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The future of marketing is in FEWER conversations

Yes I actually said something smart in #IMCChat last night, and yes I am proud of it 😉  We had a fabulous discussion last night during #IMCChat about marketing and connecting with customers.  We were discussing how a brand’s marketing improves as it better understands the customer.  The better understanding comes from connecting, which leads to the brand speaking in a language that more closely resembles that of the customer.

And as that happens, the brand’s marketing becomes more effective, and more efficient.  Both the brand and the customer begin to understand the other a bit better, and at some point, that leads to trust.  Which helps move the customer to being an advocate for the brand.

To me, this is huge.  This is what brands should be aspiring to, to better understand their customers through connecting to them directly.  And this also explains why so many people are so excited about social media, because it gives brands online tools to do exactly that.  It’s not that the social media tools themselves are amazing, its the CONNECTIONS that the tools help facilitate.

But when you say ‘If you connect directly with your customers and better understand them, your marketing improves as does your number of advocates’, for a lot of marketers they don’t really ‘get’ why that’s a big deal.  It doesn’t blow their skirt up.

But if you tweak the metaphor and say ‘If your brand is a rockstar, by connecting with them directly and improving your marketing by better understanding them, you can have more of these….

…then the thought resonates more with marketers.  And if you could say that Marketing is the language a brand has to speak because it doesn’t understand the language of its customers, I think you could also say that rockstars have so many fans because they usually speak in the same voice as their fans.  That’s the true power of rockstars and the branding lesson for marketers: Rockstars have the same, or at least a very similar, conversation that their fans are having.  And this is because they are CONNECTED to their fans.  Not only are they connected, but for the most part rockstars seek out and thrive off connecting with their fans.

Now a few brands are able to do this as well.  Think of Harley-Davidson, for example.  Both the brand, and the customers are having the same conversation.  For HD, it’s not about purchasing a motorcycle, it’s about your lifestyle and how you use the motorcycle to connect with others around shared interests, and HD customers feel the same way.  In both cases the internal conversation the brand has about itself, and the external conversation the customers have about the brand, are closely aligned.  This is a big reason why Harley-Davidson has so many passionate advocates, and ironically, is viewed as being a Rockstar brand.

What are your thoughts on improving marketing?  Do you agree that by better connecting with customers that you’ll better understand them and move customers to become more like fans?  Does the Rockstar metaphor as it applies to branding and marketing work for you?

About Mack Collier

My name is Mack Collier and I am a digital marketing and content strategist located in Alabama. Since 2006 I've helped companies of all sizes from startups to global brands such as Adobe, Dell and Ingersoll-Rand, create customer-centric programs, content and experiences. A long-time internet geek, I've been online since 1988 and began using social networking sites in 1991 when I joined Prodigy. Today, I help companies understand how new technologies like web3, crypto and artificial intelligence can integrate with existing marketing strategies to lead to exceptional customer experiences.

Comments

  1. livepath says

    Hey Mack,

    I loved your comment and I think that you make a very salient point that I accept, wholeheartedly. When we started the chat last night, we also talked a lot about the fact that business is undergoing some fundamental shifts (Per this chart: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2aOXHHZUcqU/TcrN6m8CVzI/AAAAAAAABMQ/YDGL3Bgqsz4/s1600/PIPMSHIFT_Livepath.jpg) from Post-Industrial mindset (product, task focused) to Post-Millennial (people, experience focused) methods of operation. I think that making that shift is WAY more about marketing, which has been traditionally compartmentalized. It’s about designing linked and connected experiences, and delivering them in a synchronized manner in coordination with the enterprise. Marketing has never had to behave like this before… nor have product development or sales (Service has, to some extent). So I think that the entire nature of marketing is changing — and what we wanted to get to, which we didn’t… was HOW the CX discipline (which engages the marketer but demands many new skills and competencies) CHANGES the marketing organization — and traditional marketing roles. The problem is that most marketers believe they ARE customer centric. They talk a great game, but when you look at the outcomes, in most organizations, they’re not much different than post-industrial stuff they’ve been putting out for years. It’s not enough to connect marketers with people… Unlike the Rock Band, they need new skills to sing the right songs and perform BETTER. 🙂 Thanks for this post!

