How Could Customer-focused Marketing Hurt Your Brand?

Click here to go to a BrandAid from Killian Branding.  It brought up interesting downsides to being a customer-focused company.  In an age where customer-centric activities are expected of all businesses, claims of being focused on customers' needs change from competitive advantage to liability.

Unfortunately for many companies, they still tout their love of customers as their main strength.  If you think about it, though, who DOESN'T love their customers?  Buyers of your products are who keep the doors open; without them, you would have no business.  So, of course, you love them to pieces.  It's a give!

On what, then, should companies focus their attentions?  The article states some interesting statistics that help put it in perspective.  For instance, if a company experiences 6% growth each year with it's current customer base, it will double its business in 12 years.  That's not bad, but, especially for companies with high growth potential, that could be increased dramatically by focusing efforts on gaining new loyal customers.  That's right: NEW customers!

Remember the old adage: it's more expensive to gain a new customer that to cultivate an existing one.  Does this new focus mean the adage isn't true anymore?  No, of course not!  It's still cheaper to keep existing clients. That means that less time and energy has to be spent to keep them happy.  Now, what can you do with the extra time?  Get NEW customers!

-MJP

Reputation Management

If you've never been to LinkedIn, I'd recommend it as a great professional networking site. My favorite feature is the "Answers" section, where you can offer answers to questions other users have asked, or you can write a question of your own. I recently liked the answer I gave to someone in my network. The question asked about managing companies' reputations. It listed a few agencies that specialize in this area and a link to a blog entry about the subject. Below is my response to the question. I felt it was a pretty good answer, but was apparently NOT the answer the person was looking to receive.

"While any of the companies you've listed could do a good job of attempting to manage a company's brand and reputation, we all must consider something: both the brand and the reputation of a company exist in the minds of consumers. Understanding this fact helps relieve some of the pressure that companies put themselves under. They have no direct control over exactly what people think of them.

"That being said, there is a plethora of ways in which to engage customers, and that includes B2B customers. To start out, any company can do some things that don't require the aid of a specialized agency. The road to a good reputation ALWAYS begins with improved customer service; it's the one sure-fire way to improve the way people think about a business, and it's the one part of the good reputation equation that must be there. Every other strategic improvement will relate to the specific business model, but a company that wants a good reputation in the minds of potential and current customers MUST start with customer service.

"Agencies that advertise that they can 'change your reputation' are guilty of puffery. No amount of dollars spent can change the way people think about you. A good reputation management agency will teach how to manage the current reputation – it’s in the consumers’ minds – and suggest ways that customers can be engaged to help to improve the relationship."