With these days and age, we consumers are being renounced to be prosumers. From the citations of some of the famous names for critics on famous papers:
1. "In the parlance of the tech world, the new generation of digital film equipment is designed for the 'prosumer,' the consumer who thinks of himself as a semi-professional "
—Doug Bedell, "Digital video revolution," The Dallas Morning News, October 12, 2000
2. "'It's not just about retail, but medicine, design, architecture, fashion, interiors, even bio-technology and the internet,' says Shaw. 'All are moving towards a point where the purchaser or prosumer is key to determining the final look, feel and thumbprint characteristics of the product and service being sold.'"
—Martin Raymond, "Made to Measure," The Independent, November 7, 1999
3. "This urge to connect also has a more entrepreneurial side, marketing specialists say. Many young people say they are losing interest with mainstream consumer goods and are eager to sell their handmade goods to others. The ones that do sell their goods have been labeled 'prosumers,' short for 'producing consumers.'"
—Netsuko Segawa, "21st century shoppers," The Nikkei Weekly, December 21, 1999
4. "Sean Pillot de Chenecey, trend forecaster for youth markets, said: 'People are tired, and sick of being ripped-off, but can't get away from brands and branding. As a result they are becoming 'prosumers' — they are demanding their voice be heard.'"
—Cordelia Brabbs, "Web fuels consumer activism," Marketing, September 21, 2000
The term “prosumer” originated with Alvin Toffler, who first used the term in his 1980
book The Third Wave. Toffler defined the prosumer as someone who blurs the
distinction between a “consumer” and a “producer.” The term has since come to mean a
variety of things, but here we define it as someone who makes little distinction between
his or her home and work lives. The prosumer engages in activities belonging to either
sphere, regardless of time or location.
Because of their complex lifestyle, which combines a demanding workload and an
active family life, prosumers are eager adopters of Web 2.0 products and services—a
convergence of process innovation, global marketplaces, and advanced technologies
that fundamentally changes the way consumers buy, retailers sell, and products are
brought to market. Prosumers typically embrace Web 2.0 technologies such as social
networking (Facebook, MySpace), blogging, video on demand (VoD), podcasting,
VoDcasting, virtual realities (Second Life, There.com), mobile communications, and other
Internet-based technologies and services that allow people to stay connected whenever
and wherever they desire. We refer to this as “Connected Life,” and the prosumer is
an enthusiastic and early adopter of the connected lifestyle. Not all prosumers use all
these technologies, of course; they access whichever technology subset best suits their
individual preferences and lifestyles.
The Prosumer Challenge
Serving prosumers is complex; their needs cannot be defined by location, application,
time of day, or device alone. In fact, that is what makes them prosumers. They seek to
be connected and serviced no matter where they are, what they are trying to do, or
when they are trying to do it. So, serving the prosumer—to the satisfaction of the prosumer and his or her
employer—is far from easy. Early prosumer offerings have fallen short of what these
individuals really need. Mobile mail is an example of this. When it is provided by the
employer, it works well for business purposes. But personal mobile mail requires yet
another application from a provider such as Google or Yahoo! The only way to handle
this situation is to maintain one phone for personal mail and another phone for business
mail—an equally awkward solution. Effectively serving this segment requires delivering value that works for both the prosumer and the enterprise.
Serving the Prosumer
A few discerning industries are already aware of prosumers and their lifestyles, and
have developed programs and products to serve them. The hospitality and airline
industries know that when people travel for business or pleasure, they tend to select
providers that offer them benefits. As a result, when someone earns extra miles flying
with Airline X for business, that person will choose Airline X for leisure travel because
the frequent flier miles help pay for the vacation.
The financial services industry has begun cross-selling products such as insurance
and banking services, especially to small- and medium-sized business owners (prime
prosumer targets), recognizing that when someone starts a business, that person is
more inclined to select a financial services institution with which he or she is already
doing personal business.
Higher-education institutions position their services to alumni as they enter the
workforce, because alumni often seek corporate sponsorship for more costly
graduate work.
Most industries, however, have not yet instituted formal business models to pursue
prosumers as a target segment. Capturing the emerging prosumer category requires
a deliberate and systematic approach, with full understanding of what makes these complex individuals tick. The service provider industry (telecommunications, IP services) is absolutely essential
to the prosumer’s connected lifestyle, yet these companies have done little to court
this segment. Providers need to invest in network infrastructure to deliver seamless,
ubiquitous, and secure prosumer experiences across personal and work requirements.
Because these industries have so much to gain from prosumers, it makes a great
deal of sense to start with the design of user interfaces that are blended, yet provide
sufficient separation between work and personal content to avoid conflict with
corporate policy.
It also behooves the service provider industries to figure out a way to provide services
and billing methodologies that keep the prosumer connected, yet allow for separation
of work and personal activities. For instance, there should be a simple, nonintrusive
method for keeping mobile phone charges separate. And there should be a way for
prosumers to integrate their home and work calendars and address books without
providing employer visibility into personal information (and vice versa). Enterprises addressing the prosumer market must make an effort to educate
prosumers about the value of their offerings. Prosumers can be reached in many
ways: through traditional consumer channels (advertising, direct mail, and so forth);
nontraditional channels (e-mail, online, or sites such as Google or Second Life); or
through business-to-business channels (industry site advertising, trade publications).
Before embarking on a communications / promotion program, however, analyze
channels carefully; not all will work. Prosumers rarely see television ads, for instance.
Instead, they record their favorite shows and watch them when they have time— skipping commercials as they go. Vertical industries must capture critical data about prosumers’ interests, activities, and
behaviors to improve their product and service development for this segment. For
instance, airlines have precise data about the habits of their business customers, which
they then apply to attracting their leisure-time travel business. The data is there, flowing
across your network; methods can be developed to identify, isolate, analyze, and apply
this data to develop new services to this well-heeled and receptive group.
Summing Up the Prosumer
The prosumer segment may be small, but its influence is growing rapidly. Witness the
enormous popularity of Apple’s iPhone and iPod, YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook.
It’s time to start thinking about the underserved prosumer market and how to address it
better. There are several known areas of focus for prosumers:
• They need to be connected to work and family—anytime, anywhere.
• They want simple-to-use, seamless solutions.
• They are interested in entertainment, and spend more than the average consumer
in this category.
• They want to access files at home as easily as they do at work.
• They are mobile, and usually own several devices such as a mobile phone, iPod,
and laptop computer.
• They are frequent, intensive users of the Internet and mobile technologies at work
and home.
Prosumers are not hard to find or identify. But capturing this desirable segment
requires a systematic program of research, development, and testing of prosumeroriented offerings—plus education of prosumers about the value of your product or
service. The following are steps you can take today to take advantage of the lucrative
prosumer opportunity
http://www.wordspy.com/words/prosumer.asp
http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/wp/Prosumer_VS2_POV_0404_FINAL.pdf
