While this use to be quite an exception until 2 years ago more and more often I supervise BA and MSc graduation assignments of Business Administration Students in our faculty related to the role of the New Media (and recently increasingly of the Social Media / Web 2.0). More and more business realize that marketing is changing and this is reflected in assignments they offer to marketing students. The development is very positive indicating that businesses begin to take the Internet and E-Marketing seriously. One example of such a MSc graduation thesis was the one written by my student Rene Borggreve (left in the photo with me in the middle and my colleague Dr. Mehmet Aydin right in the lobby of Harvard Business School in Boston during the faculty study trip to the US in 2005) who recently graduated on a thesis dealing with the subject of using Web 2.0 as marketing tool in launching a product of a big multinational (where Rene already works). It was en excellent piece of work that made me proud for the quality of students our faculty delivers. Rene and an increasing number of his colleagues represent a new generation of marketers that understand the role of the New Media as part of the marketing strategy and will shape the way marketing is applied in practice.
Showing posts with label E-Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E-Marketing. Show all posts
March 1, 2009
New Marketing and a new generation of Marketers
While this use to be quite an exception until 2 years ago more and more often I supervise BA and MSc graduation assignments of Business Administration Students in our faculty related to the role of the New Media (and recently increasingly of the Social Media / Web 2.0). More and more business realize that marketing is changing and this is reflected in assignments they offer to marketing students. The development is very positive indicating that businesses begin to take the Internet and E-Marketing seriously. One example of such a MSc graduation thesis was the one written by my student Rene Borggreve (left in the photo with me in the middle and my colleague Dr. Mehmet Aydin right in the lobby of Harvard Business School in Boston during the faculty study trip to the US in 2005) who recently graduated on a thesis dealing with the subject of using Web 2.0 as marketing tool in launching a product of a big multinational (where Rene already works). It was en excellent piece of work that made me proud for the quality of students our faculty delivers. Rene and an increasing number of his colleagues represent a new generation of marketers that understand the role of the New Media as part of the marketing strategy and will shape the way marketing is applied in practice.
November 10, 2008
An airline's digital transformation
As an old KLM employee myself I am always interested in developments in the airline industry and this company. While KLM was by no means not one of the pioneers of E-Commerce in the airline world they have shown a remarkable progress in this field during the recent years. An interesting article about the digital transformation of this company that expects now to earn 40% of its revenues online published by Accenture recently. The term of co-sourcing is introduced and explained also in this article; interesting for those allergic to rampant outsourcing.
October 30, 2007
Online Marketing in four simple steps
STEP 3
SYNERGY: The Organizational Integration
Creating an online presence is one thing but making this part of your organization and its network is another. These are the issues that the Synergy in the Web Marketing Mix model is dealing with.
Integration into the organizational processes, value chain and network is a process often underestimated by web designers and site operators. Yet this can make the difference between functional and dysfunctional web sites, between online success and failure.
What is exactly the Synergy and what are the main issues underpinning the integration of the online and the offline organization? Synergy is the integrating processes necessary for realising the virtual organisation’s objectives. Synergies can develop between the virtual and the physical organisation as well as between the virtual organisation and third parties. This Synergy factor embraces a wide range of issues divided into three categories of integration: The Front Office, the Back Office and the Third Parties.
a. The Front Office Integration. Refers to integration of the company web presence with the conventional above the line marketing activities i.e. the corporate communication and product distribution. That means the full integration of the Web operation into the company’s communication plan (advertisement, promotions, PR) as well as the existing channel structures.
It makes a lot of sense to integrate the online presence part of the marketing program by assimilating for example the promotion of the virtual activities into the current promotional plan. The effort must be focused on utilising existing communication strategies, brands, tools and channels in order to promote and support the Web operation during the introduction stage. The objective of this communication is to inform existing as well as potential customers about the firm’s Web activities and communicate to target markets the advantages of doing business online.
