What’s in a brand?A fundamental shift for marketers

in the digital age.

Hello.

Kristin Stith

@kristinstith

@bristleconeINC

Blog: Humble Brand

Bristlecone

What’s in a Brand?

Who’s your favorite brand to do business with?

WHY?

Branding?

You work on fun logos all day?Sweet.

What’s in a brand?

Digital AgeBecause of technology consumers...

● “Flight of the bumblebee” -Brand Leadership

● Already know what product you offer before they get to your brand’s doorstep.

● Have more access and choices than ever before

● Are more entitled than ever before.

● Have the ability to share how your brand made them feel

You do not decide what your brand is. Your customers do.

The Problem

● Companies are spending big $$ marketing “at” consumers

● Beautiful front yards with fires in the kitchen.

● Way too much transaction, not enough relation.

○ “61% of people distrust the financial services firms they do business with regularly.” -Harvard Business Review

○ “56% of people have to explain their problems multiple times to customer service.” -The Economist

○ “77% of financial executives are concerned about losing customers to companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, and Lending Club.” -Globe Newswire

Research Shows...

Now through 2020, CMOs will reorganize their departments around personalised customer experience as their core marketing strategy.

Marketing departments will exercise significant influence over business strategy by 2020.

CX leaders account for 41% of revenue growth leaders and 43% of customer acquisition leaders.

-The Economist, The path to 2020: Marketers seize the customer experience

Research Shows..

“Marketing’s top increased expectation is to lead the customer experience cross-functionally at all touchpoints.” -Harvard Business

Review, Designing a Marketing Organization for the Digital Age

“CX-based marketing offers a better model than advertising for a crowded, information-rich marketing environment.” -Keith Weed,

Unilever

The Customer Experience

“The purpose of business is to create and KEEP customers.” -Peter Druker

“We aren’t the best, but we are everyone’s favorite.” -Danny Meyer, Restaurateur

● Every single brand offers customers some kind of experience.

○ Good. Bad. Forgettable. Good. WOW.

The Customer Experience

CX is holistic. The sum of all interactions that a customer will have with a company. Reaches much further beyond the traditional meaning of customer service.

The top CX priorities:

● Personalization

● Speed and efficiency

● Consistency

Building out the Evolution

● It begins at the top.

● There must be a fundamental change within an organization

● Part of your company’s culture

● Say good-bye to department silos

○ Death to Sales and Marketing

● Marketing no longer markets, but rather builds an excellent customer experience

Building out the Evolution

Every department in an organization touches the customer experience.

● Data: Measuring every move customers make

● Technology: Must merge tech and marketing mindsets

● Sales: Must have a tight connection

● Customer Service: 360 view of the customer

● Legal: Yes… even legal.

● Marketing: The synthesizer for all departments!

The Marketing Leader: The Da Vinci

“If you’re still thinking of the CMO as chief megaphone officer, then you’re stuck in the ‘90s.” -Jonathan Martin, CMO of Pure Storage

● The marketing leader: The synthesizer of all departments, tearing down walls, creating fluid structures and building out an excellent experience for the customer.

● They listen better than they project.

● Catalyst for the customer experience

Marketing

● Is lead by the customer experience catalyst

● Must pivot from being departmental to cross-organizational

● All department team members must wear multiple hats

● Marketers are the teachers. Responsible for internal brand awareness.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction

● Surveys (Surveymonkey, Qualtrics, Sales Force)

● Collect data at EVERY TOUCHPOINT

● Net Promoter Score- A customer loyalty metric.

○ A management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of a firm's customer relationships.

○ NPS claims to be correlated with revenue growth.

○ NPS has been widely adopted with more than two thirds of Fortune 1000 companies using NPS (Bloomberg)

Key Performance Indicators

● Marketing- Customer Experience

○ Net Promoter Score

● Sales

○ Origination

● Push and pull mentality w/ our KPI’s

Change or Be Changed

● Remember, your brand is what your customers tell you it is.

● LISTEN.

● How you treat your customers today, not your product, will determine whether or not your company doors will be open tomorrow.