Chapter 9

The Way Forward

You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.

—Marianne Williamson

AS I SAID at the beginning of this book, I love change. And that’s good news for me and people like me because the changes in the landscape for marketing and product development are definitely not over. We are just at the beginning of a new awakening about how to successfully develop new products and flourish during the rise of relationship marketing. Using the same old approaches to consumer engagement and acquisition with ever-diminishing results won’t be acceptable much longer.

One of this book’s primary purposes is to alter marketing departments and product/brand managers’ perspectives—to shift their focus from what has happened to what will happen with their consumers. Therefore, I want to use this chapter to cover some trends in the consumer space, all of which support the notion that we must continue to strive to understand, support, and speak to consumers at their core.

The Control of Consumer Preference

The National Do Not Call Registry was established in 2004 to prevent telemarketers from interrupting our peace and quiet while we were at home trying to have a meal with our families or simply relaxing. Although many people aren’t aware, there are Internet and wireless device versions of the do not call list that strive to prevent marketers from the same annoying tactics and breaches to personal privacy that can occur within other technology-based media. Legislation has been proposed that, once passed, would prevent tracking that marketing departments are currently conducting on what people are doing. How consumers are being opted in to receive messages and communication from different products and brands is already regulated. As these regulations grow, marketers must enter into mutually desirable relationships with their consumers to continue to market to them.

It’s difficult to track granular and identifiable information on most mobile devices because the same type of tracking elements available on websites are not available on all mobile devices or implementations. Considering that entire clusters of consumers predict that they may never own a traditional laptop or desktop computer, as well as the chance that what we currently carry as technology may fundamentally change yet again in the near future, marketers must consider their approach to collecting and acting on consumer data accordingly.

Under existing and proposed legislation, the consumer must understand and agree with the value they receive from providing their marketing communication preferences. They will control how and when brands track this information across their experiences. Marketers and product managers with this type of insight can use smarter methods for predicting consumer interests. Its becoming increasingly critical to get consumer permission to share and communicate with them.

There’s a problem with the way that most companies manage customer preference today, and it lies in the way they choose to implement the consumers’ ability to opt in or opt out of communication. Many companies use an approach that PossibleNOW, the leader in customer preference management, calls an atomic opt out. This means that they provide the consumer with a big switch that in essence unsubscribes the consumer from all company correspondence. Once turned off, it’s challenging to get the consumer reengaged.

A far better approach, one that PossibleNOW has deployed as a preference center that includes options for all of a company’s many diverse channels from e-mail to text message, is to capture the consumer at the point of choice and allow them to opt down—that is, to specifically select which correspondence to receive over which channels and at what frequency. This approach truly supports the ability to send a consumer the right message at the right time across the right channel.

Another problem that PossibleNOW’s technology has resolved is that in order to make sure companies are both honoring consumers’ preferences for communication and giving them something meaningful, companies must keep this consumer information centrally located and up to date. Centralization provides the diverse systems and business units that make up today’s companies an easy way to access and act upon this information. PossibleNOW’s technology makes tracking of consumer preferences worry free. Companies benefit from honoring their consumers’ preferences and can use the preference information to better understand their consumers’ desires.

In a world where few people even bother to answer their phones or pay attention to what they receive in the mail, e-mail and other electronic interactions are the primary channels by which companies can and should communicate with their consumers. My work has found that as long as there is an appropriate benefit for the exchange in the information provided, most consumers are fine with sharing both their behavior and preferences. Companies just need to be careful about how they handle the channels of communication that are currently open between them and their consumers. They don’t want to risk shutting down their potentially most valuable and easy-to-capitalize-on mode of relationship.

Another benefit of consolidating preference data and customer behavior is that it is important to the analysis you use to unlock big data. Once you have collected consumers’ preferences, you can influence the collection of preference data either by asking consumers directly (explicit preferences) or by drawing inference based on their behavior (implicit preferences).

There’s yet another valuable bonus to figuring out what kind of communication your customers favor—one that goes beyond legal requirements and general goodwill. Doing so provides a company with yet another layer of information about customers’ core desires, information that is critical to unlocking how to interact with them. Again, it’s crucial to store this knowledge—just like preference data—in a central location. This allows all areas of the company to use the information with the clusters in the way those clusters prefer and appreciate.

Not Buying a Product; Buying My Product

One thing that consumers today want is the ability to customize a product down to the finest details, in essence to make your product their product.

Shark Tank, a show that’s dedicated to shedding light into the mysterious world of raising money for new ventures, featured an ice cream business called eCreamery that was pitching its product on one particular episode. If you have ever wanted to create your own ice cream flavor, eCreamery may just be what you have been looking for. The brand’s cofounders, Abby Jordan and Becky App, have been making custom-flavored ice cream and gelato since 2007. They brought their successful business into the Shark Tank in hopes of appealing to the sharks’, and ultimately the viewing audience’s, sweet tooth. The ladies even made a custom flavor with premium spicy dark chocolate for Mark Cuban that they named The Cubanero. Consumers can order their own custom ice cream from the store and have it sent via overnight mail to their house.