In addition to the promotional integration the web operation must become an integral part of the existing distribution structures. Depending on the type of the firm distribution structure this integration can face different degrees of difficulty. The easiest case manifests itself when existing distribution models can accommodate the online distribution requirements without serious changes and disruption of existing operations. Mail-order or telephone sales firms had no difficulty whatsoever to use the existing distribution structures for virtual operations.
b. The Back Office Integration. The second type of synergy refers to integration of the web activities into the value-adding organizational activities like production, fulfilment, logistics and Total Quality Management. Often firms underestimate the effects of online operations on their operations, something resulting in bottlenecks and unhappy customers. The web forces many firms to review their traditional methods and find ways to improve their efficiency: Online customers require customize rather than mass products and the disintermediation of the Internet means that organizations must be able to respond directly to changes in demand levels without the luxury of the dealer’s buffer inventory; firms are forced to introduce lean and clean production and logistics structures.
Other organizational integration issues often overlooked are the assimilation of the web activity into the legacy TQM and control systems, ERP Systems and Databases. While these types of integration seem trivial they often become the reason of major bottlenecks and source of customer dissatisfaction.
c. Third party Integration. Until last year when I was referring to this type of integration I was talking about integrating the web activities into the organizational value chain by finding how to create win-win situations with channel partners and avoid channel conflicts. Another form of third party integration refers to finding other parties and co-operate with them in order to increase your online exposure and attract more customers. In this sense search engine optimization and affiliate marketing can be very useful tools.
However the last years another form of third party integration emerges. With the advent of the Web 2.0 and the Social Media, online firms and traditional companies must explore the available options to utilize such media as part of their online networks but also as means of informing their customers, listening to their wishes or complaints and influencing their buying behavior. Using the social media as marketing tools is a very interesting yet complicated issue but worthwhile to look at: according to a recent study of Deloitte Touche in the USA 62% of the US consumers read consumer-generated online reviews and 98% of them find these reviews reliable enough while 80% of these consumers say that reading reviews has affected their buying intentions. Engaging the social media as means to influence consumers is the secret of the tremendous success of companies like Amazon.com and it is also the dream of every direct marketer.
Next week: The Technology Issues (SYSTEM)
Details: The 4S Web Marketing Mix paper
SYNERGY: The Organizational Integration
Creating an online presence is one thing but making this part of your organization and its network is another. These are the issues that the Synergy in the Web Marketing Mix model is dealing with.
Integration into the organizational processes, value chain and network is a process often underestimated by web designers and site operators. Yet this can make the difference between functional and dysfunctional web sites, between online success and failure.
What is exactly the Synergy and what are the main issues underpinning the integration of the online and the offline organization? Synergy is the integrating processes necessary for realising the virtual organisation’s objectives. Synergies can develop between the virtual and the physical organisation as well as between the virtual organisation and third parties. This Synergy factor embraces a wide range of issues divided into three categories of integration: The Front Office, the Back Office and the Third Parties.
a. The Front Office Integration. Refers to integration of the company web presence with the conventional above the line marketing activities i.e. the corporate communication and product distribution. That means the full integration of the Web operation into the company’s communication plan (advertisement, promotions, PR) as well as the existing channel structures.
It makes a lot of sense to integrate the online presence part of the marketing program by assimilating for example the promotion of the virtual activities into the current promotional plan. The effort must be focused on utilising existing communication strategies, brands, tools and channels in order to promote and support the Web operation during the introduction stage. The objective of this communication is to inform existing as well as potential customers about the firm’s Web activities and communicate to target markets the advantages of doing business online.
