Article: Making a Difference to your Customers

Branding Stand out

The business of being a marketer and, indeed, the business of being a customer has changed vastly since the inception of modern consumer culture – the advent of the mass production era.

We take this point as the beginning of the “modern” era because, simply put, it was a turning point that revolutionised not only the way goods were produced (and, perhaps as importantly, how many could be made) but also how they were sold to and bought by the public.

Since those beginnings it’s not just the face of consumerism that has changed but also the face of marketing. No longer is it all about getting your brand seen or simply throwing money at a campaign, safe in the knowledge that if it gets noticed your product will be bought.

No, things are more difficult these days. The public is smarter, more cynical about company promises and considerably more savvy about relative product values. Inside the marketing industry too checks and balances have appeared (as indeed they should) to curb unethical and unreasonable behaviour and techniques. All of this has led us to a point where we, as marketers, have to sit down with our clients and suggest to them that it’s no longer good enough just to have a good product, it’s no longer good enough to have a good campaign…you now need to be able to make a difference to people’s lives.

So how do you, as a supplier of a product or commodity, go about making a difference? Well, the simple answer is; you get in the professionals like us.

Customers, consumers, clients – call them what you will – need several things if they are to buy a product and, more importantly, build up brand loyalty. We are in the position to offer them these things.

Firstly (and this is not necessarily in any particular order), they need to connect with your brand at a basic level. This is not going to happen without help. We, as experiential marketers, bring your brand out to the public and encourage them to interact with it. This interaction alone – in whatever form it takes – is vital in building up any kind of relationship between your target audience and your brand.

Through interaction with your brand a consumer begins to see where, and how, it can make a positive change to their lives. The difference, in real terms, between the abstract image that a catalogue or shop window provides and the solid, “genuine” impression they can get from physically holding, touching and observing the product at very close range is enormous.

It is also at this point in our activity that we can further interaction – and boost the feeling of a personal connection. So what is it that we do? Well, we ask people what they think of your brand, what would make it better, how they would go about changing it, what they like most about it.

We follow this up with prompt customer contact at a later date to thank them for their input and keep them up to date with brand developments. In short, we include them in the research and development process as much as we possibly can – not just in specially selected focus groups.

Another hugely important aspect of helping your brand make a difference in a consumer’s life is to ensure – through the use of an exceptional experiential agency – that you engage in branding and promotional activity that allows your target audience to become involved in and experience events and situations that are out of their ordinary routine.

Whether it’s holding a concert in a park during the summer (and providing refreshments and a sneak peek at your latest product) or staging a midnight picnic and film showing for several hundred specially invited close friends, the most important thing to remember is that the activity should be unusual, exciting or beneficial and something that those who are involved will look back on happily and regularly. Most importantly, it should be something that the attendees could not do, or would have to go to significant trouble and outlay to organise.

This makes a change to their lives in a real and obvious way, and influences future consumer behaviour a great deal.

But making a difference doesn’t stop with your customers purchasing your offering. Certainly not; a purchase should be followed by further contact to ascertain whether the buyer is happy with what they have bought. This contact should include advice as to how best enjoy the product, special offers available only to those who have bought the product and more chances for them to give their opinions on your brand and products.

In short, if you are, as a client, to elevate your brand above the mundane and really, truly, set about making a difference in people’s lives you’re going to have to get your product into situations where the public can physically interact with it, where they can talk to real people about it and know that their opinions are being listened to. You’re going to have to make sure your brand is prominent in events designed to make life a bit more exciting or easier or more fun for your consumers. And, when they’ve bought from you, well, you’re going to have to make sure that you keep asking them if they like it and rewarding them for the purchase.

This is, of course, time consuming and arduous but definitely not impossible…certainly not if you employ Hotcow.

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