A more extreme example of consumers being able to buy their own customized products is what Audi is doing in the United Kingdom. Audi has built a car dealership unlike anything that exists anywhere else. They have no inventory; instead, car buyers use a computer to design the car they want. It appears on a screen in front of them at the actual size and dimensions the car will be when they receive it.

The large screens give the consumer the opportunity to walk around the car and get a feel for its size and other choices they are making. Once the consumer saves the car, it is then placed on order and delivered to the consumer’s house when it’s ready. The dealership has one of each type of car to let consumers test drive and get a feel for handling and other important aspects of that experience.

This is an example of consumer-based mass customization at its finest. The consumer gets exactly what’s wanted and doesn’t feel as if he or she is being talked into a car just because it happens to be on the lot. The dealership can focus on giving each consumer his or her ideal product without worrying about moving existing inventory. Audi is able to dramatically reduce the overhead costs that are usually tied up in land and inventory. The manufacturing plant builds the car exactly the way the consumer wants to buy it; a known buyer is waiting to take the product off the company’s hands the minute it rolls off the assembly line.

This is a far cry from Henry Ford’s “They can have any color, as long as it’s black” approach. If a car company can embrace consumer-based mass customization, then it should be far simpler for other product, service, and marketing organizations to do the same thing.

Creating My Own Experience

The Coca-Cola Company has come a long way from producing only one product back in 1886 to where it is today. Not only does it sell a wide variety of products to support different tastes across the globe, but is has recently introduced the ultimate product for the creation of a consumer’s own experience. The Coca-Cola Freestyle machine is a modern-day soda fountain that provides more than 100 beverage choices—all at the touch of a button. The innovative machine is rolling out across the world thanks to the Coca-Cola Company introducing it via its distribution partners. The product’s major draw: it allows the consumer the ability to mass customize his or her drink while standing in the store.

The Coca-Cola Company shared some of the impacts this consumer-focused product has had for its restaurant partners on its website. According to Jennifer Mann, Coca-Cola Freestyle vice president and general manager, “We’ve proven pre-launch and in-market that when a restaurant [offers] Coca-Cola Freestyle, their traffic, incidence and beverage servings grow anywhere from single to double digits . . . additionally, the perceptions of the restaurant brand improves.”

And it’s not just the Coca-Cola Company making these claims; restaurant owners attest to it as well. Mike Walsh, who owns seven New York locations of popular chain Moe’s Southwest Grill, has Coca-Cola Freestyle machines in his two newest locations. “Our customers love it,” Walsh says. “Everybody was mesmerized by it when we opened our two new stores. It’s definitely a good business driver.”

The Moe’s franchisee is now busy converting his other five stores into Coca-Cola Freestyle locations.

After testing Coca-Cola Freestyle in some of its stores in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, the Moe’s chain saw comparable sales jump by 9 percent. As a result, Moe’s now requires all new franchises to have Coca-Cola Freestyle inside.

What’s interesting to me is the attention I know the Coca-Cola Company paid to the Freestyle machine’s roll out. I remember the first time I saw one. My wife, daughter, and I came across it one day while having lunch at a Burger King near our home. We chatted back and forth about how cool it was, struggled with figuring out how to use it, and tasted a couple of combinations to see what we really thought of the flavor.

After we sat down, I noticed a man sitting at a table nearby writing very discreetly in a notebook. He was paying rapt attention to anyone and everyone who walked up to the machine, taking notes about their interactions. He was wearing a black jacket with a subtle Coca-Cola insignia on it. I don’t know it for a fact, but as a fellow researcher, I suspect, Coca-Cola was doing what every company needs to and should be doing: watching its consumers interact with a new product idea or concept in the actual context it would be used. He didn’t have to pay us; he didn’t even have to ask any questions. He could simply observe our use and overhear our conversations. So many companies have the same opportunity to receive this unfiltered and valuable content. They just need to take the time to do so and have a process that allows them to take action later on within the walls of their company.

The Rise of Perfectly Imperfect

The great news for marketers and product managers is that consumers don’t want or expect perfection—in much the same way we don’t expect our friends to be perfect. And the more they see your brand, company, product, or service as a friend, the more they want to hear and understand the real deal. Creating a voice, sticking to what your consumers expect from your brand, and being okay with admitting that you aren’t perfect is far more important than perfection.

Many of the most successful campaigns have capitalized on this imperfection. Charmin has been successful with a Tweets from the Seat campaign that highlights just that. It has played off of a concept that would typically be taboo by celebrating what its product does for its consumers.

This willingness to be authentic is refreshing and important to establishing a relationship. The campaign is indirectly related to Charmin’s products; at no time do they use this handle to tell their customers to “buy more Charmin.”

