Building Brand and Connecting with Your Customers
Posted on Wed, Jan 04, 2012
Welcome to 2012! I am sure many of you have spent some time over the last month or so, thinking and planning for 2012. And if you have, you've likely realized that connecting with your customers has changed quite dramatically over the last 5-10 years.
It's no longer about creating your message and picking which channel to broadcast to. Today's consumer demands much more. I like to think of our new generation of consumer as the "ultimate-word-of-mouth shopper." Today, our customers are extremely connected. How connected? Let me share just one example.
My neighborhood has a Google group account with about 300 plus members. The group was initially set up to help foster social activities in the neighborhood. Soon, it evolved to also include neighborhood alerts for when suspicious activities occured in the neighborhood. More recently, however, this forum has been used to "promote" or "demote" certain services or businesses in the area. A new restaurant goes up in town and instantly there are reviews submitted by the group.
Recently, a neighbor had a disagreement with a certain waste removal company, which serviced many people in the neighborhood. Within days of this disagreement being broadcast to our group, pricing information was also broadcast to the group and the neighbor was able to negotiate a better price with the competitor company, resulting in a large number of customers cancelling service with the initial company and switching to a different waste removal company.
This example shows the power of a simple broadcast email application; we all know this kind of communication is going on over Twitter and Facebook at an even greater extent. Facebook has a built-in "like" status indicator.
So with all of our connected customers, how does one begin to build brand and connect today?
The American Marketing Association recently tapped the minds of thought leaders in marketing at Prophet, a strategic brand and marketing consultancy.
Prophet's research suggests that in light of this changing environment, marketers and business owners must adapt their messaging to connnect with customers at a whole different level. The report identifies 5 distinct shifts in strategy that are occuring today. These shifts are:
- From creating marketing strategies - to driving business impact
- From controlling the message - to galvanizing your network
- From incremental improvements - to pervasive innovation
- From managing marketing investments - to inspiring marketing excellence
- From an operation focus - to a relentless customer focus
Keeping a customer focus, knowing your customer, and communicating and engaging with your customer are paramount activities that are part of an overall Customer Relationship Management strategy.
For a copy of this full report, visit our website at Prophet's 2011 State of Marketing Study.
Dan Holzgen
