Transforming Five P’s to Four R’s of Marketing
In a world where people are bombarded with more than 3000 messages every day, where more than 59% of college students turn to word of mouth (WOM) to research products, and with brands in the hands of consumers; marketers must approach customer engagement and acquisition in a whole new way.
No longer can we depend on a rear-view mirror approach to segmenting, positioning and promoting products and services. Today’s marketer needs to have a facile understanding of technology, combined with trust in their own insights, in order to create interest, adoption and lifetime customer value.
I propose the Four R’s of Marketing to build consumers’ trust:
Reveal:
Previously anonymous customer habits can be turned into rich customer profiles in the hands of smart marketers who use technology and analytics in real-time to reveal consumer behavior. For example, using online tools like shopping cart data and a real-world database, a national restaurant chain has the ability to segment down to the customer level:
Habits:
- Visits two locations for lunch (42% of time) and dinner (58% of time).
- Responds to free food - visit frequency increased by 540% and purchase amount increased 380% during a “free cookie” promotion (from 0.52 visits per week to 3.33 visits per week)
- Favorite sandwich is BLT; second favorite is Ham & Swiss
- $11.48 per visit (42% greater than the average customer)
Reward:
Once such detailed profiles are captured and segmented (again, using rich analytical tools and human intelligence), marketers can reward behaviors with highly targeted offers and information to further engage and delight the customer.
In the example above, Customer xxxxxx7852 (and others like him) might receive special emailed promotional offers on BLTs (or more free cookies) to entice him in on a weekend; while other segments might receive offers based on their favorites revealed.
Respect:
Highly relevant, targeted offers will result in increased trust and respect of the customer toward the marketer’s brand. Relevant, personalized messages have been proven to move from awareness to action; and can move a brand beyond the mediocrity of the masses in order to meet the higher standards of goodwill that people reward with their attention today.
Retain:
As we saw in the example above, the offer of a free cookie stimulated increased interactions by more than 380% with the brand. As switching costs become lower for most brands, and as the cost of customer acquisition grows, the value of current customers becomes more important.
