Customer advocacy is the #1 priority for Chief marketing Officers (CMOs) worldwide

Customer advocacy is the #1 priority for Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) worldwide, according to a recent IBM study

The CMO’s role is expanding, as the digital revolution transforms the orthodoxies of marketing. IBM learned from more than 1,700 CMOs how they are addressing new opportunities and challenges and strengthening themselves  to succeed.

The practice of marketing is going through a period of unparalleled change, putting CMOs everywhere to the test. So how should you respond?

You can carry on as before. Or you can seize the opportunity to transform your marketing function by responding to these new realities:

• The empowered customer is now in control of the business relationship
• Delivering customer value is paramount—and an organization’s behavior is as much a part of the value equation as the products and services it provides
• The pressure to be accountable to the business is not just a symptom of hard times; it is a permanent shift that requires new approaches, tools and skills.

The combined insights of the 1,734 senior marketing executives who participated in this IBM study point to three strategic imperatives you can act on to strengthen your likelihood of success:

Deliver value to empowered customers

• Focus on creating value  for customers as individuals
• Reprioritize investments to analyze digital channels to access customers’ views and use advanced analytics to recognize preferences and trends across every touch point
• Work with IT to assess potential data and infrastructure exposures, employ tools to secure customer data and update privacy policies to address customers’ concerns

Foster lasting connections

• Capitalize on new digital channels to stimulate customer conversations and new relationships; use tangible incentives to  attract followers
• Engage with customers throughout the customer lifecycle; build online/offline communities to strengthen your brand
• Help the enterprise define and activate traits that make it unique and engage the C-suite to meld the internal and external faces of the enterprise

Capture value,  measure results

• Use advanced analytics and compelling metrics to improve decision making and to demonstrate accountability
• Adjust your talent mix to increase technical and financial skills, and grow digital expertise by finding new partners to supplement in-house resources
• Expand your horizons by enhancing your personal financial, technical and digital savviness

"Loyalty and customer satisfaction are critical because advocates provide you with immeasurably valuable free marketing,” a banking CMO in the United States elaborated.

Download full report 11032011-IBMCMOStudy_From_Stretched_to_Strenghtened.pdf

Service is key to building customer relationships!

Service is key to building customer relationships!

Amir Kassaei on the Power of Friendship in Communication

St. Gallen Symposium, May 2011:

Interesting interview with Amir Kassaei, Chief Creative Office of DDB Worldwide, on the Power of Advocacy 

Customer Advocacy: Re-evaluating the Concept of CARE

Customer advocacy is rapidly gaining traction and becoming a buzz-phrase. This paper aims to create awareness for what customer advocacy really is and what it requires from companies that set out to generate it. The author, Nicolette Wuring, stresses that it is necessary to re-evaluate the concept of CARE.

Where consumers are flooded with an abundance of choice, and products and services are completely commoditised, care can make the difference: ‘When you care, people notice’.

But don't think that consumers can be tricked into it. They will know and their (positive or negative) messages spread faster and across larger geographic areas than a company will ever be able to afford, no matter how large the marketing budget.

As a member of the board of UPC Broadband Europe (the largest cable operator outside the USA, owned by Liberty Global) in the years 2004–2008, the author led the transformational process that resulted in the turnaround of the reputation of the company from worst to best in class customer service. This process resulted in a strong business case.

Customer advocacy delivers sustainable business and financial results and materially impacts the bottom-line of a company. But be warned, it is a transformational process that touches the core of the organisation. Employee Advocacy is a prerequisite for successfully generating Customer Advocacy.

Go to the website of Henry Stewart Publications.

Your Loyal Customers Are At Risk!

Customer advocacy is the biggest threat to those customers who are loyal to your brand! The catch is the difference between a loyal customer and a customer who is an ambassador for your brand. Customers, who are loyal to your brand, but not an ambassador for your brand, are vulnerable to customers who do put their own reputation on the line by being an ambassador for a competing brand!

Read the article.

Revival of Universal Values in Business

Disaster after disaster surfaces at the backlash of greed and the loss of trust. For all the worldwide concern, Nicolette Wuring shows there’s a way out. Shows that it’s crucial for businesses around the world to re-connect with universal values.

Read article