Circuit City Confessional:  The Consumer Is In Control

One of the biggest shifts in marketing over the last several years has been the transfer of power from marketers to consumers. This has largely been enabled by the Web. With the current Web tools now available to everyone—blogs, social networks, podcasts—the consumer currently has as the power, ability and means to communicate and disseminate information that was once the exclusive domain of marketers who could buy access, influence and reach through mainstream media.

A classic example is this potentially damaging inside view of marketing practices at Circuit City posted on the Consumerist blog. It was written by a former Circuit City employee, and it details 27 practices that may be of keen interest to anybody buying products or services at that company’s stores.

This is only one person’s voice, and whether the allegations are true, partially true or simply a former employee’s opinion, the fact that it has been accessed by nearly 200,000 people and engendered well over 100 comments, shows the power of current Web tools to magnify a message at no cost to the sender of that message.

Hhhhmmmm. There seems to be a trend here. One of Circuit City’s main competitors, Best Buy, also took the front page at this same blog recently, for its alleged deceptive practices. Caveat emptor.