Participating in the 8th International Congress Marketing Trends in Paris last week I had the opportunity to follow many interesting presentations during the Strategic Marketing Forum that was held the first day of the Congress. (See my post of 15 Jan 2009). During the presentations and also at the coffee and lunch breaks I spoke with several of the executives who participated in the proceedings asking them about the extend of using Social Media as marketing tools, namely in "listening to customer voice", allowing product customization or engaging the customer as innovation agent. The answers were in general on the positive side. This proves once more that the Web 2.0 issue is a hot item for many marketing executives who despite their "back to basics" attitude realize how important it is to get the customer as much as possible involved in their business. A really optimistic attitude and for me the confirmation that more research in this area is needed.