In addition to the promotional integration the web operation must become an integral part of the existing distribution structures. Depending on the type of the firm distribution structure this integration can face different degrees of difficulty. The easiest case manifests itself when existing distribution models can accommodate the online distribution requirements without serious changes and disruption of existing operations. Mail-order or telephone sales firms had no difficulty whatsoever to use the existing distribution structures for virtual operations.
b. The Back Office Integration. The second type of synergy refers to integration of the web activities into the value-adding organizational activities like production, fulfilment, logistics and Total Quality Management. Often firms underestimate the effects of online operations on their operations, something resulting in bottlenecks and unhappy customers. The web forces many firms to review their traditional methods and find ways to improve their efficiency: Online customers require customize rather than mass products and the disintermediation of the Internet means that organizations must be able to respond directly to changes in demand levels without the luxury of the dealer’s buffer inventory; firms are forced to introduce lean and clean production and logistics structures.
Other organizational integration issues often overlooked are the assimilation of the web activity into the legacy TQM and control systems, ERP Systems and Databases. While these types of integration seem trivial they often become the reason of major bottlenecks and source of customer dissatisfaction.
c. Third party Integration. Until last year when I was referring to this type of integration I was talking about integrating the web activities into the organizational value chain by finding how to create win-win situations with channel partners and avoid channel conflicts. Another form of third party integration refers to finding other parties and co-operate with them in order to increase your online exposure and attract more customers. In this sense search engine optimization and affiliate marketing can be very useful tools.
However the last years another form of third party integration emerges. With the advent of the Web 2.0 and the Social Media, online firms and traditional companies must explore the available options to utilize such media as part of their online networks but also as means of informing their customers, listening to their wishes or complaints and influencing their buying behavior. Using the social media as marketing tools is a very interesting yet complicated issue but worthwhile to look at: according to a recent study of Deloitte Touche in the USA 62% of the US consumers read consumer-generated online reviews and 98% of them find these reviews reliable enough while 80% of these consumers say that reading reviews has affected their buying intentions. Engaging the social media as means to influence consumers is the secret of the tremendous success of companies like Amazon.com and it is also the dream of every direct marketer.
Next week: The Technology Issues (SYSTEM)
Details: The 4S Web Marketing Mix paper
October 10, 2007
Online Marketing in four simple steps
STEP 2
SITE: The Web Experience
The second S of the Web Marketing Mix model refers to the operational issues involved in creating the proper online or Web Experience. The corporate web site is the main source of customer experience and therefore a lot of attention must be given to this element of E-Commerce. Important questions to be asked here are:
- What do customers expect in the site?
- Why customers will make use of the site?
- What motivates customers to come back?
The web site plays a multiple role: it is the virtual product display, promotional material, price catalogue and sales/distribution point. The site is therefore the functional platform of communication, interaction and transaction with the online customer.
The prime mission of the web site is to attract traffic, establish contact with the online target markets and brand the online organisation. Next to this “generic” mission and depending on the type of the online firm, the web site can be assigned a mix of commercial and non-commercial objectives and tasks. These will be defined in the Scope step as you remember.
Some of the common site objectives and tasks are:
- Communicating and promoting the E-business image, labels and products/services.
- Providing company information to customers and stakeholders
- Effectively communicating the firm physical or virtual promotional activities
- Providing customer service and helpdesk functionality in order to enhance the customer loyalty and retention
- Providing sales leads and customer /market data.
- Allowing customers to communicate and interact with the company as well as creating online content.
- Allowing direct sales and facilitating online payments (transactional sites)
Trying to achieve all or some of these objectives results in what the web customer experiences when visiting the site, what is commonly referred to as the online experience.
The quality of online (or Web) Experience is very important. There are studies indicating that a site visitor needs only 50 milliseconds in order to form a positive or negative opinion about a web site[1]. An important question here is: What are the components of Web Experience and what is the importance of these for the customer’s choice?
The buying behavior of online consumers is an area where a lot of scientific research takes place. Part of the research has been focused on the identification of factors influencing the online consumer, in other words on the identification of the Web Experience components. A few years ago I published a paper where – based on about 50 different academic studies - I classified these factors in five categories:
USABILITY, INTERACTIVITY, TRUST, AESTHETICS and MARKETING MIX
Next to that my colleagues and I try to identify what of these factors are really important influencers for customers searching for and buying products online.
