New Communication Technologies And The Co-operation Between Producers And Consumers

New Communication Technologies And The Co-operation Between Producers And Consumers

V. Dimitrova and T. Atanasova

 violeta_dimitrova@ue-varna.bg

The new information and communication technologies (ICT) support the exchange of information and ideas not only between consumers but also between consumers and producers while the consumers are not only a channel for information but also a supplier for ideas and information. Digital technologies offer both a way to establish a dialogue and the convenience of co-operation between consumers and producers during the processes of developing, distribution, exchange and consumption. They create preconditions for the consumers to organize themselves in groups of citizens (Hermes 2009) and to share control over the access and the contents of the message. Structure of society including the producer-consumer relation can not develop freely from the impact of the new ICT. On the basis of the thesis stated above, the aim of this report is to study the way communication technologies like Internet, TV, mobile devices and social networks affect the co-operation between consumers and producers.

In Bulgaria, for example, it is observed that the difference in types of enterprises using Internet, according to the scale of their activity, is decreasing. (fig.2, fig.3)

Internet Personal TV (IPTV) integrates the best between Internet and TV. Two-thirds of IPTV subscribers in the world are European. Personalized TV allows the producers to view statistics of consumers’ behaviour when they are watching advertising, to choose target groups, to set limitation of advertise frequency, to view requests for more information, etc. The consumer chooses what and when to view. This way they can quickly multiply the effect of what has caught their attention. Digital TV implication changes the consumption framework (fig.4).

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  user generated video sharing websites;
  
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  video sharing platform;
  
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  web based video editing.
  

The penetration of mobile TV is currently small for Europe but it is more advanced in Asia. The causes are the limited number of available channels on mobile TV networks, the debate over technological standards and the search for a good business model, etc. Mobile TV may be watched not only on mobile phones, but also on other portable devices.

Social Networks appear around 2002-2003 year to allow users to make personalized profiles and organize their friends’ connections. They are centered on a person and his/her friends. (Examples: LinkedIn (US), Viadeo (Fr), Xing (G).) In 2004-2005 year they turned into advanced socializing tools such as social media sites. They allow multi-dimensional on-line connections between users. (Examples: MySpace (US), Facebook (US), Bebo (UK), etc. Facebook is the striking phenomenon of the 2007- 2008 year¹⁴.)

In the recent years we may observe the following developments:

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  Specialization and creating professional networks;
  
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  Erasure of the borders between professional and private areas.
  

The following developments of the social networks are expected:

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  More interoperability and openness between networks. This service would allow users easily to transfer profile information across social sites.
  
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  Increasing competition will lead to geographic and demographic expansion.
  

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  activity of the users such as time spent, frequency of visits, etc.;
  
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  socio-demographic metrics;
  
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  number of downloads, comments, etc.
  

On the basis of the above mentioned, the possibilities provided for consumers by the new ICT can be summarized:

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  Gaining control over access to information;
  
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  Access to discussions and the possibility to set topics;
  
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  Changing the contents of the message;
  
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  Giving opinions and ideas about products and helping other clients;
  
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  Increased effectiveness in the consumers’ process of choosing;
  
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  Taking part in the specification of products and services, designing and advertising them.
  

New ICT provide new possibilities for producers:

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  Provide user tracing and measuring the effectiveness of the advertisement (click-through);
  
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  The advertisement does not cause the user’s indignation like the aggressive advertisement, they turn into a process of publishing/subscribing focusing on the contents (Bloor 2000:105), transition from “interruption marketing” to “permitted marketing”;
  
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  Companies take advantage of the users’ interactive communities in order to get in touch with their clients (Kotler, Dirak and Maesincee 2003:139) to gather information about their interests, activities and needs and to adapt their offers better;
  
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  Feed-back gives the opportunity for producers to evaluate reality accurately and quickly adapt to changes, which increases their competitive power.
  

The National Statistical Institute (NSI) of Bulgaria surveyed the use of software for managing information about clients (Consumer Relationship Marketing - CRM) for the first time in 2007 (fig.6).

As the ICT are developing, producers are increasingly realizing the necessity of co-operation with clients due to the lowering of entry barriers for new competitors, which increases the intensity of the struggle between producers for the limited resource – clients, and determines the need to make every offer individual and to reduce transaction expenses. New competitors are finding it easier to make their way into the market by means of spreading information.

Clients grow increasingly informed and their adherence to trademarks yields to the search for functional usefulness. They are also increasingly aware of the prices so intensity of competition in branches, aimed at end consumers is growing. In other words, ICT are fostering the role of intellectual capital as a source of competitive advantage for business organizations – human capital, customer capital, intellectual property, social capital.

On this basis we can seek the possibilities which new ICT secure in the field of co-operation between producers and consumers in transactions’ area. Internet contributes for the reduction of the transactional costs while intermediary service is secured by e-brokers (portals) or some operations are transferred to the consumer ( searching, transmission of information and opinions to others, use by consumers of information filtering agents, participation in creation of advertisings¹⁸) .

Secondly, new digital technologies allow individualizing product production (decreases cost price of small series or single items of the product) and thus producers start to look for ways to adapt their offers to the client’s individuality. Mass means of communication were needed for industrial production. Postindustrial production requires information about the demands of a single client, which is provided by the new ICT. The pull strategies are applied increasingly in production and distribution, which requires active interaction with customers.

Information integration efforts between manufacturers and customers, in the form of information sharing, syn-chronized replenishment, and collaborative product design and development, have been cited as major means of improving the supply chain performance (Kulp S, H. Lee and E. Ofek 2004). Improvement of the co-operation between producers and consumers can be searched in the field of the possibilities which new communication technologies secure for the consumers - not only to be better informed in making choices but to participate in the development or improvement of the product, to create and disseminate not only communicational messages, but to alter their meaning, to reject products and activities which are not in public interest.

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