Desire for Connection and Authenticity

I can recall reading a book in the 1990s that warned of a future in which we didn’t know our neighbors, an existence where we spoke to only a select few people and chose to isolate ourselves into tight-knit groups. Although this prediction has come true to some extent—many of us don’t know our neighbors as well as people did in the 1960s and 1970s—the result hasn’t been the kind of cocooning this book foresaw. I argue instead that it’s been more of a broadening.

We now have the ability to connect to and be in relationship with people with similar tastes and interests who live all over the world. We can bond with virtual strangers based on all levels of tastes and interests and maintain bonds with people from all stages of our life. Rather than resulting in isolation, these disruptive technologies have allowed for a stronger connection among individuals.

Think about how various social network sites make this work. Pinterest supports the ability to follow others with the same tastes and interests. It allows us to connect with and share ideas for inspiration or aspiration. Facebook brings the widespread family back together by highlighting the events that are going on in others’ lives. Other sites, social network platforms, and local groups have been formed and developed to support individuals’ unique needs in very targeted ways. Love pets? There’s a site for you. Want to find other quilters? There’s a local group to meet with. Want to talk about agriculture? There’s a weekly chat on Twitter about the topic; just follow the hashtag agchat.

I find in both my own research and many other writings that focus on the time in which we’re living that people are seeking authentic connection and a return to storytelling. What they don’t want is perfection, more commercialization, or a requirement to conform. They want to be understood for whom and where they are. They don’t want advice; rather they seek firsthand knowledge of how to address a problem or issue or how to make a change from someone who has been there and is willing to talk about it authentically.

Less Control over Entry Point and Multichannel

Marketers will have to learn that although they can measure the payoff for their campaigns in the new world order, it won’t be with the same level of immediacy as they have used before. I have heard many companies referring to their once-important home page as their largest landing page. They no longer have the control they once did over how and where the consumer is entering their website.

It takes time to establish a relationship with your end consumers and to understand where you stand with them in their current ecosystems. Instead of launching a campaign and looking for an immediate uptick, marketers must learn how to roll a campaign out gradually and measure its effectiveness over time. This will mean assessing various parts of the big data that you’re collecting in better ways.

I liken the land grab for creating big data repositories to the land grabs of early America. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s—when American and Canadian prairie lands had been overworked, causing dust storms and droughts to ensue—came as a direct result of ignorance. Specifically, it came about because of people’s failure to pay attention to how they should use their land. If companies do essentially the same thing with big data and use only their internal understanding and the patterns that emerge within what they collect, they will miss the mark on what the information means and how they should build products moving forward. Companies must use deep knowledge of their consumers to truly unlock the most crucial parts of the data being collected.

The Rising Phenomenon of the Unseen Brand

If you think about it, you realize that so much of what we buy now is unseen. We carry around digital devices that all look the same (except maybe for the case we choose to put on the outside). We’re no longer able to tell what someone is reading, viewing, listening to, and playing on these devices. We often learn about this only by seeing what the individual might share or discuss on a social network.

This adds a level of complexity to the once-tangible process of gaining awareness for a product. One attempt I have seen a brand make is Kindle’s built-in feature that allows readers to share a passage of a book or article that they have read across the reader’s social media channels.

It’s about Relationship

Begging a consumer to like you or share something without taking the time to understand why they would like what you have to offer—or how it benefits their core DNA—is a mistake of substantial proportions. It’s today’s equivalent of the obnoxious car commercials we are all familiar with that blares from the television screen, screaming “no money down” or “big sale.” People have spent a lot of time debating the value of a like or tweet in recent years, focusing primarily on what happens at this point of interaction, not why it happened or why others truly participated.

The world of marketing and product management has been turned upside down. If you love change, it’s a great time to be in this space. And if you don’t . . . well, it’s time to learn to love it.

The kind of marketing that focused on transactions must now focus on relationship. Sales is now the transactional part of the buyer’s journey. Businesses need to revisit traditional company roles as they work to change their behaviors to align with the change in the consumer.

I know I have emphasized the analogy that brands, companies, and experiences must see themselves as a person. I also know that this is actually very difficult to do. And the larger the organization, the more difficult it becomes to act like an individual and modify behavior to fit the changing environment. Too many processes and claims of “We have done it this way for years” exist, even in companies that tout expertise in relationship-based marketing. Smaller companies are far more likely to succeed in this new paradigm. They must learn to listen to their consumer and resist the temptation to sell the consumer on their idea.

It’s absolutely crucial to begin viewing your consumers in a very different way. You must take the time to find out why they buy your product, use your service, participate in an experience, or spend money on your brand. The companies that follow this new process of understanding their consumers and establishing trusted relationships will be the ones that will grow and prosper in our new mass customization economy—an economy that demands that you understand the individual before you do anything else.

As I said at the beginning of this book, it’s one of the coolest times to be in marketing and product development. It’s time to create new rules, new ways of doing business, and new methods for measuring success. And the very cool thing is that the secret to being successful in this endeavor simply requires that we do something that’s so basic to each of us as human beings that we have forgotten how to do it: we just need to understand one another.