How can brands deepen customer loyalty?

When I was growing up, I had some great friends. Highly accomplished and smarter than I. So much so that I was seen as the "guy from outside", not one of them (in some places, at least).

Then, I did something. A little something without forethought that eternally made me a household name (at least, in one friend's case). This single act would contribute to my well-being in their home. :)

Back then, most of my friends were applying to Grad schools in the US for their higher studies.

One particular friend of mine, let's name him Jim, was also going to the US for higher studies. As was the procedure back then in the city I came from, visa applicants to the US had to queue up outside the consulate in unearthly hours, in some cases, this could be as early as 2 AM, on the roads. A rather weird system of first come, first served existed to even apply (this was before the advent of Online booking clearly) for the US visas.

Jim was almost apologetic as he looked at me - It was best done if someone could take turns in the queue (it was almost inhuman for 1 person to stand for more than 10 hours and you lost your place if you venture out for a break!).

I offered to go in early morning. So I found myself standing outside the consulate on a chilly morning at about 4 AM with hundreds of others as well.

That was it - This single act of "kindness" was all it took for my friend, his brother, his aged mom and dad to look at me as lovingly as one of their own!

So much so that my friend insisted that I stay with him many years later when I visited the US and ensured I was comfortable.

If there is a lesson for brands from real life, then here it is. If Brands can act as good samaritans for consumers, if brands can put their neck on the block, if they can do "good" deeds for their customers. They have already won half the battle. They have captured not just "share-of-wallet", they have captured "share-of -heart". 

And I am not talking about the fancy title of "CSR" here. I am not talking about charity drives and donation camps conducted by companies. I am not talking about raising funds for Cancer awareness. While these are noble initiatives definitely, I am talking about essential marketing by companies. 

Every single Marketing campaign, Every single promotion released, every single ad released on print, Every single communication out to consumers need to carry this spirit of do-good. Recognize the human at the other end. Keep his end benefits in mind. Act Responsible.

From Marketing to humans, move to Marketing is human.

The Primark episode and what it means to brands...

Making profits, the right way!

 

 

As we saw a few weeks (or a week?) ago, the deadly accident in which over a 900 people have been impacted, it is indeed a grave moment for all of us. One cannot help feel sorrow and cry out for our unfortunate brethren.

 

That said, one wonders - could this have been avoided? Maybe. For a world-class retailer, wasn't there one single clause or one person responsible for ensuring the safety of all it's workers? Did not some of these brands come over from their HQ once to ensure working conditions were safe, peaceful and danger-free? 

 

On the other hand, we often find companies/marketers complaining that they are unable to make big profits.

 

How do good brands become great and great brands become even more successful?

 

How does a brand continue to generate higher profits in today's hyper-complex, hyper-competitive marketplace?

 

There is a solution to this - This solution goes in the form of a quality, a virtue, a practice that seems to be non-existent today.

 

This is a quality called E-M-P-A-T-H-Y, Good old-fashioned empathy.

 

Empathy to our customers, Empathy to our shareholders, Empathy to our employees, Empathy to the environment, Empathy to the future.

 

If Airlines are more empathetic to their customers, they will start serving better food and not give us trash.

If Banks are more empathetic to their customers, they will stop sending them 5 offers every month and instead start listening.

If Telcos are more empathetic to their customers, they will ensure talk-time and billing is absolutely transparent with no hidden charges.

 

Naturally, over time, all of such actions will lead to true customer delight and help maintain a personal relationship with the brand. Customers can notice between a brand that is being empathetic (to them) and one that is not.

 

 

At Xerago, as part of our Customer value Maximization approach, we also conduct an EVM (Empathy value maximization) exercise – the objective of this exercise is to conduct an audit of all communication made by any organization (internal or external) and make recommendations to make them more empathetic. Being empathetic to customers is not mere lip service; it has to be backed up by genuine actions, again part of our study.

 

It may be old-fashioned, but it is nevertheless a much-needed trait in enterprises today. For the sake of everyone.