Our first findings (published in 2005) are that in the case of transactional sites the Usability is by far the most important factor, followed by the Trust and the Marketing Mix elements. To our surprise we have found that the effects of the aesthetics of online shops do not influence the customer’s choice as much as one would expect (having in mind the effects of aesthetics of physical shops) To our surprise in our experiment here in Holland we found that Interactivity can even have a negative effect to online customers who obviously do not appreciate loosing time in interaction when they shop online!
In any case this is an area we have for some time now focused our attention here in Twente and in Spain in cooperation with colleagues from the University of Castillia La Mancha. At this moment we analyze the data of a new experiment meant to identify the exact effects of online shop aesthetics on buying behavior. More news about this soon.
[1] Lindgaard G., Fernandes G., Dudek C., Brown J., (2006), Attention web designers: you have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression. Business & Information technology, vol 25, nr. 2. pp 115 - 126
SITE: The Web Experience
The second S of the Web Marketing Mix model refers to the operational issues involved in creating the proper online or Web Experience. The corporate web site is the main source of customer experience and therefore a lot of attention must be given to this element of E-Commerce. Important questions to be asked here are:
- What do customers expect in the site?
- Why customers will make use of the site?
- What motivates customers to come back?
The web site plays a multiple role: it is the virtual product display, promotional material, price catalogue and sales/distribution point. The site is therefore the functional platform of communication, interaction and transaction with the online customer.
The prime mission of the web site is to attract traffic, establish contact with the online target markets and brand the online organisation. Next to this “generic” mission and depending on the type of the online firm, the web site can be assigned a mix of commercial and non-commercial objectives and tasks. These will be defined in the Scope step as you remember.
Some of the common site objectives and tasks are:
- Communicating and promoting the E-business image, labels and products/services.
- Providing company information to customers and stakeholders
- Effectively communicating the firm physical or virtual promotional activities
- Providing customer service and helpdesk functionality in order to enhance the customer loyalty and retention
- Providing sales leads and customer /market data.
- Allowing customers to communicate and interact with the company as well as creating online content.
- Allowing direct sales and facilitating online payments (transactional sites)
Trying to achieve all or some of these objectives results in what the web customer experiences when visiting the site, what is commonly referred to as the online experience.
The quality of online (or Web) Experience is very important. There are studies indicating that a site visitor needs only 50 milliseconds in order to form a positive or negative opinion about a web site[1]. An important question here is: What are the components of Web Experience and what is the importance of these for the customer’s choice?
The buying behavior of online consumers is an area where a lot of scientific research takes place. Part of the research has been focused on the identification of factors influencing the online consumer, in other words on the identification of the Web Experience components. A few years ago I published a paper where – based on about 50 different academic studies - I classified these factors in five categories:
USABILITY, INTERACTIVITY, TRUST, AESTHETICS and MARKETING MIX
Next to that my colleagues and I try to identify what of these factors are really important influencers for customers searching for and buying products online.
Our first findings (published in 2005) are that in the case of transactional sites the Usability is by far the most important factor, followed by the Trust and the Marketing Mix elements. To our surprise we have found that the effects of the aesthetics of online shops do not influence the customer’s choice as much as one would expect (having in mind the effects of aesthetics of physical shops) To our surprise in our experiment here in Holland we found that Interactivity can even have a negative effect to online customers who obviously do not appreciate loosing time in interaction when they shop online!
In any case this is an area we have for some time now focused our attention here in Twente and in Spain in cooperation with colleagues from the University of Castillia La Mancha. At this moment we analyze the data of a new experiment meant to identify the exact effects of online shop aesthetics on buying behavior. More news about this soon.
