The Zagat of CPG?

According to Consmr “Consmr is the fun and easy way to share your opinion on consumer packaged goods. It was founded to help people share and discover great products ranging from frozen foods to skin care to household goods. We encourage a social community where users can share their opinions on Facebook and Twitter and “check in” to share their active usage of products.”

Consmr is an attempt to help consumers manage the often overwhelming abundance of choice they confront both in the supermarket and online. This “tyranny of choice” often becomes overwhelming and consumers typically resort to making a choice based on appearance, brand familiarity, a quick read of the product’s label, or something they read somewhere once and faintly remember. Really, do consumers know the difference between Scope and Listerine, other than one is “sexier” than the other and supposedly better for kissing.

Just how extensive is the choice confronting consumers? A quick search for mouthwash on drugstore.com returns 81 results and on Amazon 1250. How are consumers to cope with 1250 mouthwash choices or even 81? Our free market capitalist society believes competition is good and this writer agrees, but if we’re going to have this level of choice, we need a better way of making an informed choice than eeny, meeny,miny, mo.

Overwhelming choice is the shopper’s dilemma Consmr is attempting to remedy. As an internet startup, Consmr faces a difficult path to profitability and survivability however, Consmr is interesting for the following reasons:

• They are attempting to bring customer generated reviews to CPG which is a far larger and more diverse market than electronics, movies, books, restaurants, and the other categories which have dedicated consolidated review sites.
• They have identified that consumers are willing to spend time writing reviews for CPG products. One would expect consumers to write electronics reviews, book reviews, movie reviews, and restaurant reviews. Consumers interact at length with these products and services and they tend to form emotional ties which lead to strong opinions worth writing about. But mouthwash, toilet bowl cleaners, stain fighters, sexual health products- who knew consumers have strong emotions for these products and are willing to dedicate the time to write reviews for these products.
• Consmr is depending on social interaction and “gamification’ to motivate consumers to write reviews. Consmr will be offering Foursquare type badges for reviewers and the top reviewers will become prominantly displayed category leaders. Reviewers will also be able to amass followers which has the potential of influencing large numbers of consumers to buy Scope instead of Listerine. Lots of “prestige” , an unknown amount of influence, and no compensation.
• Consmr is entirely amateur based. Movies have expert reviewers as does books, restaurants, electronics, appliances, art, etc. There are no expert toothpaste reviewers, with the possible exception of consumers reports. Consmr is hoping to motivated large numbers of everyday consumers to write reviews which will impact other consumers’ choices. This is an emerging trend on the internet where people turn to first the people they know and then strangers to get help making purchasing decisions.
• Consmr is an indication of the emerging presence of CPG e-tailing. Traditionally, consumers walked into their local grocery store and bought their regular brand, which is always in the same location, with little thought. Now with the increased exposure to new and different brands and the convenience of shopping online, consumers are considering a wider range of possibilities based on cost, reviews, and exposure to new products.

As mentioned above, Consmr has a long road to profitability with a lot of challenges. One of the big challenges is to amass reviews of enough products to be a valuable resource. However,there are at least two factor in Consmr’s favor. First is Consmr Founder and CEO Ryan Charles left his full-time job at Zagat (where he was the head of mobile and was responsible for its partnerships with Foodspotting and Foursquare) to pursue his new startup. Second,they have forged a partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk, the popular author, business guru, and “sommelier of social media”. Veynerchuk told TechCrunch. “I’m thrilled to speculate at times with new platforms and Consmr hit my radar as something that was worth trying”. Vaynerchuk’s partnership is a strong endorsement which is bound to make that all-important first round of investment easier to land.

Here is a question to contemplate, if Consmr becomes influential, how will this impact CPG manufacturers’ traditional marketing and advertising strategies?