Customer First Thinking

Where brands almost always go wrong is assuming customers are more loyal than they are, rewarding them solely on the basis of their repeat buying behaviour. But customers who are truly loyal don't need incentives to buy - they just need confirmation that their trust and belief in the brand will be reciprocated, says loyalty expert Aaron Dauphinee.

AI is paving the way for marketing to finally usher in an era of true one-to-one marketing. As the technology evolves, it should free up marketers to give greater creative thought to making customers happy, believes Jim Sterne, who has helped steer marketers through successive waves of innovation ever since the advent of the worldwide web.

The old "give-to-get" loyalty model has grown stale. Loyalty fatigue has set in, as members tire of programs that all look the same. To break out of this sameness trap, loyalty programs need to go beyond rewards and offer members greater value to stay engaged, according to the latest edition of the Antavo Global Loyalty Report.

Too many companies today still think that improving CX is all about fixing what's broken. But for CX to make a meaningful difference in the health and success of a business, management should strive to make the everyday lives of customers better. That's why the concept of "Helpfulness" should be adopted as a core enterprise operating principle, says CX pioneer Tom DeWitt.

Despite a massive body of loyalty research over the years, there are still many unsolved puzzles, according to top researcher Dr. Yuping Liu-Thompkins, whose Loyalty Science Lab is dedicated to helping marketers find the answers they need.

Most companies today still give lip service to the idea of putting customers first. They resist making the transformational changes required to truly improve CX quality. Until they are willing to become more stakeholder centric, argues renowned CX expert Michael Lowenstein, they will struggle to win greater customer trust.

Brands still operate today as though media coverage and reach are all that matter, even as customers make every effort to evade their messaging. A new playbook is needed, according to CX expert Christina Garnett, which fosters communal spaces called "brandoms" where relationship building and brand building intersect. 

Suffering from social fatigue, people are increasingly turning to private spaces online where they are free to be more themselves. Community marketing expert Sara Wilson calls them "digital campfires" where brands are shut out of the conversation.

For most companies new product innovation is a game of chance, resulting in many more misses than hits. The reason, according to innovation expert Tony Ulwick, is that they don't take the time to figure out what customers actually need.  

Loyalty points programs are more popular than ever. The problem is they lead to transactional relationships where customers are more loyal to the program than the brand. To build true loyalty, advises loyalty expert Richard Schenker, companies must encourage ongoing engagement beyond point collection and redemption.

Rapid brand growth can sometimes lead to incompatibility between new and existing customer segments due to differing needs and expectations. Brand managers can minimize the possibility of segment conflict by anticipating and then carefully managing the relationship between them, according to leading marketing academic Ryan Hamilton.

Marketers tend to overinvest in acquiring new buyers while trying to keep the most valuable customers from leaving. That leaves a lot of customers feeling left out. To correct this imbalance, marketers need a more systematic framework for selective investment in the most promising relationship segments based on growth potential, according to the renowned marketing academic Michael Johnson.     

The Martech industry is going through a radical new era of technological  transformation which is changing the contours of the marketing technology landscape. A burst of AI-driven   growth and innovation is not only making marketing automation tools easier to use, says Martech expert Frans Riemersma, but the evolving "marchitecture" will liberate marketers from the onerous challenges of platform i...

Businesses today finally recognize the strategic urgency of unifying all customer data in an increasingly AI-driven world of personalized engagement. And now the   data technology has matured to the point where that goal is more achievable than ever,   according to SAP data expert Chris O'Hara.  

Personalization at scale has long been a dream of marketers. But until recently it has been more superficial than helpful, constrained by legacy technology and processes. Today, however, AI makes it easier to do than ever before. Now the only thing holding marketers back, according to personalization expert Mark Abraham, is their campaign mindset.  

Select excerpts from interviews with some of marketing's most prominent thought leaders on the state of marketing and the need for transformational change.

B2B companies tend to be laggards when it comes to delivering a superior customer experience, focused more on selling than servicing. But as a result of digital disruption, they have finally begun to embrace the need for a better post-sale journey, according to Jim Tincher, a leading expert in B2B experience design.

The market research industry is facing an existential crisis. Brand marketers have lost faith in old school methods of research – too slow, cumbersome and costly, in their view. To regain the trust of marketers, the consumer insights industry has to modernize their practices and start delivering insights that make more of a strategic impact, says Brett Townsend, a leading market research authority...

Buyer Personas have become a standard part of the marketing toolkit for creating customer empathy. But where they can go wrong is failing to reveal why customers make the decisions they do, according to persona design authority Jim Kraus.  

These days it can be risky for brands to take a stand on social issues or promote inclusiveness. But if marketers are able to honestly depict the diversity of society in their brand communications, their message has a far greater chance of being heard, according to cultural theorist Anastasia Karklina Gabriel.

Companies still tend to over-invest   in the acquisition of new customers while paying scant attention to relationships with existing customers. The solution to correcting that imbalance, argues value creation expert Allison Hartsoe, is knowing the collective lifetime value of all customers, known as customer equity.  

CX quality has declined in recent years as companies struggle to keep up with the expectations of customers. But the main reason, according to renowned CX expert Jon Picoult, is that they settle for mediocrity when they should be aspiring to make the experience more distinctive and memorable.

For all its flaws, social media has become the preferred way for people to stay connected with each other. Yet for too long marketers have failed to take it seriously. The time has come, says social media expert Andrew Jenkins, for marketers to give it the respect it deserves.

Brand tracking studies are a standard research tool for marketers who need to understand how people feel about their brand. The problem with them, according to brand health expert Jenni Romaniuk, is that they don't tell marketers what they really need to know to grow their brand.

Content glut has suffocated the chances of discovery for most marketers. The only way for content marketing to succeed, according to renowned content strategist Robert Rose, is to transform content operations teams into specialized publishing units closely attuned to audience interests and needs.