Lydia Michael of Blended Collective On How to Build Lasting Customer Relationships

An Interview with Rachel Kline

Building a Community: Gone are the days when you can build a brand and expect people to show up and buy. It just doesn’t work like this anymore. Companies today are more deliberate with the brands they build. Popular examples include streetwear brands like Melody Ehsani or The Hundreds who make a conscious decision to activate their brands by placing their community in the center of it, which cultivates brand value. People connect deeply on a social and emotional level to come together through these shared moments where they can support brands together.

Building lasting customer relationships has many benefits, including increased revenue, positive word-of-mouth recommendations, and savings on acquisition costs. But how does one do this? In this interview series, we are talking to Product Managers, founders, and authors who can share their “Five Tips For Building Lasting Customer Relationships”. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Lydia Michael.

Lydia Michael is an entrepreneur, speaker, brand strategist, and author of Brand Love: Building Strong Consumer-Brand Connections. She works with companies and organizations to develop brands and marketing strategies. Lydia is the founder and owner of Blended Collective, a multicultural marketing and brand consultancy.

Thank you for doing this with us! Before we begin, our readers would like to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this career path?

My journey is the result of cultural enrichment and professional growth. From my beginnings in Germany to my career in the U.S., I’ve navigated the realms of digital media and international marketing over the years. My international MBA experience further fueled my passion for multiculturalism, eventually leading to the creation of Blended Collective and its impact on branding and experiences. My extensive work with diverse clients and my recently published book, Brand Love, showcases my expertise in forging strong consumer-brand relationships. In addition, my commitment to community involvement and my belief in inspiring others to embrace their paths highlight the depth and breadth of my journey so far.

Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that has occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or takeaway you took from that story?

One amusing incident occurred when I was providing cultural and linguistic services to an expatriate who had just moved to the U.S. During a meeting, there was a moment of confusion due to language barriers. He used a colloquial expression that got lost in translation, leading to a burst of laughter. The lesson I took from this was the importance of fostering a relaxed and open atmosphere in cross-cultural interactions. Humor can be a bridge that helps break down barriers and build camaraderie even when languages differ.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

My biggest and most exciting project this year is my debut book, Brand Love. The process of crafting this book has been a true labor of love, and I’m happy that it’s accessible to readers worldwide. The core purpose behind this project was to provide practical tools and multicultural insight to brands and organizations in infusing a human touch into their identities across diverse cultures while employing the power of emotion. Through Brand Love, and “The Eight Brand Love Stages” model I introduce, I aim to provide valuable insights and guidance enabling these entities to connect with their audiences on a deeper level. This will then foster more meaningful relationships between customers and companies.

For the benefit of our readers, can you tell us a bit about your experience with building lasting customer relationships? Can you share an anecdote or two that illustrates your experience in this area?

My experience with building lasting customer relationships can be illustrated through a client project where I developed a multicultural marketing strategy for a hair care brand’s product launch. Working with the brand, we aimed to reach diverse demographics while staying true to the brand’s holistic approach. By selecting a range of influencers and crafting a guerilla marketing campaign inspired by music album releases, we successfully positioned the brand’s message across cultures and ages. This approach allowed the brand to build connections with customers who resonated with their values, where the brand’s purpose and promise were rooted in its core beliefs: to inspire the mind, body, and hair.

In today’s fast-paced and constantly evolving landscape, what strategies do you employ to maintain a strong connection with your customers and anticipate their changing needs?

As a business owner and brand marketer, remembering to look outside of your industry for inspiration is crucial. To stimulate creativity, you should constantly consume external content. Read new books, listen to new podcasts, meet new people, and have new experiences. These external opportunities drive innovation, which doesn’t have to start with products. As I mentioned in my book Brand Love, innovation can start with people, too.

Can you discuss the strategies that companies can employ to strike a balance between driving revenue and profitability, and focusing on building customer relationships and loyalty?

1. Segmentation and Personalization: Divide your customer base into segments based on preferences, behaviors, and demographics. This allows you to customize marketing messages, offers, and experiences to individual segments. By providing personalized solutions, you can enhance customer satisfaction, build trust, and drive loyalty. MySwimPro is a great company that is centered around personalizing its swim training.
2. Customer-Centric Communication: Maintain an open line of communication with customers. Listen to their feedback, address concerns promptly, and keep them informed about updates and improvements. This transparent approach fosters trust and shows customers that their opinions matter. Huda Beauty is a great example of connecting with customers authentically and transparently.
3. Storytelling: Stories build emotional connections. Your story is a powerful way to connect, and consumers want to know the story behind your brand. Think about a coherent way to tell your story and find ways to tell it across all your consumer touchpoints consistently, so you are relatable and personable to others.

Could you describe the metrics and measures you use to evaluate the success of your customer relationship-building efforts, and how you identify areas for improvement?

