Archive for June, 2009
Develop a plan to get your company to be more customer-focused
Posted by: | CommentsCompanies that consistently deliver more value to their customers also consistently generate higher revenues. Companies should commit to becoming more customer-focused and should develop a plan to consistently examine the value proposition they are offering. This seems to be obvious, but many companies lose sight of customers in their efforts to generate new leads, optimize operations, and boost revenues. Marketers can directly affect the bottom line by developing a plan to become more customer-focused.
To get your company to become more customer-focused marketers should start by getting leader buy-in on the concept. It is critical to get leadership buy-in before launching initiatives and campaigns to the employee base. To get leadership buy in marketers should accumulate case studies where companies have found success by focusing on the customer. These articles and case studies will provide plenty of real-world examples of how customer-focused organizations are successful. Marketers should then develop a customer contact map that highlights how and when customer contact occurs at the company. Present the information to leadership explaining how improvements in the customer contact area and a commitment to become more customer-focused can boost revenues and growth.
With leadership buy-in, an advisory council should be assembled to review and improve all customer contact points. I would suggest that representative from sales and operations are included on the advisory council. Each contact point should be examined with a goal of identifying improvement opportunities. Additionally, ask some of your customers to meet with the advisory council to offer their feedback. Remember, you are trying to improve your value proposition to them so ask them directly what they value. The council should review all available information and then develop an action plan for improvement.
The plan for improvement should be open and celebrated. Tell customers and employees about the company’s new commitment to its customers. Keep people up to date with progress and let leadership know when milestones are met. A serious commitment to the plan will require an adequate budget to make the changes that the advisory council recommends. Also consider that employees that work with the customers may require new training to implement the recommended changes. During the execution of the plan identify employees that excel in the new system and locate people that have a commitment to customer service. Place these people in front of the customer as often as possible.
Finally, getting your company to be more customer-focused is a lot of work. Make the commitment to becoming more customer-focused and think in long terms. It is critically important to start to record and measure successes and failures and always identify opportunities for improvement. Launching an annual customer satisfaction survey can be a great measurement tool to identify opportunities to improve. Another tool to identify opportunities for improvement is to keep your customers active in the customer-commitment plan. A customer advisory board consisting of both large and small customer, if properly managed, can offer brutally honest feedback but it can also greatly improve the company’s customer focus as well as identify new business opportunities.
Becoming a customer-focused company is not easily accomplished but it can be very rewarding. Companies that consistently deliver high value to their customers also consistently generate higher margins and grow much faster than their competitors. It takes much more than just saying that customers are important it takes a serious plan to determine what is important to them.
To achieve brand salience educate consumers about product category
Posted by: | CommentsTo successfully develop a strong brand identity, marketers must ask themselves who they are and where their product or service fits into the product category? Only when this is understood are marketers able to successfully build a brand, increase brand salience with consumers, and grow sales. Brand salience is the extent to which a brand stands out from its competitors and it should be the goal of all marketers to increase the brand salience of their product or service. When brands have salience they more easily stand out from competitors.
The more the brand stands out from competitors the easier it is for people to recognize and recall the brand and this translates into increased sales. Brand recognition is critical for products to stand out on busy retail shelves where they are surrounded by competing products. Visual cues are the most prominent elements of brand salience but other brand elements also contribute to customers’ abilities to recall and recognize the brand.
The brand name, logo, symbol, shape, and texture, are also contribute cues that aid consumers in recognizing the brand. Building brand awareness involves combining a series of brand elements that work together to properly represent the product or service. To be effective, these elements must not only communicate the brand essence but also must educate consumers about the product or service category in which the brand competes. When consumers fully understand the product or service category marketers can easily communicate the basic functions the brand provides and how it meets specific consumers needs. This differentiates the product or service from its competitors and increases its brand salience.
Out-of-home video networks will become more viable channel for ad placement
Posted by: | CommentsPrivate out-of-home television networks provide unlimited opportunities to directly target consumers. Companies such as gas stations, grocery stores, and quick-service restaurants are developing in-store video networks to market their brands at the point of purchase. This is providing an opportunity for content producers and advertisers to expand their reach outside of the home.
Out-of –home video networks typically stream a mix of news, sports updates and localized time and weather features along with advertising spots. Systems such as this distract customers from the annoyance of waiting in line while providing relevant information to enhance the customers experience in the establishment. According to Mediaweek, Anne Blumenstein, the VP of Field Marketing and Media for Carl’s Jr. stated “We think that our customers will come to love it almost as much as our burgers.”
Out of home video networks provide an opportunity for media planners to target specific target groups in appropriate locations. It also allows a less expensive means for local advertisers to take advantage of television advertising on a smaller and much more targeted scale. In the future, out-of-home video networks will continue to expand and become a more viable channel for targeted ad placement.
For more information read Katy Bachman’s article Carl’s Jr. Rolls Out In-Store Video Net at Mediaweek.com -http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/out-there/digital/e3i638d13c527612515ff7d51c4601cd2d9
Competitive intelligence critical component of marketing
Posted by: | CommentsA critical component of a marketing function is to develop a system to organize competitive intelligence. Many companies can focus on their near competitors while ignoring distant competitors and new threats by emerging technologies. Monitoring the competitive landscape is necessary for marketers to develop strategic marketing plans.