(pic courtesy: Mark Parisi)

Marriage or Marketing - Long distances never work!

May 1 - The day when hard-working labourers are recognized and given a break. Do we know why May 1 was selected as the International Workers day?

It apparently began with some violence.

According to Wikipedia, The police reacted by firing on the workers, killing four demonstrators. "Reliable witnesses testified that all the pistol flashes came from the center of the street, where the police were standing, and none from the crowd. Moreover, initial newspaper reports made no mention of firing by civilians. A telegraph pole at the scene was filled with bullet holes, all coming from the direction of the police."

Wow, that is some description on how International Worker's day started..

On a different note, I recently heard that a close friend separated from his wife of 4 years - the reason given, they had always been working out of different parts of the country and this took a toll. Sad as it may seem, this is reality..

Long distance marriages have seldom worked and in the cases they did, well, my salutations to the couple!

Wait though, what has this to do anything with our main theme, Marketing?? There is a lot in common!

Marketing or Marriages - The closer the distance, the easier it is to succeed.

Remember the good old days when TVCs used to be only source of reaching consumers? So we had Radio ads, TVCs and Print ads and beyond that, there was nothing. Good and Bad.

As a consumer, if I wanted to buy an expensive product, I was probably influenced by the best ads I saw on TV or the best Print ad that a company had come up with in my local newspaper.

Job done. Case closed. Product purchased. And they lived happily...

Let us look at the Advertising/Marketing scenario now. Whether it be the recent Samsung S4 or whether Unilever launches a new soap variant, Brands have to cover all possible medium - TV, Print, YouTube videos, Facebook Promos, Celebrity launches, set up 1800 support, Telemarketing, OOB, whew...

Good News for Brands? Maybe.
Good News for Consumers? Maybe Not.

What does this mean for the consumer?

While the physical distance has reduced and shrunk, the psychological distance has increased.


Let us try representing this pictorially (albeit a bad picture):

Selection / Buying Thought process Then:

Selection / Buying Thought process Now:

So, we clearly have a challenge here, ain't we? How do we get closer to consumers?

Our customer value Maximization approach may help here. I will attempt to answer this in my next post. Till then, Let me sign off with a Bryan Adams number on Long-distance:

Oceans apart, day after day
And I slowly go insane
I hear your voice, on the line
But it doesn't stop the pain
If I see you next to never
how can we say forever

(chorus)
Wherever you go, whatever you do
I will be right here, waiting for you
Whatever it takes, or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you......

(Alas, how we wish we could say this for brands!)

Good Customer service - Do or Die?

In my previous roles, I used to handle a bit of Delivery management. Of course, I know all about projects not being completed on time and the unpleasant situation of handling the customer. They should have given me an Oscar for the reasons I came up with!

On a serious note, what is good customer service? Does it mean you need to deliver 100%, all the time? Does it mean even if a few people get killed, thanks to your unrealistic schedules, you got to deliver? Of course, all the textbooks on delivery emphasize so, they even talk about under-committing and over-delivering.

While there cannot be compromise possibly on deliveries, some studies tell us over 60% of the projects are never completed on time. 60%?? Wow! So does that mean all companies, big or small, go through bad delivery days? Y-e-s! Does this mean, all companies, whether they adopt CMM/PCMM/Prince/PMP methodologies have skipped deadlines? You bet!

So, how does, one really handle this? As I was waiting for my MRT here in Singapore, this poster caught my eye:

Neat information!

What this sign tells us may be true for managing our customers too:

a) While this is certainly an inconvenience for passengers (even more so in peak times), the sign clearly manages our expectations. We got to do the same with customers!

b) It manages expectations, in advance, not AFTER the train arrives and we realize this is not a good way to board the train.

c) Customers (in this case, the general public) do not expect 100% adherence (not all the time), they just want to be warned to enable them to plan their lives!

Good delivery/customer service is not just about doing a darn good job of delivering on the committed dates. 

