Respect for the customer

Arguably, the most important asset a marketing researcher has is ... a respondent. The Canadian industry association, MRIA, has created a Respondents Bill of Rights - and much effort goes into best practice development for research methodologies that both respect the respondent and provide insight on which to base business decisions.

What is the most important asset an advertising agency or a marketer has? I think the answer is ... a customer. Not inventory, not intellectual property, not real estate, not world-class leadership, not strategic location, not stock price, not exclusive market rights, not employees (even though in my mind employees are intrinsically linked to the customer).

Why is it then, that there is so little effort made to care for the customer or the potential customer? Over 90% of new products fail and fewer than 50% of advertisements are effective - so why are they getting created and who are they really speaking to?

Instead of relevant, timely, opt-in, creative marketing activities, much of marketing seems to still be trying to yell louder or funnier or whatever at a fairly large group of people.

If advertisers want to be relevant then they might reconsider their focus and place the customer at the heart of business and marketing considerations. There are successful CRM implementations and there are impressive case studies of brands connecting with customers by acting on the knowledge they collect about them and creating many meaningful, memorable interactions.

Because it's the customer that matters. Not so much mind share, or intent to purchase.
Instead, try measuring the degree of relationship a customer has with the organization and the degree of relationship the organization has with the customer.

Consumer Power pushes agencies in new directions

The Media Strategy Conference in Toronto set out to "change minds and change models." In my view, speakers most successful at pushing the mind were Rishad Tobaccowala in his key note on “Imagination, Reinvention and the Future of Media” and Marian Salzman's "Brand Sluts". Nancy Vonk presented on her agency's remarkable work for Unilever's Dove - Campaign for Real Beauty. A 4-year-old initiative, it seems this has become a calling for the brand. Cool.

Ad agencies are trying to structure themselves to respond to the irrevocable shifts in market dynamics where community and collaboration are far more important, than traditional agencies can possibly deliver.

The bottom line is value has to be real, and the only judge of value is the consumer. Not a segment, but a person. Hard to fool anyone these days, even though advertisers and their agencies create so much noise by bombarding us consumers with thousands of unwanted messages every day.

That's why I now spend my time on developing precise customer insights that enable relevant, valued conversations. And I work on the mechanics - and thus the backbone technical requirements - so that these insights become actionable. In my view, these will be the strategic moves that matter.