To properly collect, assess, and disseminate competitive intelligence, companies should identify a person or office that is responsible for this task. The competitive intelligence expert should be skilled at research and analysis, proficient in internet-based technologies, able to write competitor profiles, and able to analyze information to form accurate conclusions. A process should be developed that regularly near competitors, distant competitors and emerging technologies in the market. A good competitive intelligence profession should be able to able to determine how competitors will think and react during different market scenarios.
It is important for companies to realize that emerging technologies are a greater threat to companies than existing competitors but they also offer great investment opportunities. By monitoring emerging technologies, companies can protect themselves from being blindsided by a new technology or process that renders their basic products or services obsolete. Additionally, if threats from emerging technologies are identified early enough companies have identified an investment opportunity for the future.
To learn more about competitive intelligence visit Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals at http://www.scip.org/
Measuring media consumption can be tricky
Posted by: | CommentsWith the expansion of media content across multiple delivery systems and consumers becoming more mobile everyday it is becoming increasingly difficult to get accurate measurement of content consumption. Consider how many television broadcasts are seen in restaurants, bars, airports, airplanes, sports venues, malls, etc. These publicly distributed video networks although not in the home are still distributing content and being seen by people. As content is being broadcast into public viewing areas it is obvious groups of people are viewing the content and there is a correlation between venue attendance and content consumption.
Having the ability to accurate estimate content consumption is important in setting advertising rates, show ratings, salaries and wages, and determining success of media plans. Technology is being explored to begin to measure media consumption in today’s increasingly mobile world. If accomplished companies will be able to using rating systems to measure at home television consumption, internet consumption, radio consumption, newspaper and magazine distribution, and now out-of-home venue consumption. This will allow media companies to more accurately know when and where consumers are being exposed to their content.
When media consumption is more accurately measured across the numerous delivery systems available today as well as open venue viewing media planners will have more options to get their content in front of the appropriate target audience. As the measurement systems become more sophisticated and become more integrated content will become segmented across delivery systems and media planners will be able to develop a more holistic approach.
Read Katy Bachman - http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/media-agencies-research/e3i6fad5a2a1d8e5132f9c6cfcde53cf482
Do you understand your customers?
Posted by: | CommentsMarketers need to have a clear understanding of their target customers? In fact, everybody working at the company should have a clear understanding of their target customers? If there is no clear understanding of customers then the company is in a vulnerable situation and needs to take evasive action or sales will diminish. First, the company should begin a dialogue with its customers to gain basic customer insight and begin to understand how they think, act, and feel. This can be done by visiting their offices, stores, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities in person and having one-on-one conversations. Visits are important but constant contact needs to be initiated through telephone calls, emails, and outings and other relationship building tactics. The key is to begin to build a relationship with the customer. Without this relationship there is no personal connection and they have no “skin in the game.”
While the dialogue building is beginning and the customer relationship is beginning to develop, a more comprehensive market research study should be planned. A detailed market research study should be executed on an annual basis and it should incorporate formal research methodologies such as: on-line surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, in-store research, and mystery shopping. All of these methods will increase customer insight tremendously and will move you toward a more thorough understanding of your target customers. When you understand your customers you will be in a better position to understand their needs, perceptions, and preferences. This new understanding will strengthen your relationship, make you more valuable to your target customers, and ultimately increase your sales.
Want to build a brand choose brand elements wisely
Posted by: | CommentsTo build a brand the brand elements should be the foundation for all branding decisions. There are three key brand elements that brand managers need to consider to effectively building a brand; is it memorable, is it meaningful, and is it likable? These key branding elements will inherently determine a brands success.
For the brand to be memorable it needs to be easily recognized and easily recalled by consumers-customers. Brands should be designed to be intrinsically memorable by selecting attention grabbing names, symbols, logos, and slogans. To make these brand associations more memorable the goal should be to design them to be attention grabbing. The more attention these elements are able to generate the more recall power they will have with consumers-customers.
To make a brand meaningful it should be descriptive and persuasive regarding the product or service. Consumer-customers should be able to instinctively know what type of product the names, symbols, logos, and slogans are representing. Additionally, the brand elements should persuade consumer-customers that the product or service possesses key attributes or benefits that they place value on. To make a brand meaningful the brand communication should consistently present general information about the category of the brand and the attributes and benefits of the product or service.
Brands are much more successful if they are likable. To make brands likeable marketers should design branding materials that are aesthetically pleasing and visually interesting. The visual associations with brands should always be considered and be of very high quality. To make brands likeable they need to be associated with aesthetic sound, text, and imagery that will appeal to consumers-customers.
By developing memorable, meaningful, and likeable brand elements the product or service companies will enjoy many advantages. With the amount of noise in the world today the best strategy to build a successful brand is to build a foundation that is memorable, meaningful, and likeable. The consistency of these elements will increase the brand equity and allow for product or service recognition and recall. This is the goal of branding to increase the mindshare in consumers-customers.
