The Customer Ecosystem - a focus for CMOs
Naras and I are in the process of writing a book chapter for a project called Masters in Marketing. Focused on strategic brand management, the book largely provides guidance for marketers looking to understand how to strengthen their brand in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. We've been tasked with writing about the "focus of the CMO"...and as you'll come to see, we go slightly against the grain; while brand matters, the customer and his/her ecosystem matter more.
Below is the start of our work. I'll publish more pieces as it evolves, but I certainly welcome your input as we build out this chapter.
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To think that a company has complete control over its brand message is naïve in this day and age. Why? Because marketers aren't the only ones communicating about their brands. There is an entire customer ecosystem that ultimately influences how a company's products are sold. Bloggers, as example - a relatively minor phenomenon even five years ago - now wield an incredible amount of influence, perhaps more so than traditional media.
The reality is that CMOs need to understand the full customer ecosystem - where and how a customer engages with a brand - across all touchpoints, media and channels - and identify those areas they can influence and manage. And they need to socialize customer information across their organizations to inform all parts of the business - sales, service, product development, etc. Why? Because they have the data.
It's true that a CMO might not have sole responsibility for the customer; but they do control the customer information repository (or customer interaction hub as we call it) and should - at the very least -be responsible for gleaning (and then sharing) customer insights; establishing the business rules and guidelines for all customer communications and sometimes, interactions - both inbound and outbound, across all channels; and partnering with other parts of the organization to strengthen customer bonds.
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The chapter will go on to define the customer ecosystem in greater detail (with fun visuals, of course). It will also identify and discuss the primary drivers of customer-centricity, namely: changes in consumer behavior, availability of content, channel complexity, and, of course, the social media phenomenon.
Finally, we'll share the our approach to helping companies become more customer-centric...really thinking through the entire customer ecosystem...by employing a Six Dimensions approach to their marketing.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Michelle, I think Red Bull is an excellent example of an original brand message gone astray primarily due to the "customer ecosystem". Please refer to the following article (paragraph 5 onward):
http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=44
I look forward to reading future blogs on this topic.
-Candice Narvaez