[1] Lindgaard G., Fernandes G., Dudek C., Brown J., (2006), Attention web designers: you have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression. Business & Information technology, vol 25, nr. 2. pp 115 - 126
Next week: The Organizational Issues (SYNERGY)
Details: The 4S Web Marketing Mix paper
October 2, 2007
Online Marketing in four simple steps
STEP 1
SCOPE: The Strategy
What’s the use of running if you are not on the right road? (German Proverb)
Every marketing plan is (or should be) part of a strategy with clear vision, mission and objectives. In the case of E-Marketing there is no difference: a clear and well-defined strategy is the basis of a successful online presence.
This sounds quite logical to most people yet there is a difference between the strategy formulation and content in traditional marketing contexts and e-marketing. In traditional settings the strategy formulation is a top-down process, taking place in boardrooms, in regular mostly yearly strategic sessions, by and large focused on the long term. In the case of E-Marketing the strategic context is different: Market conditions change very rapidly, good strategies are relatively easy to be copied and maintaining competitive advantages in the long run is difficult, something recognized also by M. Porter.
Under such circumstances successful online corporations are those able to adapt quickly their online strategy to new conditions, constantly innovate and build / maintain short-term rather than long-term competitive advantages. This is a strategy I described in a 2004 research paper , consequently followed by the most successful online firms since the 90's.
It is obvious that the online strategic process is essentially different than the traditional strategic process: Short-term oriented, subject to continuous review and appraisal, frequently updated and in very close proximity to operations. This is the reason that SCOPE makes part of the Web Marketing Mix model as the first and basic component of it. In simple terms Scope refers to Strategy and Strategic Objectives online. The online strategy is (or should be for that matter) part of the total corporate strategy, if we deal with traditional companies operating also online.
Next to the “operational” nature of the online strategic process a legitimate question is what are the components of the online strategy? In a sense not much different than what we are used to as strategists (components 1 and 2) yet there is something new here (components 3 and 4) . The main issues to be addressed are:
1. Market Analysis: In what type of market we operate online? Main issues to be analyzed: Competition basis, competitors, market potential, market forecast and market trends
2. Potential Customer: Who is our potential customer? Main issues: Profile(s), motivation, (online) behavior, needs/desires and current way to fulfill the, priorities
3. Internal Analysis: To what degree is our organization ready for the web? Main Issues: Internal resources, processes and values. Is the Internet a sustaining or disruptive technology for our firm?
4. Strategic role of Web activities: What do we expect the Internet to do for us? Main Issue is the identification of the role of the web as part of our total marketing program. Generic roles are: Informational, Educational, Relational, Promotional, Transactional. In practice most firms engage the web in a combination of the generic functions.
Golden Rule: The Scope is subject to continuous review. The Online Strategy is a short-term Strategy
The four components in combination form the basis of the Internet presence i.e. the platform for creating a web site and the organization behind it.
Next week: The Internet Presence (SITE)
Details: The 4S Web Marketing Mix paper
SCOPE: The Strategy
What’s the use of running if you are not on the right road? (German Proverb)
Every marketing plan is (or should be) part of a strategy with clear vision, mission and objectives. In the case of E-Marketing there is no difference: a clear and well-defined strategy is the basis of a successful online presence.
This sounds quite logical to most people yet there is a difference between the strategy formulation and content in traditional marketing contexts and e-marketing. In traditional settings the strategy formulation is a top-down process, taking place in boardrooms, in regular mostly yearly strategic sessions, by and large focused on the long term. In the case of E-Marketing the strategic context is different: Market conditions change very rapidly, good strategies are relatively easy to be copied and maintaining competitive advantages in the long run is difficult, something recognized also by M. Porter.
Under such circumstances successful online corporations are those able to adapt quickly their online strategy to new conditions, constantly innovate and build / maintain short-term rather than long-term competitive advantages. This is a strategy I described in a 2004 research paper , consequently followed by the most successful online firms since the 90's.
