Customers at the center of corporate strategy
Why is it so important that customers are at the center of corporate strategy?
Customers are and remain people. The customer should be at the center of communication and the offer.
Even in the B2B environment, always remember that there is a person behind every contact.
How do I put the customer at the center?
People buy from people with whom they perceive similarities and trust.
This is only partially dependent on intellectual understanding. We are much more complex beings. We identify ourselves through eye contact, facial expressions, the tone in our voices, images that awaken memories in us, feelings that we experience and much more.
In the age of social media, we create networks and can find out very specifically what moves our fellow human beings and in which environment they move. Our customers are people and they want to communicate about their topics. The business world (B2B), especially at work, is only a small part of what moves us.
Stop blasting traditional advertising in your customers’ faces. This can be done better, more efficiently and more cost-effectively today.
Mass advertising via TV commercials, posters, newspaper advertisements etc. is expensive and usually inefficient.
By calling random people from a telephone list, you are more likely to annoy potential customers. You are not giving them the choice to decide on something.
The “customer journey”
Take the customer on a virtual journey!
How would you treat a friend? Pick him/her up at home in the vehicle he/she wants. This is not always a limousine. It can also be a skateboard or a bicycle.
Go surfing, to yoga, to a children’s birthday party, to play golf, to a cultural event, to a football match, to the mountains or wherever your customer wants to go. You know these wishes, because nowadays everyone publishes their photos or thoughts somewhere on the Internet.
It takes some effort to build this personal communication. However, with this approach you largely bypass the competition and reduce advertising costs.
Give potential customers the chance to choose your product or service for themselves.
The communication system
We all consume information in different forms. Visually, as audio or as text!
Every social media platform has its own characteristics. We intuitively find ourselves in a different emotional situation depending on how we use it.
On LinkedIn, the doctor is the professional Dr. F. Müller. On Facebook, he is simply Fabian and shares his passion for airplanes. On Instagram he shares photos of his kids, on YouTube he watches videos about his hobby, model flying, and at breakfast he reads the NZZ online to catch up on the latest news.
He doesn’t want to see any direct advertising for medical devices on Facebook, just as he doesn’t want to see any on Instagram. This only reminds him of work. He actually wants to relax at this moment.
The challenge for you as a company: On each platform, you provide the customer with information in such a way that he or she feels picked up and understood at that moment.
Brand versus product
In the long term, your brand should be the focus!
In many situations, your first priority should be to position your brand. Here, too, customers should be at the center of the corporate strategy.
The best example is probably Red Bull. Red Bull owes its success first and foremost to its involvement in extreme sports. The brand is prominently positioned at a wide variety of events. Although the sale of the drink is omnipresent, it is never the focus of communication, except in the amusing advertising, where all kinds of things are given wings.
With its brand advertising and events, Red Bull is moving beyond traditional drinks advertising. The drink has become particularly popular with the young target audience, as this customer group identifies with these events.
Make your existing customers HAPPY
Many companies are only using part of the potential of online communication. Provide your existing customers with interspersed information about your brand. Later on, you will have the customer’s acceptance that he/she will tolerate advertising campaigns for your products and, at best, respond to them.
Example Swiss:
I constantly receive a newsletter from Swiss in which several products are advertised each time. I delete the newsletter immediately!
It would look quite different if Swiss were to deliver 5 newsletters with interesting information on the state of aviation, videos with airplanes, a presentation of the airport expansion in Zurich, etc. in between, and then advertise a single product in detail in a special campaign.
Conclusion: Take the time to show your customers your best side. Don’t chase the sale! The customer doesn’t care if you have to make a profit. They are not a bag of money to be squeezed.
Don’t just deliver your own product
Of course your product should be the focus.
However, if you know that your customers need things that you cannot supply, you have the option of selling products from other manufacturers and perhaps even competitors in return for a commission.
You may even be able to give others the opportunity to trade in your own products.
STAY CREATIVE!
I am there for my customers. Give me a call.
+41 79 472 77 44