Good service sometimes translates to ensuring your customers know what is coming up and what is not!

It helps them plan their schedules, their lives, their stakeholders better. Infact, customers almost expect delays to happen - they don't want it all, they just want us to tell them in a timely manner so as to make changes to their plans.

Of course, this does not mean we start delaying projects with post-it notes. This only means, in those inevitable delay phases, it is important to prepare customers, give them time to react and offer a plan B.

What are your thoughts?

Everyone loves a Cornetto!

Now, I am sure all of us have eaten a Cornetto at some time or the other. Ah! the pleasure of biting into the Cornetto! Are you surprised to know that it has been around since the '60's according to this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornetto_(ice_cream))?

If by now, you have not already started drooling over this as I have, here is some more temptation for you:

Aha! Now, try resisting this! :-)

Hold on, this is not a blog about Cornetto itself or ice creams or chocolates (sigh! how I wish it was!) itself, this is a blog about Marketing/Analytics.

Have you ever wondered what makes the Cornetto a favorite ice cream for many of us? I mean, sure there are a dozen ice creams out there and newer and better ones at that, but the Cornetto does seem to hold a small, special place..I will tell you what my top reason for loving the Cornetto is (and I am sure I will hear a few dozen yes's to this) - 

a) It looks yummy for starters
b) The first bite is full of Ice cream and nuts and your chosen flavour

And you go wow, that was sure nice but then the follow-through experience is even more yummy, ain't it? Once you bite through the ice cream, the chocolate! Yes!!! the chocolate is hidden and comes as a slurrp-pleasant surprise! You just want more of it! 

But wait, it isn't over yet - 

The very last bite of the waffle cone - again, there is just that last bit of chocolate that makes you go wow! 

A complete "I-Scream" experience, if there is one!

Good Marketing is just this - if you are able to deliver a Cornetto experience to your customers/TA/Segment, you are probably doing it right. 

The first look, the first bite, the follow-through and the climax - if we are able to package all these elements well in our offers to customers, we will hit bullseye sooner or later.

Unfortunately, for many brands, if the eDMs are fantastic, the follow-through customer experience is not just that great (coupled with the fact that we are talking channel-agnostic experience), if our follow-through experience is just great, our last-mile execution and actual delivery to the customer sucks.

If you have had such great experiences with brands, kindly leave a note. Happy to note your comments and eat my Cornetto too!

Just one Cornetto,

give it to me,

delicious ice-cream, of Italy,

creamy vanilla and choco dream,

Give me a Cornetto,

from Wall's ice cream.

Cornetto, anyone?

Cheers!

How Agile can Analytics be?

As many practitioners and Project Managers know, managing SDLC projects has its own nuances - and typically, there are some proven (?) methods of managing large accounts - waterfall and other such methods. However, What we do here is to see how to successfully incorporate Agile practices in managing Analytics assignments. From my experience in both managing web-based applications and Analytics assignments, Analytics is not as "malleable" to following a set of SDLC process. I would love to hear thoughts from enthusiasts on what their experiences are in this. What process do they follow? What has proven successful?

Long Long (Xer)Ago...

We are in the field of customer value maximization. I am not sure if this was by design or by chance, but we seem to be rather well-placed as a hybrid model between an ad agency (though we dont deal with print or TV media), an Analytics consulting company, A technology player and a Process enhancer - We cater to most of our clients needs across these 4 pillars of our company. In short, any marketing initiatives that can be measured is where our capabilities are. We either architect such programs (online brand strategy, usability, building customer segments, CRM roadmaps and so on) or take up currently running programs and help customers derive greater value. While one team is busy designing that awesome creative (incidentally, one of our creatives got short-listed for awards last year), another team is busy help a customer increase sales through his portal, while yet another team is working on building strategic segments of customers.

sample this: http://demo.xerago.com/eps/Portfolio/portfolio/index.htm

Boy, do we live in interesting times!