Last week I attended the JD Power Automotive Internet Round-Table in Las Vegas, NV. The venue was an attractive upscale wide-open largely attended suite of conference rooms and ballrooms at the Red Rock Resort & Casino. Very nice setting indeed. When I say the event was largely attended what I mean is that while there were a few hundred participants some were from very large and powerful organizations in industries from automotive to search to social media. For example there were Google Execs on Q&A panels with Ford Execs, Facebook execs along side Compete.com execs along side Yahoo execs along side Subaru execs. GM was there, Auto Trader, and eBay too. The list goes on in that fashion to the tune of over 300 different businesses, all with a single automotive market theme in common: “Bringing The Consumer Back!”

But something was missing.

“Bringing the Consumer Back” was the theme and that message (or pleading prayer depending on your perspective) was explored at as many divergent angles as there are avatars in portals. And there I was, sitting amongst all of this great experience and talent, listening to statistic-loaded professionals enthusiastically expounding the current strategies and norms for engaging with consumers today. There were also the usual slide presentations depicting the massive numbers of people in various social media platforms meant to blow you away, there were motivating line graphs and bar charts showing the growing trends of facebook posts and twitter tweets that drove some attendees to calling there office during breaks demanding to have facebook pages setup for their business. There were even videos of people using mobile technology to drive their social tools to drive the supposedly new notion that times are changing in the automotive market.

But something was still missing.

“Listen, listen, and thoughtfully engage.” That was the overall message the dealers and automakers were asked to take back to their businesses. “Listen to your consumer” said the panelists. Excellent advice if you ask me. Yet the message seemed to be suggesting mostly that the listening should be for “mentions” of their product or business. To hear, recognize, and respond to customer service or reputation management opportunities. Again, definitely great advice. The “listen to your consumer online” message continued with an enumeration of strategies, tactics, and tools that the market could use to listen to their consumers online.

But something was still missing!

Then in the dark auditorium lit only with large screen projections of social media frenzy and potential sales growth and opportunity it occurred to me: the CONSUMER was missing! Where was Mrs. Jones answering questions about how she uses social media tools to stay connected with her high school friends? Where was Andy talking about why at 19 years old he prefers texting over talking and why he doesn’t see that changing – ever? Where was Dr. Phillips talking about how she keeps up with new drugs on the web? Where was Singh talking about why he might consider a crossover only if he read enough about it from blogs he trusts? The absence of the consumer was huge! It left all of these industry execs talking to each other for several days about what the stats have to say, about what the quantitative research has to say about what could be done about what the numbers say… all with no real reference to what we the consumers have to say. Not a peep (er, uh tweet). To use a couple metaphors: it was like community leaders in a town hall meeting watching a video of stats and issues of communities that they hope to create instead of inviting their own community members in for live discussions. It was like a football team willfully ignoring the name, details, or video footage of the other team in an upcoming game and looking only at the aggregate statistics of that teams performance over the last 90 days.

I found myself hoping for a panelist of consumers with a banner over their head that read: “Here’s Why & How We’d Come Back!” Can you imagine just how much information all of the dealers and marketers would be able to take back with them then? Can you imagine how actionable and real that messaging would be? Come to think of it considering that the round-table was in Vegas it would’ve been all to easy to offer free buffets, show tickets, or a stacks of chips for anyone in the Vegas area to come on through and sit on a panel for 20 minutes or so. We would most assuredly have heard consumers talking about their real interests and we most likely would have been able to actually watch them text and tweet while they spoke. What a lesson that would’ve been!

The consumers voice is more then just a voice to talk over or to hear as part of a collective voice in your market. The consumer – the person in this case that the automotive market wants back – holds the key to how and why they’ll come back. Believe me it’s not just about market stability and consumer confidence. It’s about engagement. Thoughtful, trustworthy, and relevant engagement. It’s the individual consumer – the person – who can teach just how to do that better then any collection of stats and trends. Don’t get me wrong – of course it is important to understand your market in aggregate. Of course stats and market analysis matters. Today however, it’s most important to understand your consumer in person. Hopefully someday there’ll be an Automotive Round-Table where the consumer who is the focus is fully represented. I can imagine two-days of panelists made up of consumers from all parts of the world representing all types of demographics. You know, after a session like that the automotive market might just have a few solid ideas of what it will take to bring you the consumer back.