Archive for the ‘Customer-Centric’ Category

One of my biggest pet peeves as a marketer (and PR practitioner, too!) is not having access to customers.

Fortunately, I have worked for many companies that have trusted me and allowed access.

Of course, I have also received my fair share of Heismans from sales and management. Heck, by their blocking you would have thought I was requesting their first born for a ritual sacrifice or worse… their yearly bonus.

Today, in our social world there is absolutely no reason to refuse marketers access to customers. Unless, of course, said marketers are raving lunatics running around high on tactical crack because their sales team is demanding leads. Then yeah, they shouldn’t be allowed to chat it up with customers.

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Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• Saturday Morning Reads (Late Edition): Is Social CRM Bringing Companies & Customers Together Yet?
• Saturday Morning Reads: (Re)Organizing for the Customer
• Your “Industry Experience Only” Requirement Is Hurting Customers, Employees and Shareholders
• Saturday Morning Reads: What’s the Return on Investment (ROI) of Content Marketing?

According to the new book, Wikibrands: Reinventing Your Company In A Customer-Driven Marketplace, by Sean Moffitt and Mike Dover, a wikibrand is a “progressive set of organizations, products, services, ideas and causes that tap the powers of customer participation, social influence, and collaboration to drive business value.”

This philosophy requires a massive organization culture shift. Wikibranding is about having the guts to allow the customer co-pilot your business. We only need to look at companies like Zappos, Dell, Southwest, FedEx, Target, and Cisco to see that wikibranding is not only possible, but it makes for a very profitable company. (Here are wikibrands by industry, if you are curious to see what your competition might be up to.)
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Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• Dear CEO: Your Customers Really Want You To Know Them
• Hey Marketers! What’s Your Customer Service IQ?
• Saturday Morning Reads (Late Edition): Is Social CRM Bringing Companies & Customers Together Yet?
• The Marketing & PR Conundrum: Lying to Customers

“Conspicuous consumption has given way to consumers bragging to their friends that they’ve made good choices. Importantly, there’s an increased degree of vigilance to this new feeling of smart consumerism. The definition of value has become more complex. It’s not that people won’t spend money—we will—but the way that we look at everything has changed.”

That is how Stephen Denny describes “The “New Normal” in his latest book, Killing Giants: 10 Strategies To Topple The Goliath In Your Industry.

It would be naïve not to believe that sentiment doesn’t also hold true for business buyers (B2B). How then should marketers capture the attention of their customers when fewer resources, reduced budgets, and customer scrutiny are also part of “the new normal?”

Let’s take a look at the 10 strategies companies have used and—more importantly—how their customers have helped them to topple Goliath.

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Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• Your “Industry Experience Only” Requirement Is Hurting Customers, Employees and Shareholders
• Saturday Morning Reads: What’s the Return on Investment (ROI) of Content Marketing?
• What Integrated Marketing Is Not (Hint: It’s Not Integrated Tactics)
• Outside-In Thinking

I just finished reading Ernan Roman’s latest book, Voice-of-the-Customer Marketing: A Revolutionary 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay and I must say, this book is a gift to marketers, management and any business owners who truly cares about their customers.

I first learned about Ernan’s new book when Denise Lee Yohn interviewed him on her blog. (If you don’t read Denise’s blog, Brand as Business Bites, you should. It’s full of great branding insights!)

After reading the interview, I knew that I had to put this book on the top of my reading list because it not only embodies my beliefs on customer-centric business—it provides a process to bring the customer closer to the center of the organization.

While “voice of the customer ” research has been around for a while, Ernan shares his five-step process so that companies can put VOC research into practice. For those who might be speculative, the process is backed with solid case studies.

Listening Versus Understanding

The foundation to any well thought out social media strategy is listening. If you are familiar with social media, you know listening means using tools like Radian6, SM2 or Google Alerts to capture what people are saying about your brand on the Internet.

However, there is a lot of work that needs to take place between listening, understanding and implementing change. Listening online alone often leads to a misunderstanding of context and nuance.

Scott Rogers captures that best in his post, Listening Versus Understanding: There is a Difference.

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Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• Saturday Morning Reads: Celebrating Mom-Centric Marketing
• Your “Industry Experience Only” Requirement Is Hurting Customers, Employees and Shareholders
• Dear CEO: Your Customers Really Want You To Know Them
• Saturday Morning Reads (Late Edition): Is Social CRM Bringing Companies & Customers Together Yet?

I am not sure what triggered me to think about the music industry today. When it comes to music technology, I am a late adopter. I got my first iPod in 2009 and it was only because it came with my iPhone. Next was the discovery of music identification apps like Shazam and SoundHound and Internet radio services like Pandora.

Today, how I find, purchase and create my own music experiences has completed changed. That said, I would be remiss if I did not mention that 90% of my day is still listening to a favorite local radio station—WXPN. Now, however, I don’t just listen, I  actively identify new songs with an app and purchase them right from iTunes within 30 seconds.

Perhaps these experiences provoked a curiosity to find out how music aficionados continually drove major shifts in the music industry—the shifts that fans now enjoy every day—and how executives have had to cope with becoming fan-centric.

In Forrester’s 2009 report, Music Product Manifesto: The Product Features That Will Save Recorded Music, they propose six basic consumer music rights:

1. The right to great customer experiences first (and business models second).
2. The right to unique music experiences.
3. The right to share in the creation process.
4. The right to share [music].
5. The right to fair use of technology.
6. The right to be social.

The music industry is over 100-years old. One would think that it would be difficult to change its business culture and practices. Yet, tectonic shifts have occurred in a relatively short time.

Those shifts have allowed fans to get closer to artists, artists to become successful without music labels, and fans to create their own experiences. It makes this marketer wonder if other industries could live up to this type of pressure and—more importantly—what will it take to understand that they are no longer in control.

Keep Reading…

Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• Saturday Morning Reads: Celebrating Mom-Centric Marketing
• Your “Industry Experience Only” Requirement Is Hurting Customers, Employees and Shareholders
• Saturday Morning Reads: What’s the Return on Investment (ROI) of Content Marketing?
• Saturday Morning Reads: MADD Reading