The shift in the balance of power towards consumers means less “shouting” (marketing) about your product or service, according to Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder.

"Before if you were making a product, the right business strategy was to put 70% of your attention, energy, and dollars into shouting about a product, and 30% into making a great product. So you could win with a mediocre product, if you were a good enough marketer. That is getting harder to do. The balance of power is shifting toward consumers and away from companies…the individual is empowered… The right way to respond to this if you are a company is to put the vast majority of your energy, attention and dollars into building a great product or service and put a smaller amount into shouting about it, marketing it. If I build a great product or service, my customers will tell each other."

See the Bezos interview and transcript.

The legal services industry has seen a similar shift in power from lawyer to client and a correspondingly greater emphasis on providing better quality legal service for less money, as described, among other places, by author and lawyer Pat Lamb in Alternative Fee Arrangements: Value Fees and the Changing Legal Market.   This is the "new normal" to which most law firms must adapt or die.  But does this mean that the need for shouting by the new normal firm is significantly reduced?  For now at least, the answer is no.

Here’s why.Continue Reading Marketing New Normal Firm: Shouting Still Necessary