It’s the Age of the Customer, the era of the Internet of Me. Brand names and physical footprints are no longer the decision-drivers they once were. Consumers have turned their trust to whatever they can pull up on their smartphones, from peer reviews to best-selling item rankings.
Trends like these have triggered seismic shifts in the brand-customer relationship. For example, a brand must now demonstrate its care and commitment to the consumer before the consumer will commit to the....