Nowadays, individuals are gravely re-evaluating their work, and their play, their needs and the way they live. People became more demanding on the things they need. People ask for more, they look for more creative and convenient products. They look for something that would make life easier. Because of the products of this generation people are given devices and machines that would make life easy. For instance our mobiles, presently we can contact and communicate with our friends anytime we want and can talk have long distance communications as fast as we wish to. Not like before messages can only be sent to distant receivers through snail messaging where in it would take days before it will arrive to its destination. The question isn’t only “What are you going to do with your time in today’s virtual world?” but also “What are your jobs and activities really worth?” Because of the fast growing environment more opportunities also arises and demands would take part as well. Today’s generation, business world and the way people live differ a lot from the past time. On the previous meeting with the techno class we had discussed about changes and trends and opportunities in convergence. Definitely change is inevitable. It is the only constant thing in the world. Change is a fundamental part of continuous quality improvement. Yes definitely to improve the quality of the products consumers are now replaced with prosumers to enhance the quality of products.
As prosperity grows and spreads worldwide, many opportunities occur from lifestyle changes. So that’s why prosumers arise because of these changes but before we have acquired the fruit of the consumer to prosumer way of customers we had passed through different generations which also had different ways of living. Before our present era occurred our world had experience the time of agriculture where people has the living of producing, processing, marketing and use of foods, fibers and byproducts from plant crops and animals. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and stratified societies. In this era people are experiencing simple way of living. The agricultural revolution was a period of agricultural development between the 18th century and the end of the 19th century, which saw a massive and rapid increase in agricultural productivity and vast improvements in farm technology. After this kind of era comes the revolution of the Industrial industry where in innovations are starting to arise. It was a period where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport, and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions. Inventions were also created in this era such as plow and moldboard, seed drills and machines that harvest. The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in human history; almost every aspect of daily life was eventually influenced in some way. The first Industrial Revolution, which began in the 18th century, merged into the Second Industrial Revolution around 1850, when technological and economic progress gained momentum with the development of steam-powered ships, railways, and later in the 19th century with the internal combustion engine and electrical power generation. The period of time covered by the Industrial Revolution varies with different historians. Eric Hobsbawm held that it 'broke out' in Britain in the 1780s and was not fully felt until the 1830s or 1840s, while T. S. Ashton held that it occurred roughly between 1760 and 1830. Most particularly, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. And finally today the world revolved into a high technology based environment where lots of modernization can be observed.
Because of the new innovative world, questions like which things that I do feel truly satisfying and meaningful? would come out of our minds. Like the companies of today, they are very considerate on the needs of the people. They make it sure that what they produce must make meaning and would satisfy the taste of the prosumers. Death of Conusmers, what are my understanding regarding this matter. Well, as what I have learned from our discussion, it is the uprising existence of prosumers and the farewell of the consumers. It is where ordinary or casual customers are replaced by professional and demanding ones. It is the shift of consumers to prosumers or the change of paradigm. To understand more, let us define each. Let’s us take consumer first. Consumers are Everyday purchaser of a good or service in retail. They are the end-users. They are individuals who buy products or services for personal use and not for manufacture or resale. A consumer is someone who can make the decision whether or not to purchase an item at the store, and someone who can be influenced by marketing and advertisements. Any time someone goes to a store and purchases a toy, shirt, beverage, or anything else, they are making that decision as a consumer. On the other hand let us know what a prosumer is. 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 concept of a prosumer is a late 20th century idea that combines some of the common characteristics of a professional and a consumer. The term is generally applied to situations where consumers are considered to have reached a level of sophistication that the professional-consumer can effectively dictate the perimeters for the production of goods and services in terms of quality and structure. The difference between the garden variety consumer and the prosumer is that the latter typically possesses such a strong working knowledge with the product that he or she can successfully determine and perhaps even design a better product offering. Prosumers are now common in many fields that were once the sole province of professionals. One of the areas where the prosumer has gained a high degree of visibility is in the home improvement industry. A number of household tasks, such as the installation of ductwork, plumbing, wallpaper hanging, and installing major appliances, are now done by many homeowners. In times past, these were all functions that were considered to be the work of professionals, with only the occasional amateur attempting this sort of high profile work.
