As consumers we want and expect to be treated with great care no matter what we're buying and now, more than ever, we want relationships with the brands we love. Experiences that will keep us coming back for more.
So it's no surprise that marketing departments are beginning to shore up a lot of cash segmenting, analyzing and tracking trends around our behaviors to get better at engaging us, motivating us and ultimately getting us to buy more stuff.
Technology is absolutely advancing the brand managers' ability to understand exactly who we are, what our likes and dislikes are, what we want versus what we need, how we like/want to be communicated with and even where we are at this very moment - all to attract, recruit and retain us as long-term customers.
We're certainly seeing this unfold with social media. A weekly survey distributed earlier this year by the CMOClub, profiled also in BusinessWeek, shows that in 2010, CMO's are starting to put their money where the mouths are. They are beginning to allocate time, resources and precious branding dollars to win our affection.
It's become crystal clear that Marketing has finally caught on.
Sure they'll have their legal issues to deal with but the best will overcome this and many will make a great attempt at getting out of the gate. Some will do well, others will fail. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on 2010 to see what shakes out.
In the meantime, even as a firm believer in the customer first approach, there's one thing that continues to eat away at me:
Each and every day these same companies, spending billions on their external market, overlook the countless touch points with those who are just as critical as their customers: their employees.
You know, the people that wake up every day to "live the brand" spending more time with it than their own families. Then, after the day is done they talk about the experiences of their day: what was good, what sucked about it, whether or not they're on "the list".
Employees are telling the brand story from a completely different perspective and it may just be breaking the sound barrier.In case you missed it here's a good story and key take-away from the recent incident involving Hyatt's
PR Nightmare. As Paul Michelman put it:
"The way a company treats its employees can have an impact on the way consumers see the brand". I couldn't agree more.
With so much at stake, where are the the HR budgets to attract, recruit, train, engage, communicate to, and retain their customers with the same level of sophistication that Marketing has? (Remember these customers are the employees.) After all, HR is responsible for ensuring the right people, with the right skills and culture fit are in the right positions. Making the external customer experience the best it can be.
Better yet, are CMO's even considering the extreme importance of collaborating with HR and all it's 2000 parts? Can you imagine the impact on a brand when HR and Marketing actually play nice in the same sandbox?
What if examining employee behaviors and motivators were just as important to the bottom line? In my opinion, companies should be thinking of their employees in the same fashion they do customers.
Employees want and expect to be treated with the same great care. And now more than ever, they want to be valued. They want relationships with the brands they work for. Experiences that will make them actually want to spread a good word and ones that will keep them coming back for more.
I'll stop there but leave you with this:
The outside first model still feels upside-down and has been in fashion for far too long. Isn't it time we turned things right-side up and started to take a look at what matters to brands from the inside-out?
~Charee