There are many metrics and measures to better understand customer-relationship building efforts. Here are a few:

1. Social Media Sentiment Analysis: Analyzing social media mentions and comments can help you determine the sentiment associated with your brand. Positive, enthusiastic comments and mentions often indicate a strong emotional connection. This can include positive engagement and feelings; words that mention feelings of emotion, happiness, passion, joy, or love.
2. Brand Mentions and Hashtags: Tracking the usage of your brand’s name or specific hashtags can provide insights into how often customers are organically talking about and engaging with your brand. The key is to use some established hashtags while creating some brand-specific ones.
3. Brand Advocacy: Measuring the number of customers who actively recommend your brand to others or share their positive experiences can be a strong indicator of a brand that people want to advocate for. When people love a brand, they are more likely to stick around, remain loyal, and turn into brand champions.

Regarding customer-facing teams, what steps do you take to ensure they can deliver personalized, proactive, and efficient support, tailored to the needs of each individual customer?

Ensuring customer-facing teams can deliver personalized, proactive, and efficient support requires a comprehensive approach. Here are some steps to make this happen:

Proactive Outreach: Encourage your team to reach out to customers with relevant information or solutions before issues arise. This showcases proactivity and care.

Customer-Centric Culture: Foster a customer-centric culture within the organization. When employees prioritize customer satisfaction, it naturally translates into their interactions.

Continuous Improvement: Assess and refine processes based on customer feedback, insights, and emerging trends.

What tips do you have for responding to negative feedback from customers, and what steps can be taken to turn those experiences into positive outcomes?

No matter the situation, I suggest staying calm and professional. After you listen, you should acknowledge the issue at hand. This shows empathy for your customer’s experience while showing that you care about their feelings. Take responsibility for the situation, even if it wasn’t directly your fault. Customers appreciate companies that take ownership and work towards a solution. Finally, you want to provide a solution that aims to rectify the issue. Whether it’s a refund, replacement, or a specific action, offer something that demonstrates your commitment to resolving the problem with your customer. In the end, this might help you retain your customers.

Lastly, how do you use technology or AI to enhance your customer relationships, and what tools have you found to be most effective in building and maintaining them?

Certainly! I leverage advanced technology and AI to enrich customer relationships. By utilizing tools like ChatGPT, it helps identify trends, sentiments, and areas for improvement. It’s been a valuable tool in creating efficient and satisfying customer experiences.

Here is the main question of our interview. In your experience, what are five key components of building lasting customer relationships? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

1. Embracing purpose: Brands operating with intention in everything they do are the ones attracting the right people. They’re usually very clear about why they exist. Consider the brand Patagonia. Their commitment to environmental responsibility isn’t just a marketing tagline; they’ve taken real action, such as donating a percentage of their sales to grassroots environmental organizations. Customers trust and love Patagonia because they consistently stay true to their values.
2. Building trust: Place trust in your customers by including them in the decision-making process for various marketing opportunities. HARIBO, for instance, exemplifies consumer trust through its dedication to long-term relationships and core values. This is evident in their fan-selected Goldbears initiative in Germany, which both builds and reciprocates trust by letting fans choose flavors. Such endeavors highlight HARIBO’s commitment to its brand promises and the crucial role of trust in forging genuine brand-consumer connections.
3. Fostering nostalgia: The LEGO Group has tapped into the power of nostalgia in its marketing strategy. Recognized in 2020 by Talkwalker as the most loved brand on social media, LEGO has long evoked nostalgic feelings, such as with their Friends LEGO set. While the brand is synonymous with childhood, it strategically targets adults to diversify its products to resonate with this audience. The brand’s emphasis on nostalgia isn’t just about looking back but connecting with emotions tied to simpler times such as with their #LEGOBuildDay campaign. Even in a digital age, LEGO’s essence lies in fostering creativity and cherished memories by offering tangible experiences. The right brands actively evoke emotions that encourage use and love for a brand.
4. Being different: To communicate your competitive advantage or differentiating factors, you must position your brand in the mind of the consumer accordingly. If your consumer or prospect can’t tell that you’re different, your strategy becomes irrelevant. Long story short, your brand differentiation has to be clear as day, which you can achieve by positioning your brand in the right way. Take, for instance, the various water brands that are available on the market. The different brands may be similar on the surface, but how you communicate your values and position yourself as a brand is entirely original to each company. FIJI Water is considered expensive and fancy whereas low-priced water brands may be considered average.
5. Building a Community: Gone are the days when you can build a brand and expect people to show up and buy. It just doesn’t work like this anymore. Companies today are more deliberate with the brands they build. Popular examples include streetwear brands like Melody Ehsani or The Hundreds who make a conscious decision to activate their brands by placing their community in the center of it, which cultivates brand value. People connect deeply on a social and emotional level to come together through these shared moments where they can support brands together.

Each of these examples, when implemented effectively, can contribute to a powerful and enduring bond between a brand and its customers. The stories and examples highlight brands that have successfully navigated the path of building Brand Love as shared in my book.

How do you ensure that these ideas are implemented throughout the customer journey?

The easiest way to implement these components in the consumer-brand journey is through action. Embodying these values as part of who your brand is allows you to implement these elements genuinely and authentically. Customers pay attention and want to connect with companies who are real and walk the talk.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can connect with me on blendedbollective.com, where you can subscribe to receive the latest updates, and on lydiamichael.com, where you can listen to my podcast episodes as a guest. To stay connected in real-time, follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. I share valuable content, engage in discussions, and provide updates on my latest projects.

Thank you for the interview. We wish you only continued success!