Serving prosumers is composite. 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. Although prosumers are heavy technology users, they want solutions to be simple. In particular, application user interfaces must be easily accessible for both work and their personal life, raising some issues relating to overlap between the two. For example, loading Connected Life applications onto company-owned phones is a concern to employers because of security and liability, and to mployees because of privacy and ethical concerns. When work and personal lives overlap and blend so seamlessly, billing for things like mobile phones and application software also becomes blurred. So, serving the presume 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. 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.
To sum up about the prosumers. We can say that the prosumer segment may be small, but its influence is growing rapidly. As we can 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, which includes; 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.
To differentiate the two, let us say consumer is one that consumes, one that acquires goods or services for direct use or ownership. This only focuses on the sale. They don’t consider the person or the people. It is all about the sale, which cares about the person. It is like a selfish way of business. Now a prosumer is one who is converse to the consumer, denoting an active role as the individual gets more involved in the process. That is right, we are interested in others 1st, sharing, giving, and earning their trust. This tells that customers have their feelings. They can react and demand. They are not just mindless organisms who just consume matter. The end our view of our customers is serious. They are changing, they have choices and demands. They can get poor service anywhere. Life is stressful, anxiety is growing in our neighbors lives, procrastination is up 40%, and rage and rudeness are increasing across the board amongst ‘service’ providers.
Death of Consumers, this is what our present generation shows. I also found some points that would help the businessmen or the providers for the prosumers. So here are just a few helpful suggestions, to see things from the Prosumer’s perspective that may help us tweak our operation and get us on the right path without having to do a lot of heavy lifting:
First is that you have to understand we each other providers to prosumers. Like the saying no man is an island, so we need to cooperate in order to succeed. Every business is in a similar situation. They are all struggling trying to catch up to the social behavior shift which has left there showrooms empty. Face it, we have created a monster. Our poor customers are left to fend for themselves, our culture of treating them like customers has left them feeling suspicious, distrustful, with no inherent loyalty, and only focused on price and convenience, and feel defensive, suspicious and that we are the adversary as soon as they walk into our business. I do. That means whatever your price is; I’m looking on the web to find it cheaper. What’s the result? Well we all lose, business profits dwindle in our community, jobs lost. We have to understand it is what it is, and IT doesn’t work anymore. We have to lift our heads out of our computers and look around, realize the situation, and do something about it.
The second thing is that consider and set objectives. It is vital to see goals. It will guide you in your business. Our goal is simple, sustainable profits and growth right? The only way, let me repeat that, the only way for that to ppen in your business in today’s climate is to build customer equity equals trust, confidence in us, we re, no hype, no infomercial techniques, those are dead. Our customers or should we say Prosumers, need to realize and see manifested in our business model that we don’t have a hidden agenda, help them to learn from their experience with us that they can trust us. And finally, they should pick up from their interaction with us that when they deal with us, it’s not about ’selling them something’, it about their experience and making it the most enjoyable that we can
Lastly, shift the paradigm. Let us make change. Most businesses still operate in the adversarial consumer arena and use traditional media to advertize their sales. This does not work anymore in fact, most companies that remain in the status quo are finding they are paying a trust tax, a transaction (soon to be reaction) costs which can be up to 70% of the item, which destroys profit margin and will force companies into extinction if they remain unchanged in their methods. We must make the shift from ’selling things’ to noticing people! We need to build a desire with our Prosumers, cultivate relationships, and create a sense of comfortable community for them. Let us be reminded with these things, thoughts not just for the product but also for the people or cusromers. Feelings for others and stop being selfish and lastly actions of course. Now, this is a two edged sword, but one that if used right, and all the focus is on the Prosumer’s experience when we get an opportunity, that we are going to dazzle them with service, since we are all human, of course if customers will trust your product and has the desire for it then they will probably purchase it, and continued experience results in loyalty and brand encouragement. It will probably work most of the time. So let us now consider customers as prosumers and not consumers.
Death of Consumer, the shift of paradigm. Customers have now the power to demand and be followed. It is a kind of change that would result from standard to outstanding. Let us not stick to the old way. Just like in some stores we can now demand for customization of our products. We have the power to insist. Let us jump the curves and should adopt the new way. Finally, as technology persists to develop, there is no uncertainty that thje prosumer occurrence will keep on growing. Let us all be prosumers and let us make some meaning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
http://inventors.about.com/od/indrevolution/a/AgriculturalRev.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosumer
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