still read magazines and shop in stores, but they can tell the brand that the purple bag is too expensive or that it doesn’t close well or that the zippers get stuck. With this kind of information the brands are making better products, and the customers are part of the design/creation of a better product as well. The brands get first-class market response, which is vital to creating a fantastic product. My dad doesn’t really like this way of creating, because sometimes the brand’s image can get diluted by the new power of the consumer’s voice, and as another slogan goes, he feels that we can end up with “too many chefs in the kitchen.”

My own thoughts on this new world of consumer power? I would like to empower you, the consumer. And to encourage every consumer to speak up about a product, service or place. It will make that experience much better for the next person and give a voice to newcomers creating a whole new fresh array of things to buy or enjoy. We live in a democratic and capitalist world. Social media is enabling this new and virtual Darwinian trend, and only the best brands, products, and services will survive. Long live, the consumer!