By Shunu Sen

People communicate with one another, and, generally speaking, on a one-to-one basis. This has been so for many many years. From the dawn of history, the simplest way to do this has been through face-to-face communication. However, as it became necessary to talk to people over long distances, mankind discovered new ways of doing so. However, consumer communications, in which a buyer is being spoken to by a seller, is a more recent occurrence.

For many years, we had town-criers, who not only announced news, but also communicated bargains from the marketplace (which they were paid to announce). Then, we had news-agents who collected advertisements for the newspapers they represented. Still, the history of advertising is relatively recent.

For, while the medium changed, from leaflets and pamphlets to newspapers and magazines and, eventually, to radio and TV, the basic idea remained the same: a seller displaying his goods in public, and in competition with other sellers to, often, a diffident audience through a medium which was, essentially, being read, heard or seen for either education or entertainment. Under such a situation, consumer communication was an intrusion of little or no interest to many who were really involved in watching the medium for some other purpose.

However, the process itself had several beneficial effects. First, sellers could display their wares to many potential buyers. This led to competition, product improvement, lower prices, and better consumer understanding and information. Secondly, and equally importantly, the sellers paid handsomely for the use of the medium resulting in a flow of income to the owner of the medium. This allowed the owner of the medium to make the medium available to potential viewers and listeners free of cost, or at a small fee. Everyone benefited: the medium, the messenger, and the man on the street.

But, for most of the 20th Century, consumer communication was one voice talking to many. An advertisement appearing in a newspaper or a colour magazine was read and processed by the minds of many readers. In the case of radio and TV, it was a single message at one point in time, which the owner of the brand or product idea would beam to hundreds, even thousands of viewers.

The advertiser had no opportunity to either select his audience-beyond some very broad specifications-or have a tailor-made message for every single member of the audience. The fact that there was a growing demand for this particular need led to custom-made packages being offered by newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters. But it was still a question of one message going to many, and the choice of a specific audience was limited to broadly describing the audience in terms of socio economic characteristics or age bands, language and, to some extent, income and geographical distribution.

Enter Direct Marketing. The focus of successful direct marketing is to enable the seller to narrow the focus of his communication to specific individuals, and, if possible, provide her with tailor-made solutions to her product needs. While Direct Marketing, where a seller communicates a sort of tailor-made communication to a particular type of individual, is not particularly new in most parts of the world, it has not made real progress within India. This is, primarily, due to the lack of suitable databases. But it is still not easy to contact the particular man you wish to talk to at the particular time you wish to do so.

This leads us to the real revolution that started in the closing years of the 20th Century, which will continue in the first part of this millennium, and jolt the entire field of communications. This change is, in some way, due to the computer, the instrument on which I am writing this essay. The computer, along with the Net, will change consumer communications beyond all recognition in the years to come. This is because it is possible for the buyer to contact the seller, and the seller to respond to the buyer in specific terms, which meet the buyer's needs.

This conversation will take place between the buyer and the seller; it will be a private conversation. The two-way communication will enable the seller to display her or his goods; the buyer will show her or his interest-or the lack of it-in purchasing the product; and the seller will then make her or him an offer on a medium shared by them, and not on a third-party channel. Competition will continue to be rampant as the Net will contain many such offerings, and the buyer need only choose between the offerings which are made available to her or him at the specific point in time when she wishes to make the purchase-decision.

This new form of consumer communication, which in itself subsumes the act of commerce, is in its infancy. Yet, we can see several examples of it. For instance, Amazon.com offers almost any known publication for purchase at a competitive price, anywhere in the world. In order to help you make your choice, you can not only read reviews by experts and specialists in the field, but also the comments of other customers who have read the book. Indeed, you are free to leave your comments or ask your questions.

Take the example of the computer company Dell. You can log onto their Website and actually configure a computer-at your price. This machine, which may be unlike any other machine in the world, will be delivered to you in 48 hours. For almost any questions or help, you need go no further than your computer, and only in the rarest of cases will it be necessary for Dell to send a serviceperson to your house.

Indeed, from a one-seller, many-buyer scenario, consumer communications in this millennium will become a many-sellers, one-buyer scenario. There are many sites which can help you choose between different airlines and different hotels; thus, an individual can make her or his travel plans on her or his terms, and at a cost far less than what it would have taken through the traditional route. The Net also provides opportunities for advertising to specific target-groups, such as the non-resident India residing in the US, or the housewife in South Delhi. This was not possible in traditional forms of communication between buyers and sellers.

And so, where will we go as we look further into this century? I just do not know. All that one can say is that we have just touched the surface of the relationship that a buyer can have with multiple sellers. And this is a relationship that will grow in the years to come in many different ways and myriad shapes.

Siddharth Sen is the CEO of quadra advisory services

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