This time of year, while consumers have visions of turkey, mashed potatoes and holiday shopping lists, marketers are forced to turn to the dreaded “annual plan.” While not guaranteed to lead to weight gain (except for stress eaters), marketing plans typically involve a lengthy review of the past year’s marketing activities and results, competitive assessments, company strengths and vulnerabilities and basic reports on consumer trends.
This approach is fundamentally flawed.
The problem with marketing planning is that the process fundamentally ignores the most critical role of marketing – to be the “voice of the customer,” particularly the Best Customer. The important relationships with the 10-20% of your customer base that can represent up top 60% of revenue and even a higher percent of profit, are often bundled under “customer service” and left for support staff meetings as a cost center.
Remember…
Every time a customer comes in contact with a company, through the web site, the customer service line, email communication, retail associates, salesperson visits – each touchpoint leaves a lasting impression. The cumulative result of those encounters, for better or worse becomes what the customer experiences as “the brand.”
So if those encounters actually constitute the brand to a customer, how should marketing manage the brand?
Brand management, and all of marketing, need to engage in these three critical activities:
- Understand the brand as experienced and defined by the customer, particularly Best Customers
- Translate those insights into seamless connections with Best Customers across touchpoints
- Develop high potential customers into Best Customers
So where does this leave the annual plans? In need of a serious paradigm shift.
Marketing planning must focus on Best Customer needs and changes in the customer base. The other ingredients of the recipe – competitive analysis, market share, results, revenue and margins, are all important, but baking without Best Customer insight is like baking without yeast – the result becomes flat (also known as matzah in some quarters!).
Build from the outside-in, rather than the inside-out.
If Best Customers are to be the center of the process, then plans must begin with trends, insights and innovations designed to increase retention, referenceability and depth of relationship. Out of that effort, key messages and intrinsic benefits for Best Customers can be identified. Then the Best Customer experience must be mapped for every touchpoint, both as it currently is and as you need it to be to deliver that message and benefit to those Best Customers consistently. Once Best Customer planning has been established as a top priority, then the rest of marketing planning can be completed in a more condensed form.
When marketing planning focuses on the company, it sends a clear message that the company is the mission, not the customer. That inward facing focus leads airlines to charge for bags and food, leads health clubs to eliminate water cups next to tennis courts, and leads automobile companies to come out with a new line every year, whether the customer needs it or not.
So here is my Thanksgiving recipe for marketers:
Reduce the fat of unnecessary planning and add a dash of Best Customer focus on the side. Understanding your Best Customers and then working with the entire company to meet those needs, will nourish you in ways that your Aunt Hilda’s pumpkin pie never will, for now and many years to come (although you can never tell her!).
Add Best Customers to Your Holiday Planning
