[The following is excerpted from Ethical Marketing & The New Consumer by Chris Arnold]

Many marketing experts will tell you that one of the most significant changes over the last 10 years has been the power moving from the brands back to the consumer. People power, as many brands have discovered, is not only changing the way they market, but forcing companies to change the way they do things.

The web and social networking have made it easy for people to cluster together as a force to be reckoned with. A single lonely voice of objection can now soon mass into thousands and even millions.

Retailers, intensely worried about keeping the faith of their customers in the face of tough competition, will force brands to change their messages, packaging, ingredients or sources to avoid upsetting their customers.

Hellman's mayonnaise offers a good example: Until recently no one had asked them where they got their eggs from. But the one supermarket did and threatened to delist them if they didn't switch over to free-range. Others followed. Unilever had no choice, but still managed to turn it into an ad campaign making them look oh-so-ethical. That's ethical spin for you.

Recently the scandal of the News of the World hacking into people's phones brought a new low for the newspaper industry -- as if people didn't think bad enough of them already. But it was the power of the people, and groups like Mumsnet (with over 1.5 million members) that did the most damage as they demanded brands withdraw advertising from the paper. Brands, desperate not to upset large groups of customers and powerful social groups agreed.

"A kid with a $600 dollar laptop can bring down a six-million-dollar campaign." I've put this quote in many blogs to highlight a factor I call "Brand Terrorism." These may seem strong words but you can't underestimate the power of social networking, especially when the truth goes against the marketing message. The truth, whether it's used maliciously or just factually, can hurt. Worse, it can cost you millions and your reputation.

Fact is, we believe people mare than corporations. One survey from TNS revealed that just 17 percent of people believe ads, and only 14 percent believed ads making green claims. But almost all of us believe our friends, family and workmates. And thanks to the web, we can talk to all of them in moments.

Just take the case of Kryptonite bike locks. They made great locks that couldn't be broken. Well, that was what they claimed in their marketing, until someone posted an online video of one of their U-locks being opened with a simple Bic pen. Disaster. Word spread and the company fell into a big black hole.

"Look behind the label" was an early campaign from Marks & Spencer, but if we really looked behind many brands we wouldn't like what we saw -- even the ethical ones (sorry, the ones we think are ethical; there is a difference). It's impossible to tick all the boxes. Big corporate brands can only do so much, and it's essentially impossible to be ethically pure, especially if your main focus is delivering more profit year on year to your shareholders.