It is obvious that the online strategic process is essentially different than the traditional strategic process: Short-term oriented, subject to continuous review and appraisal, frequently updated and in very close proximity to operations. This is the reason that SCOPE makes part of the Web Marketing Mix model as the first and basic component of it. In simple terms Scope refers to Strategy and Strategic Objectives online. The online strategy is (or should be for that matter) part of the total corporate strategy, if we deal with traditional companies operating also online.
Next to the “operational” nature of the online strategic process a legitimate question is what are the components of the online strategy? In a sense not much different than what we are used to as strategists (components 1 and 2) yet there is something new here (components 3 and 4) . The main issues to be addressed are:
1. Market Analysis: In what type of market we operate online? Main issues to be analyzed: Competition basis, competitors, market potential, market forecast and market trends
2. Potential Customer: Who is our potential customer? Main issues: Profile(s), motivation, (online) behavior, needs/desires and current way to fulfill the, priorities
3. Internal Analysis: To what degree is our organization ready for the web? Main Issues: Internal resources, processes and values. Is the Internet a sustaining or disruptive technology for our firm?
4. Strategic role of Web activities: What do we expect the Internet to do for us? Main Issue is the identification of the role of the web as part of our total marketing program. Generic roles are: Informational, Educational, Relational, Promotional, Transactional. In practice most firms engage the web in a combination of the generic functions.
Golden Rule: The Scope is subject to continuous review. The Online Strategy is a short-term Strategy
The four components in combination form the basis of the Internet presence i.e. the platform for creating a web site and the organization behind it.
Next week: The Internet Presence (SITE)
Details: The 4S Web Marketing Mix paper
September 20, 2007
Online Marketing in four simple steps Part I
Introduction
One of the most common issues keeping many strategists and marketing executives busy is how to optimize their Internet presence and make the most out of the web as a communication and distribution channel. These concerns are logical considering that the Internet has become the nr.1 information source for consumers and businesses, the nr. 2 retailing channel in many countries and according to different estimations by 2010 the Internet retailing will be between 10% and 13% of the total retailing volume in the US. Understanding the mechanisms of online marketing and finding a proper way to teach this subject is also a problem that many academics and other educators have. For some people belonging to the above categories a way out could be the 4S Web Marketing Mix model I describe in a paper published in 2002. Next to scientific citations I come occasionally across references to this paper in different blogs , online forums or even web sites of business consultants. This paper has been consistently among the 25 most downloaded articles of the journal from its publication until today, reaching even the first position in the list. I have the feeling that the paper is mostly download by colleagues/teachers but very often by practitioners as well. The inclusion of the model in the popular 123manage site for management models must be one reason for that.
The 4S Web Marketing Mix model is meant to guide businesses in designing and building their online presence. It can be used also as a way to evaluate an existing online presentation with the objective to improve it. In the following 4 posts I will explain briefly the principles of this model and I will explain the additional knowledge build up since the publication of this paper by means of research conducted by my colleagues and myself.
As a first step I would like to say a few things about this model in general. The idea behind it is that in order to build and maintain a successful online presence it is necessary to address four different issues – that for the sake of simplicity I illustrate with four terms starting with the letter S - in a integral and comprehensive manner:
SCOPE : The Strategy
SITE: The customer Online (or Web-) Experience, the “operational” issues.
SYNERGY: The integration of the online presence into the organization and its network: the “organizational” issues
SYSTEM: The technologies necessary to realize the above
The model looks therefore like this:
June 27, 2007
Power to the (online) consumer Part 3
Summary of Part 1 and 2. The new phenomenon of customer empowerment, based on a combination of new technologies and new forms of consumer interaction has brought about new types of communication formats; increased Peer-to-Peer information exchange is weakening the traditional corporate and mass media control on the marketplace, posing important challenges to 21st century marketers and businesses.
