Brand Centric vs. Customer Centric Business

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Let’s talk about the idea of brand centric vs customer-centric marketing and the fact that we are shifting as an economy from the brand-centric environment and into the customer-centric or customer driven environment.

This is something that the social media explosion has done to shift people’s approach to brands. The way it used to be is people would come to you, and you would tell them what your brand is all about. They would listen. You would have a conversation. They would make a decision about buying. The End.

Now because of social media, nobody goes to you anymore. They all have their own followings. Their own audience. Their own networks online. So you need to not only go to them now, but you also need to interact with them in their own social world.

They will make decisions based on whether or not they trust you. Are they communicating with you? They are in charge. You’re not in charge anymore in that environment. That’s their environment.

When we look at the shift that has happened, it used to be the brand-centric economy and the brand-centric world, where it was a one-way speaking event. Where the brand spoke to you. You didn’t get a chance to speak back. The brand didn’t necessarily care about what you had to say, and that was it.

But where we are at today and with the advent of social media and the idea that customers want to be involved, we’ve shifted into a customer-centric economy.

What that means is it is no longer important what the brand says. What’s important is what the customer perceives what the brand says.

So the brand needs to always be working to create a better experience and a better environment and better just overall brand experience to the consumer and it has to show them how great the brand is from a point of view they can connect with. What the brand is doing, how funny it is, how motivational it is, and how educational it is.

Then the consumer starts to perceive the brand in the way that the brand has put out to build a connection with the consumer.

Now it’s a two-way street. What are we saying to them? What are they saying back? How do we react and respond to the feedback?

And ultimately it’s about building a relationship and having them actually connect to the brand.

If the customer doesn’t feel like they are connected to you, that they can talk to you like a human, they are probably not going to buy from you. They want to buy from people they feel are their friends or that have their best interest in mind.

In essence, they want people they can trust.

Customers are tired of being outsourced to call centers and then having to wait three hours to talk to a person or dealing with the automated machines that never really know what you’re saying.

They are tired of being sent somewhere where there is no care about what they are saying or what they are thinking and they are tired of being frustrated by companies who don’t care about them or their feedback.

Because of that, the customers start speaking about it where they have the biggest voice and that voice is on social media.

The advent of social media has leveled the playing field between consumers and brand and now the brand’s HAVE to listen!

The brands who listen and the brands who understand that they need to pivot shift and start engaging with the consumer directly, and start listening to feedback, and providing a better overall customer experience, are the brands that are going to win.

When you look at this a lot of the brand-centric economy idea was built around cost savings. So if I can save 57 cents per call, the brand is in a better position financially and that can result in lower prices for the consumer.

But what that resulted in was a lot of angry customers and customers who weren’t getting a good experience and more often than not the experience is more powerful than cost savings.

With customer-centric marketing in business what we are focusing on the fact that, it might cost me an extra dollar or two up front per customer and that results in a slightly higher price.

But the savings long term in terms of retention and the customer coming back for more is going to save a lot and provide an extremely high level of value and an amazing customer experience.

One thing that is our little niche in the marketing world is, The Relationship Marketing Experience, where you have to sit down and interview your team, all of your employees. You are trying to have your clients and potential clients feel connected to you.

If you have a warehouse for example and looking at shipping, up front offices and sales-people, you want to open your whole operation up to the customers to help them feel as though they are part of your story and the story of all the people who make up what you do.

You want them to see what goes on in your business and to actually see what the employees are like.

Are they funny? What kind of personalities do they have? You are trying to have them connect to the people in your business not just the product of your business. Because people build connections with people.

When you look at the most important people in your organization it’s your employees, they are your number one and most important people. Because they are the catalyst to displaying the brand experience to your customers.

Your employees are going to showcase to the customer exactly what they think and feel about your business.

If the employees are pumped, in a good position, happy and you are taking care of them, they are going to showcase that to the customer. But if employees are mad, angry and upset they are going to showcase that to the customer.

Then you are going to get the customer who walks in and has a bad experience because that employee was terrible and didn’t care and that results in the customer walking out and never coming back.

Or you have the customer who visits your brand, always has a really cool and unique experience where the employees are pumped and showcasing how much they care.

The key here is to display the different personalities and people who work for your brand and work tirelessly to take care of them and make them feel special.

People want to interact with real people who are happy and excited about what you do and who want to give them a good experience.

Part of that is about your online brand persona. What is the real human side of the brand? That is what people are going to connect with initially. Then it goes as far as internal team culture. What are you actually doing inside of your business with your team to have them feel that they are part of that culture and what are you doing to make them feel connected to the brand?

This has to be something that not only your employees believe in but your clients or customers also believe in when they see it displayed.

This is the idea behind the big picture and the vision and long-term plan of what you do and being able to display that vision. A lot of management styles say do this because I said so, which is a really poor way to try and rally your team.

That sets the team up to be angry and not wanting to or care to be part of your vision. Because they don’t understand the big picture and the management failed to prioritize displaying the big picture and create a culture of excitement behind it.

The management needs to be able to come in and says this is what we are doing, this is why we are doing it and this is the big picture surrounding everything and then they have enough understanding of the employees to see it through their eyes and display it in a way that makes them feel proud and excited for it.

This is learning and understanding how to be empathetic to your staff and being able to see the world through their eyes.

With this, you are going to be able to develop a good team who wants to follow you and who will do anything to help you out to build and grow the brand and the business because they care and they understand the big picture and want nothing more than to rally behind it.

You have to take care of your team and your employees, because they are the most important asset you have in your entire business.

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