Blog: Customer marketing

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Treat Your Customer Like You Would Treat Your Best Friend

Apr 21 2011

"What a ridiculous concept," you may be thinking after reading the title of this post. But is it so ridiculous? In today's hyper-connected, consumer-powered world, people demand a stronger relationship with the brands that they interact with. And it recently occurred to me that the same rules that govern your relationship with your 'best friends' can also be applied to the relationship you have with your best customers. (Obviously, you're going to have to humor me a bit on this one.)

Customers Want You To Know Who They Are - It's true, today, customers expect to be considered as individual people, and don't want to be mass marketed to. They expect an offer to refer to something they are interested in, and won't be too happy if they receive an offer that has nothing to do with their past spending behavior. "You should have known better (Insert Brand Here)!" It works the same way with your best friend. I expect my best friend to know me enough that my birthday present has some personal value (concert tickets to Hootie and the Blowfish as opposed to Nickelback - you know I won't like that!)

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Does Brand Marketing still matter?

Feb 8 2010

At a keynote panel at the National Center of Database Marketing (NCDM), I made a comment that customer marketing was eclipsing brand marketing as the core of marketing's mission in many companies.  That sparked a lively discussion among the panelists.  As is to be expected among panelists at a database marketing conference, there was general agreement that this was the case.  But is it, really?  Does brand marketing still matter?  Of course, it does!

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