Part 3 (final)
One thing increasingly becoming obvious to strategies and marketers is that the good old (mass media based) marketing practice of one-way push communication is not anymore as effective as it used to be and becomes even less effective over time. Many marketing executives witnessing the weakening of the mass media and mass message power respond with even more advertising and more push, leading to message saturation, lower acceptability and increasing consumer mistrust. According to a Yankelovich survey in 2004 60% of the consumers have today a much more negative opinion about marketing and advertising than just a few years ago while 61% believe that the amount of advertising is out of control. Also a 2006 survey of the Advertisers Union in Holland suggests that only 18% of the TV audience is actually watching TV commercials in this country.
Decreasing effectiveness of the marketing and increasing customer suspicion and power are the perfect ingredients of a disaster marketing scenario. What is the right way to move forward? Certainly not increasing customer push because the empowered and informed consumer has the means to react.
According to a new school of thought the only way to win and retain the today's consumers is to become their partner by helping them become successful by realizing their ambitions and personal goals. This strategy known as Customer Advocacy is based on the simple idea that if you want to win the consumer today you have to win the consumer’s trust. Such an approach could mean that you must be able to understand the real nature of your customer’s needs, motivations and psychology and that in fact you should be so honest with him that you would even suggest a competitive product if you realize that your product is not what the customer looks for. The reasoning behind such an extreme case of advocacy is simple: if you fool the customer he will most probably find out and you will lose him for ever, if you help him he will trust you enough to come back to you next time.
What are the effects of customer advocacy and how this can become a useful marketing instrument are questions that begin to attract the attention of the academic community. On the other hand practitioners have already shown interest and there are already some interesting findings in the field ( see for example Forrester Research.)
Advocating the customer might sound odd to those used to think that control of the mass media and control of the message/content was enough to win customer trust and loyalty. This view, ignoring the new realities and power migration in the marketplace, can lead today to a dangerous form of digital myopia with serious long term effects on the marketing’s ability to drive company success and growth.
Interested to be informed of my new posts? Email me in e.constantinides@utwente.nl and you will be included in my mailing list
Part 3 (final)
One thing increasingly becoming obvious to strategies and marketers is that the good old (mass media based) marketing practice of one-way push communication is not anymore as effective as it used to be and becomes even less effective over time. Many marketing executives witnessing the weakening of the mass media and mass message power respond with even more advertising and more push, leading to message saturation, lower acceptability and increasing consumer mistrust. According to a Yankelovich survey in 2004 60% of the consumers have today a much more negative opinion about marketing and advertising than just a few years ago while 61% believe that the amount of advertising is out of control. Also a 2006 survey of the Advertisers Union in Holland suggests that only 18% of the TV audience is actually watching TV commercials in this country.
Decreasing effectiveness of the marketing and increasing customer suspicion and power are the perfect ingredients of a disaster marketing scenario. What is the right way to move forward? Certainly not increasing customer push because the empowered and informed consumer has the means to react.
According to a new school of thought the only way to win and retain the today's consumers is to become their partner by helping them become successful by realizing their ambitions and personal goals. This strategy known as Customer Advocacy is based on the simple idea that if you want to win the consumer today you have to win the consumer’s trust. Such an approach could mean that you must be able to understand the real nature of your customer’s needs, motivations and psychology and that in fact you should be so honest with him that you would even suggest a competitive product if you realize that your product is not what the customer looks for. The reasoning behind such an extreme case of advocacy is simple: if you fool the customer he will most probably find out and you will lose him for ever, if you help him he will trust you enough to come back to you next time.
What are the effects of customer advocacy and how this can become a useful marketing instrument are questions that begin to attract the attention of the academic community. On the other hand practitioners have already shown interest and there are already some interesting findings in the field ( see for example Forrester Research.)
Advocating the customer might sound odd to those used to think that control of the mass media and control of the message/content was enough to win customer trust and loyalty. This view, ignoring the new realities and power migration in the marketplace, can lead today to a dangerous form of digital myopia with serious long term effects on the marketing’s ability to drive company success and growth.
Interested to be informed of my new posts? Email me in e.constantinides@utwente.nl and you will be included in my mailing list
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