  2. VilmaBonilla says

    Connecting with customers for marketing purposes is key. That being said, how do you better connect with customers? Listening and asking question is how brands discover what is important to the prospect on an emotional level. This is a basic sales and marketing concept that is also an area of opportunity for many.

    As stated in the post, Harley Davidson fans connect with the brand around the lifestyle and shared interest. The Harley brand does a great job of positioning it’s products around activities of interests to their clients. They’re not just selling a product.

    Great examples Mack! I really enjoyed reading this post.

  3. MackCollier says

    @livepath love the graph, Leigh. Here is the big difference between the average rockstar and the average CMO: The rockstar starts out at a point where they are ATTACHED to their customers (performing in coffee shops and small clubs looking for break) whereas the CMO is hired and starts working at a place where s/he is completely DETACHED from the brand’s customers. As we discussed last night, the CMO is being held to increasingly tougher standards, they need to have a more intimate understanding of their customers, in an even shorter window of time. What’s the average tenure of a CMO now? Isn’t it like 18 months?

    And to your last point, you’re dead on, simply connecting isn’t enough, the marketer has to listen to the customer, then apply what they are learning from them to improve their efforts to connect with them. If they do this correctly, the customer will open up even more to them, and a communication cycle is created. Thanks for commenting!

  4. VilmaBonilla says

    @MackCollier

    Marketers typically do not work alone. Internal collaboration is the next step so that the entire organization is speaking the “same language” and meeting customer expectations.

  5. FLIRT Communications says

    Great post Mack! Brought up some good questions. And we agree, Vilma:

    To push the rockstar metaphor even further, brands need to make “groupies” out of their employees BEFORE they capture their customers. Employees are a brand’s most passionate advocates and if those within the brand aren’t rallying around the marketing mission, how can those outside the brand?

    We’ve often found that front line employees (another article about how important front-line employees are to a brand’s reputation via @AmberCadabra) are those emanating the beliefs behind the marketing campaign in real-life situations with the customer. They hear the complaints and compliments and will need to relate it back to the overarching marketing messages. In a marketing era based on relationships, these employees will be the key to speaking the customer’s language while achieving the brand’s goals at the same time. We can’t forget to leverage our employees for ideas, too. Not only do they hear from the customers directly, but we have to remember that our own employees are consumers too and will have valuable insights into a brand’s identity.

  7. MackCollier says

    @VilmaBonilla Right Vilma, I think HD sees themselves as selling a lifestyle. And the key is, it’s a lifestyle that THEY love as well. I remember seeing Willie Davidson on CNBC a few years ago and they asked him if HD does a lot of market research to learn more about their customers and who they are. Willie said “Oh sure, we’re in constant contact with our customers….we ride with them all the time’. Love it!

  8. MackCollier says

    @FLIRT Communications If you’re talking about a retail situation, I think this is one of the key reasons why Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation was started, to give front-line employees a way to communicate and share what they were learning from customers via interacting with them directly in the store every day.

    This all stresses the fact that there not only needs to be more communication with the customer, but the feedback gained from that communication needs to be effectively distributed internally throughout the company.

  10. VilmaBonilla says

    @FLIRT Communications This is so true! Front-line employees too often lack passion and motivation. The reality is employees don’t care about meeting marketing or organizational objectives. Employees need to feel like the organization supports their efforts, listens, and responds to their concerns.

    While the source of motivation varies, the brand mission must always be be clear and consistent for “buy-in” to occur.

  11. maidoesimple says

    I see marketing more as a tool to start a *possible* conversation, rather than engaging with fans. It serves the purpose of catching the interest of fans in first place. On this light, marketing is like a flashy headline for a new blog post, people will turn their head, but if the post itself sucks (aka, the real conversation), they won’t stay or come back.