A dream or nightmare: when consumers judge products not on the depth of their discounts but on the quality of their content.

Twisting Martin Luther Kings ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ into a title for a blog post is a sign to call it quits here on Friday – but one more show insight.

In a discussion with a leading on-line retailer in the UK (£1.6 billion) regarding the opportunities to support the selling of products using customer reviews, the conversation led to the subject of how manufacturers and suppliers can, but rarely do, provide the desired detail and content to fully support the sales of their products on-line.

Web Ready Merchandise – merchandise that is sold to retailers as a physical good with supporting digital content – seems to be a no brainer and a chance to differentiate your brand, but the CIO at the above-mentioned firm could provide me with only one example of the process done-right (The consumer electronics division at Philips.)

No doubt we will see more focus on the sharing of digital information up the channel but when someone who is informed and in the loop like this CIO sights a gap in quality, it seems like an interesting data point worth sharing.