Four Factors of Marketing Success During Good and Bad Times

Executives like to discuss techniques that help to execute competitive strategies. Through board discussions there is a strong link between branding and customer experience and shareholder value. So why then are such fundamental ideologies lost in the quagmire of daily business?

Recent research across industry sectors illustrates a failing of companies to invest in what they believe in. Many organizations treat marketing and customer loyalty superficially. Rather than focus on items that lower cost of acquisition, they thrust emphasis in new sales and advertising leaving a loyal following. Maintaining organizational marketing health is vital to organizational existence. Our work with hundreds of firms gathered data that measured marketing health. Our metrics suggest that strategically aligning four core values connects marketing health and business performance.

Customer Loyalty

Today most businesses ubiquitously clamor for customer satisfaction. There is so much literature on the subject that tips are as frequent as channels on cable television. Customer satisfaction is a bromide. The more important issue to focus is the customer experience. Ideology here focuses on the interaction of your client from initial reception through the purchase ending in follow-up. Presently, organizations operate in an acute microcosm; customer satisfaction reviews sole interactions with clients. Customer experience is a constant and repetitive occurrence that illustrates accurate and consistent trends

Some companies don't understand why they should worry about customer experience. Others collect and quantify data on it but don't circulate the findings. Still others do the measuring and distributing but fail to make anyone responsible for putting the information to use. In a recent survey by Bain and Company only 8% of clients believe they had experienced superior service. The reason for its importance is the multiplicity of potential new clients.

Yet the customer experience is more than data collection and analysis, customer experience is cultural adaptation. It must be a top priority for executives. Culturally, executives must engage employees and the motive of the organization must be the customer experience. Simply, put, the cost of acquisition lowers due to a multiplicity of client interactions with perspective clients. Content clients discuss satisfactory issues with others thereby assisting marketing and branding efforts.

There exists four reasons for ignoring the customer experience:

A lack of recognition for client interaction
A fear of survey data
Loss of strategic direction based on client assessment
Allocation of budgets

These factors are merely excuses. Customer experience must correspond with company vision, more importantly the motive must culturally adapt. Those organizations that create a devout base lower marketing and create brand- just ask Apple, UPS, Starbuck's even Southwest.

Brand Connection

Branding is value, the value of your product or service and more importantly the perception clients have of your business. A brand to many is worth more than the business. Think of the brands you consume; Coke Cola, FedEx, Kleenex to name a few of many. Some brands are worth more than the business itself- Coke Cola is worth $70 billion.

The value of a brand creates an allure to the business. Consumers simply want to conduct business because of its power. Exemplars are Kleenex for quality, Rolls Royce for its luxury and Harvard for its education. Building a useful, titillating and valuable brand produces a cachet. Prospective customers will find you and they hear about your brand and value your offerings based on perception. The value of a brand enables the business to differentiate itself from competition.

The best tools for brand building are to:

Survey your clients
Interview several clients and seek trends
Fulfill a market need that is congruent with your particular business
Define the techniques used to help build the brand

Continue to test and build until you have exhausted your devices. Brands need time to be understood by customers and time to know you. Finally, branding does not exist alone, it is pertinent that tools exist to market the brand; advertising, promotions, public relations and web sites need co-habitation. Not only should you pull consumers to you but they should feel compelled to visit by hearing about you through numerous sources. Today there exists too many marketing distractions, build a brand that differentiates, that adds value, that fulfills a need and your business will build on solid foundation.

Strategic Alignment

Strategy is a term often discussed yet not often reviewed. Strategy is a cogent vision of the future. The board and the executive team must outline the marketing motives. The strategic view of the company is a macro-view of the world, yet present competitive forces yield to tactical decisions and movement away from strategy.

Measuring strategic impact to the organization squarely assists business performance. Strategic marketing includes interactions with clients, suppliers, and even relationships with employees. Organizations must articulate client interactions so that all conversations with clients are ubiquitous. Simply put, organizations must implement strategies that enable facile client interactions. Exemplars found include Southwest Airlines and Amazon. Each interaction with clients is seamless and each develops euphoria for returning clients. Consumers desire businesses they trust and respect. Clearly, differentiation lies in strategies the align services not products with clients.

Comparative Analysis

Survey, CRM and other data analysis are metrics used to measure success. Data collected can be ambiguous if surveys reveal information related to recent interactions, not trends. Further, data collected is only as good as data collected. Many organizations simply collect, yet do not analyze data carefully. Although surveys are the tool used most often for gathering data on past patterns, today's proliferation of technology allows for online forums, blogs, websites, and even telephone interaction. Sometimes customers' failure to react provides contrasting information. If employees and spreadsheets are not attuned to customer interaction, data indicates incorrect results.

Executives today will tell shareholders and boards of their busyness. However, nothing is more important than meeting with clients and understanding competitive and comparative patters. Recently, the CEO of ING established a presence in the Call Center to hear first hand customer data. Crucial conversations with staff and clients provide enough data to assist in resetting strategy and improve performance. Comparing trends and listening to client interactions immediately enables revisions to marketing strategy while also helping to defend and reestablish the brand.

To remain actively healthy with organizational marketing it is imperative you look at your core. In the conundrum or daily issues it is easy to get derailed from the rudimentary business components. As issues go awry with competitive athletes they immediately return to core. They review, analyze and redevelop the core principles that provide their prowess. Business much like professional sports operates in a similar paradigm. Perhaps it is time to review, realign and revitalize your marketing efforts.