Last October, when Contact Energy Ltd increased its domestic power prices, in some cases including in Dunedin by as much as 10%-12%, and at the same time sought to nearly double its already high directors' fees, the forces of competition finally began to move.
Even the Clark government, which throughout most of its term continually failed to adequately respond to energy supply and pricing issues, described the price increases as "alarming".
New Zealand consumers, typically ever reluctant to express their anger about a product or poor service by direct action, for once did so by taking advantage of their ability to switch to other power suppliers (and these were not slow to exploit their advantage).
Contact, it turns out, lost 41,000 electricity customers.
Although it backed down from doubling directors' fees, it made no difference; by then it was too late.
"The lesson has been clearly understood," declared the company's managing director, David Baldwin, last week.
In similar vein, when Cadbury New Zealand decided as a cost-cutting measure to use a greater proportion of palm oil in its popular dairy milk chocolate range, rather than cocoa butter, and at the same time reduce the size of its blocks by 20% of their weight, public reaction was swift on two counts.
By far the largest hostile response was from consumers who felt the taste of the chocolate - very much a favourite for decades - had altered for the worse.
A less numerous but no less vocal group opposed the change on environmental grounds, arguing that increased palm oil production mean rainforests would be destroyed for plantation planting.
In vain did the company protest that it purchased only certified sustainable palm oil.
In vain did it respond that the changes were made to improve the texture and the value of its milk chocolate blocks, and that changing back to the old recipe was not in prospect.
What has proved to be at stake in the case of both companies was not loss of profit, but loss of reputation - what marketers like to call the reputation of the "brand".
In Contact Energy's case, the loss of 41,000 customers in the 12 months to June was a relatively minor blip in its overall accounts.
In monetary terms, the cost was a fraction of its $1.2 billion in annual retail electricity revenue from a customer base today of 479,000.
Cadbury, on the other hand, claimed in early July that sales of dairy milk chocolate had increased since the company changed the recipe.
Its managing director, Matthew Oldham, did not provide figures but thought the controversy meant more people were buying and eating more chocolate than usual.
But the company saw no reason to revert to the former recipe.
Clearly, although the economic costs in both examples may not have been great, the need to retain customer loyalty to the "brand" has proved greater.
According to Contact Energy, every effort is now being made to win back customers: "For us it's all about the reputation of the company," said Mr Baldwin.
Cadbury's reaction was more pronounced: it will return to the original recipe, recognising, as Mr Oldham conceded, "At the time, we genuinely believed we were making the right decision, for the right reasons.
But we got it wrong.
Now we're putting things right as soon as we possibly can, and hope Kiwis will forgive us."
No doubt both companies will try to "spin" their change of heart to the best advantage, but there can be little doubt consumer power has had a powerful effect in a competitive business world.
Listening to the customer has always been one of the golden rules of business, but it clearly can sometimes be overlooked whenever the cacophony of "expert" advice begins to dominate the thinking of boards of directors, managers and chief executives.
One of the most telling examples of how customer power can be turned to the advantage of both creators and consumers is the Otago Farmers' Market, now said to be the largest of its kind in the country, its success built obviously on perceptions about supermarket dominance and the disappearance of personal service.
People can justly count the changes of heart at Contact and Cadbury as small victories, but the bigger victory will come when all companies (including multi-national giants) seeking the consumer dollar realise that, at all times, the customer is indeed king.
