Subscribe to RCast on iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher
Every time I order from an online store, all of my web pages are filled with ads for that brand for weeks, even months. This makes no sense: I’m already in the company’s ecosystem. Many times, I’m a fan and require no prodding to return when I need to replenish or renew. Ads have destroyed the internet experience. Up to 79 percent of mobile bandwidth on news sites is consumed by advertising. And, as EVERY* CEO and founder, John Wantz, says on the latest RCast, the relationship between brand and consumer is not served by current models.
EVERY* is more than a rewards program. As Wantz mentions, most so-called programs aren’t investments into a company, they’re losses the company is willing to take to keep consumers think they’re building “loyalty.” Wantz writes that the relationship between brand and consumer changed dramatically when we went from physically shopping to spending most of our time ordering on our phones:
The relationship that a shopper used to have with a brand has been regulated down to things like price and selection as opposed to any sort of authentic branded experience that would allow for a brand to capture and grow the subjective value associated with their product lines, their brand or the mental space that they may have shared, created or expanded upon with the consumer. Outside of that very myopic transaction, there’s very little to no information gathered by brands about any of the activity that occurs across channels.
Wantz’s goals include creating a more trustful and true relationship between brand and consumer, one in which the buyer controls their data thanks to blockchain. So far, EVERY* has amassed over 250,000 users spanning 230 brands on Ethereum. As they grow and move onto more highly scalable blockchains (such as RChain), consumers will be able to dictate more of the interactions and form actual relationships with brands they love or perhaps be introduced to similar companies. I think of how much incredible music my Discover Weekly playlist has introduced me to as an appropriate model.
We all know online retail is broken. Wantz and crew are taking steps in mending this fracture.