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Thoughts on customer-led marketing
Oct 17, 2006
The New York Times last week became the latest periodical to publish an enthusiastic piece about the new trend of customer-led marketing. This trend, so the thinking goes, allows customers to "own" a brand by creating their own uses and extensions of it. The article gives a typical example, a case study from a car manufacturer.
From Letting Consumers Control Marketing: Priceless:
At Mini USA, part of BMW of North America, the fact that so many customers choose to customize their cars showed executives that "we'd never have complete control over the brand," said James L. McDowell, managing director at Mini USA. About 60 percent of the estimated 40,000 Minis the company sells each year are customized.
For instance, Mr. McDowell said, some Mini owners dress their cars in naughty costumes for Halloween, and two investment bankers mounted mock shark fins atop the roofs of their Minis.
Brand managers are right to pay attention to this trend. In the age of the Internet, because customers are much more able to communicate with one another, they likewise demand a higher (perceived) degree of authenticity from any companies they hear from. If any company wants to join the conversation, they have to get real - and one way to do that is to let the customers lead.
This is hardly news to Internet veterans - we heard the same message - "markets are conversations" - back in 1999 when The Cluetrain Manifesto was published. If you missed it, it's now online, and you can read the book in its entirety at cluetrain.com/book.
My only concern about the "customer-led" trend is that it still focuses on the brand - brand exposure, brand impressions, brand messaging - all traditional, if not somewhat dated, concerns for many customer-facing companies and services today. I don't hear much in the media coverage of this trend about the simple, basic customer experience that most customers want, most of the time, from most of the companies they deal with. The trend is all well and fine, but it overlooks the "elephant in the living room": most companies can make a much smarter investment in their marketing by simply delivering a better experience.
Take the Mini example. I agree with the BMW executives that it's interesting, and surely exciting for them, that 60% of their tens of thousands of customers are customizing their cars. But that's an recent trend for a niche brand. What about the "rest of us" - millions of consumers who buy cars other than the Mini - and the people who manage those companies?
There is something real at work in this trend, but it's not about customized commercials on YouTube or Halloween outfits for cars. Instead, customized products - allowing customers to choose their own products at the point of purchase - are a much more real-world, real-numbers, and real-customer-centric trend. Customized greeting cards and T-shirts are increasingly popular in the retail world; in the business-to-business world, we know at least one company that is wildly successful with customized safety signs. (No flash or gimmicks - just offering customers the customization they want.)
Trend-watching marketers might also learn a lesson from the former Song Airlines. Spotting a trend of low-cost but friendly airlines, Song invested in fashionable outfits for the flight attendants; a cute logo in a hipster shade of green; and a boutique temporary pop-up store in SoHo (following yet another trend). The only major thing Song forgot was to build a viable business serving customers. They copied the superficial elements of the trend without executing the deeply rooted commitment to customer experience delivered by successful brands in the space like Southwest and JetBlue. Song flew its last flight in April.
The customer-led trend is interesting, exciting, and limited in its scope and value - if viewed just as a "brand play". Like all quick-hit trends, it's as delicious as the maraschino cherry on top of a sundae; and about as nutritious, too. Taste it, perhaps, but don't forget the "meal", no matter how everyday or unglamorous it may seem: providing a simple, basic customer experience.
(Quoting) "They copied the superficial elements of the trend without executing the deeply rooted commitment to customer experience delivered by successful brands in the space like Southwest and JetBlue."
When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
I'm seldom moved to comment on heady language like this, but this vacuous comment is particularly annoying since it purports to explain why Song was merged into Delta. Song's demise had little (anything?) to do with failing to "execute on a commitment to customer experience" and had more to do the costs and business realities of Delta operating two separate airlines under one corporate umbrella in many of the same markets. If you follow the airline industry, you know that Song's tangible customer experience features (great in-flight entertainment, extra legroom) are being integrated with parent Delta.
Customer experience is important, of course, but you cannot simply claim that because a business fails or takes off, that it does so based on customer experience. Sure, you've picked this as your stomping ground, but this component of today's entry was reductionist and naive.
(Quote):in the business-to-business world, we know at least one company that is
wildly successful with customized safety signs. (No flash or
gimmicks - just offering customers the customization they want.)"
Out of curiousity - would you be willing to share what specific company you were referring to here?
I own a Mini Cooper -- have had one for almost four years -- and let me tell you something about the ownership experience:
The car is a *hoot* to drive.
There are other cute cars out there, like the New Beetle, but they don't generate the level of customer love that the Mini does because they do not deliver on the driving experience in the same way.
There are some people out there who *enjoy* the sensation of driving. The Mini is a great car for them. If they feel emotionally attached to it it's because they enjoy driving the thing. Customization and sharks fins are icing on the cake.
A very sage column, Mark. The problem, if you will, is that marketing is done by marketers, not people who inherently understand the nature of experience or who are qualified to judge the good and the bad types.
Have you ever tried to get a job in one of the large corporations or consultancies as a VP Marketing, with an experience-design background? I'm sure it can be done, but no one in my acquaintance has yet done it. Marketing executives begin as marketing managers who begin as graduates of business programs at better or lesser colleges. It's called "tracking' and results in a corps of decisionmakers who make, not bad decisions, but the wrong decisions. And so it goes.
As a marketer, I'd like to clarify that I really DO understand that there has to be a product. Selling ice to an eskimo generates no long-term revenue.
Minis are fun! They are a quality product. They get incredible gas mileage. They're easy to park. And they are comparatively safe.
That said, many people are drawn to the ice cream sundae FOR the maraschino cherry. Customization is a great marketing tool that Mini is using to their advantage. Volkswagen has been doing the same thing with the new Beetle.
The question about whether customization adds value is irrelevant for the manufacturer. In this case, it is the CUSTOMER who is determining what they want with their product and exactly how much value to add.
Did Song perish because of a failure to focus on the customer experience, or because of the budget constraints of being a part of a struggling legacy airline - I really don't know. But for some great background on the Song rollout, I recommend the PBS program Frontline's episode, "The Persuaders." (The entire program is available online, at the PBS site.) Then I'd like to see some postings from those that flew Song a few times.
Clearly a popular debate.
Maybe instead of 'customer-led', we might consider 'customer-centred'. This seems to suggest co-creation which is at the very heart of web 2.0. It also speaks to a 'sharing' - where consumers talk and brands listen - an iterative process for mutual gain.
The other interesting thought is that if consumers are listened to, if they participate in the creation of a product or service, then they will be far more likely to invest in it.
Now that doesn't just mean more focus groups employed by the designer / manufacturer, it's about having conversations, building relationships - and aren't marketeers good at that?