Direct Relationship Marketing

Response Marketing

Published in The New Haven Register, January 14, 2007 - Circulation 90,000

We’re constantly being challenged to create the next great innovative, effective and relevant marketing vehicle that will allow a company to create an on-going, interactive relationship directly with their consumers. Today, consumers no longer respond or engage in a company’s “value proposition” if it’s communicated to them second or third hand. When determining whether to enter into a relationship with a company or brand, consumers demand a direct and immediate response to what a company can offer to their specific individual needs. Before they award a company with their loyalty, today’s informed consumers are looking "behind the curtain" in an effort to be connected and understand, on a consistent, long term basis, what a company can offer. Consumers have gone on the offensive and require value-added, immediate, convenient and direct relationships with the brands they attach themselves to.

Today, companies whose products provide functional as well as emotional, self expressive benefits have to create connections with their consumers on multiple levels. For example, in Health Care it is critical that companies provide a functional value in their product (it heals my illness) as well as offer an emotional value that consumers interpret as a reoccurring added value (e.g. I was treated with kindess and care). In order for consumers to commit their loyalty companies need to become a provider of a “total solution” and an ongoing informational resource on both functional and emotional levels. Today’s consumers want to know that they have an expert, a partner and a friend in a brand. This is especially true when consumers find themselves thrust into unfamiliar and uncertain territory. Consumers expect to have a company or brand that will be there to answer their questions, provide stability, comfort through information and act as a sounding board 24/7.

With the evolution of the internet, cell phones, satellite radio and satellite TV, the world and ALL its information is available everywhere and at any time. Borders and oceans between the continents no longer provide barriers between cultures, economies or marketplaces. Similarly, the borders between consumers and the products they purchase, which were once held in place by retail stores, hospitals, banks and car dealerships, have come down and in their place an informed and concerned consumer stands. These consumers are being nurtured by their ability to access INFORMATION. With the development of these avenues, has come the decline of traditional “two-step” marketing efforts which are being replaced by direct-relationship marketing initiatives to the consumer. After a period of investigation, evaluation and trial, consumers enter into these intimate business relations and proactively look for and participate in these direct, relevant and informative marketing platforms. To be successful at this, companies have to create customized marketing programs that are specific to each segment of their customer base.

Several of today’s successful companies have embraced this behavioral change of the consumer by strategically building their sales and marketing efforts on a foundation of carefully collected individual consumer profiles. This single-view of their customer represent a new and possibly their most fruitful sales channel. Besides top and bottom line sales growth, this newly defined customer segment also represents their greatest opportunity to drive brand equity, product awareness and loyalty. These customer profiles and the potential of their interactive nature, provide “real-time” insight to the company’s targeted consumer, their habits, trends, needs, wants, likes and dislikes. These newly formed relationships are a company’s direct connection to the marketplace and can provide a direct-line to the pulse of the customers.

In exchange for both emotional and physical loyalty, consumers are demanding the relationships they establish to be more fulfilling and extend past the shelf in the store.

Today’s consumers are actively seeking to create direct and loyal relationships that best fit their needs and offer the greatest value. A company’s value-proposition has to go farther then just what their products functional benefit provides. It’s the consumer’s entire experience with the company that builds long term relationships. In exchange for both emotional and physical loyalty, consumers are demanding the relationships they establish to be more fulfilling and extend past the shelf in the store. They want to know that they’re being heard, that their important and that they’re cared about. The customized relationship need to be specific to the individual. Consumers don’t want to feel like one of many in the crowd. On an ongoing basis and from a consumer’s point-of-view, you need to be able to successfully answer the question “What have you done for me lately” with attractive, value-added, timely and relevant benefits to the audience in order to have successfully created a long-term, profitable relationship.

Contests, rebates, offers, and other devices used to capture the information of consumers are great ways for a company to create those relationships. The consumer volunteers their information in exchange for something back or a chance for something back. That information is usually more valuable to the company than can be measured in monetary value. It allows the company to truly know who their audience is and tailor communication to them. Additionally, it enhances a company’s ability to meet the needs of their consumers because they can more easily identify what their consumers want that isn’t offered or can be improved on. As a result, innovation is spawned to meet those needs or to provide a solution to a customer for a need that they didn’t even know existed in the first place. Customers’ needs are constantly changing, which spawns new innovation and drives yet another whole new set of needs. It becomes an even exchange and one that is beneficial to both parties involved.

It is our job as marketers and branders to help those companies in establishing those relationships. Many companies are beginning to finally understand that the consumer is smart enough to see through the many marketing ploys that have been traditionally used. Smart consumers are educating themselves before they make their decisions about which brands to support. Companies that attempt to mislead consumers with marketing tactics are only setting themselves up to receive negative publicity and create ill will for their brand. Take for instance, a recent story about a large retail superstore whose marketing agency created a blog praising many aspects of that store. It wasn’t long before consumers caught on to who was actually behind the blog and the story caught on. A blog praising the company isn’t inherently wrong, but when it is disguised as something else and deceptive to the consumer, a company’s moral character has to come into question. Is that one incident enough to drive consumers away and to competitors? Probably not, as ultimately value and convenience tend to drive sales at those establishments. But as episodes like that continue to happen, the company is risking its reputation and any trust it has with their customers. You may not worry about buying everyday items from the same company, but perhaps you would reconsider buying more important items from them such as your prescriptions or items for your child.

A few years ago a film studio was caught with creating the name of a false film critic and attributing quotes to him that sung high praise on many of their films. These “quotes” were used throughout their marketing efforts and materials. When people started to wonder how anybody in their right mind could actually heap praise on some of these terrible movies the red flag went up. It was discovered that the studio had been using this fake critic for years, assuming nobody would take the time to find out he really existed and where his reviews ran. In hindsight, it seems like a pretty stupid thing to do and obvious that they would eventually be found out. But they got away with it for years and probably convinced many people that the product they were putting out was a lot better than it was. There wasn’t a boycott of that film studio or their movies and it probably had little to no effect on the company’s bottom line so they might have gotten away with it this time. In the end it is up to each individual consumer to take a second look at what they are being told and sold and look deeper into who is doing the selling.

As technology continues to develop and each aspect of our lives becomes more interactive and integrated, it is a challenge for marketers to reach their target audience. Consumers are now often able to choose which messages they want to hear and ignore the ones they don’t. They balance of power between the consumer and brand is shifting. It is now up to a brand to inspire and provoke the consumer to choose to hear their message. The burden falls on the shoulders of the brand to prove to their customers that when they choose to hear their message it will be something relevant, intriguing and either thought provoking or informative. As the line between marketing and content continues to blur it should be understood that a brand’s responsibility to its consumer should be of the highest priority. For a brand, that priority needs to be understood at all levels, developed and practiced. It is almost like a form of therapy where it needs to be worked on from the inside out and in turn the brand begins to start to stand for what it says it does.

A company can make every effort in their marketing to brand themselves as being a certain way. But it is in their practices and how they deal with their customers that will ultimately define their “brand.” At the end of the day, their customers’ experiences will dictate what type of brand they are. Big budget marketing campaigns can’t adequately counteract negative word-of-mouth. The customer isn’t going to define the brand in their own mind by the messaging they hear in a marketing campaign but rather by their experience with the brand. So why is branding necessary if a brand is going to be defined by the customer? Well, when a company attempts to brand themselves as having certain values and being a certain way it needs to live up to those promises. If the brand does live up to that promise it is powerful and will reinforce what they are as a “brand” in the eyes of their customer. When a brand does deliver, customers often willingly enter into the direct, interactive relationships with the brand because they trust the company and what their intentions are.