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The past decade has witnessed an explosive growth in the collection of customer data by various businesses. Store cameras, sensors, website analytics, mystery shopping, and a variety of other modes and methods are employed by organizations to understand customer habits and behavior. While most organizations strive to improve their customer’s experience, there is little focus on leveraging this customer experience in marketing. If this oversight is addressed, the organizations can benefit immensely.
One Brand, One Experience
Brand identity has always been a crucial aspect of every B2C business. Customers approach a business expecting the same service, whether it is on the website, on their phones, or in a different city. As Kenneth Dixon, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Verizon Wireless nicely puts it, “… they are looking for brands to offer an experience that’s the same no matter where they choose to do business .” Organizations can easily collect almost all the information needed to bring into effect such a homogeneity in customer experience, across all the customer touch points with the organization. All they need to do is make use of it to create a wholesome environment, which generates familiarity in the customer’s minds.
Individual Marketing
Blanket TV ads and newspaper ads are increasingly losing their effectiveness on consumers’ minds today. Oren Laurent, Founder of Banc De Binary says, “Our target demographic is very internet savvy, so at the moment 90% of our marketing is online with a lot of SEO, PPC & Media campaigns. We are also starting to develop our offline presence and brand awareness through traditional media, charitable events and sports sponsorships as the company grows.”
Brands cannot afford to remain amnesic about their customers anymore. They will have to remember their customers, and deal with them in the context of all their previous interactions together. Michelle Hardaway, CEO of Excellent Maids Cleaning Services says “by leveraging on previous customer experience, businesses can send personalized emails, promotional offers, coupons, and so on, so that they get a feeling that they are interacting with the people who care. This enhances the customer-business relationship, and in turn breeds greater loyalty among customers.”
Display Of Information
It is natural for businesses to focus on positive bits of information about their products. Of course, there is nothing wrong in that. But, they should also focus on how their customers’ minds work, and how they are analyzing their product. Marketers broadly classify products into two categories from the consumer’s perspective – high involvement products and low involvement products. For a customer, high involvement products are big decisions, which they want to be perfect. They could be long term decisions, expensive decisions, and so on.
Naturally, customers conduct a detailed analysis before making them. For instance, a person looking for accommodations online will be comparing dozens, if not hundreds, of accommodations before he settles on one. If property owners only provide a few positive bits of information there, the customer neither has the time nor the patience to dig up more information. He/she simply rejects it, and goes to analyzing the next option. Therefore, it is imperative that accommodation owners share exhaustive information pertaining to their properties.
At the other end of the spectrum are low involvement products. Customers don’t spare more than a second’s thought on making a decision whether to buy such products or not. For instance, a person having a craving for chocolate hardly spends hours analyzing the best one. They already know what they like, and even the ones they would like to try. In this situation, less, but more impactful information can have a better effect on consumers’ minds.
In both these situations, businesses should have a clear picture of how their customers make their buying decision. This will help them decide how much information to share with them during various marketing campaigns.
