Is Your Brand in Sync With Customer Expectations?

Article by Ernan Roman Featured on CustomerThink

Two events occurred during the past few months that are important to marketers: WalMart, known for a focus on discount pricing experienced a share tumble of 5% after they lowered their full-year sales forecast. However, Starbucks, known for its unabashedly high prices decided to raise its prices higher and consumers have decided to keep on paying.

What is behind these events? Customer alignment… or not.

Starbucks knows coffee. They also know the high-end coffee consumer. And, they have been laser-focused in developing a clear perception of their brand that is understood and embraced by its target audience.

Walmart had that – and then they decided to change – and lost it. As a retailer the company knew retail better than many of its discount-priced competitors. They also knew their lower end, bargain-shopping consumers. But then they took on trying to become a Grocery and trying to become a Pharmacy. And, in trying to capture a larger share of market, the company has actually lost.

Starbucks, Known for Being a High-End Brand with High Prices is Winning

Why does Starbucks work? It’s simple; consumers understand the perceived value. The company does not waiver from its core perception. No matter where or how they buy it, consumers know what they’ll get from the Starbucks brand (no matter how much they have to pay for it.)

On its brand equity, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz noted, "The success of Starbucks demonstrates the fact we have built an emotional connection with our customers. I think we have a competitive advantage over classic brands in that every day we get to touch and interact with our customers directly."

Schultz went on to discuss the value of the Starbucks brand, "Tell your story, refusing to let others define you. Use authentic experiences to inspire. Stick to your values, they are your foundation."

When other companies are looking for ways to lower prices to lure customers, Starbucks has opened even higher priced luxury Roastery stores, where customers can get a more rarefied (and expensive) offering of coffees.

Caffeinated consumers have helped the company to achieve record revenues in 4Q2015 of $4.9 billion with double-digit percentage gains over the previous year.

WalMart Trying To Be All Things To All People is Losing

WalMart has always been the "Blue Light" special company. And, when they stuck to what they were good at, they prospered. Consumers understood the "home-spun" low-priced brand and knew that they’d find a selection of bargains when they walked through the door to say hello to the store "greeter."

But then the "greeters" went away along with the "down home" friendly feel and groceries and pharmacies showed up. And now, the company’s strategy is one of transition. It is taking on not only competition in its own retail industry, but now also taking on many other industries. In the immediate transition process this new strategy is proving to be an uphill undertaking.

Though Walmart is blaming lower margins in its pharmacy business, for a part of their recent troubles, the company has no plans to change even though its counterpart Target recently threw in the pharmacy towel, announcing that it was selling off its pharmacies to CVS.

When asked about the company’s recent decline, Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon noted that they are working towards the future, "What we’re talking about is how we transform the company…We have got to get the company positioned to serve the customer in the long term."

TakeAways:

1. Consumers have many choices, so they need to believe that your brand understands them and is there to meet their needs.

2. If perception of your brand is blurred, targeted messaging is not possible because there is no differentiating value proposition.

3. Consumers want their voices heard and they will pay more for a buying experience they perceive to be specifically built around their "wants."

Generally, you get one chance to make a first impression with consumers. And then subsequent marketing efforts reinforce that perception and cultivate value around it. Knowing what consumers want from your brand and ensuring that you consistently meet or exceed those expectations pays off handsomely in customer retention and healthy profit margins.

Research: Marketers Overestimating How Well They Listen To Customers

Article by Ernan Roman Featured on CMO.com

Recently, we conducted VoC research for an innovative company that prides itself on having achieved high levels of customer personalization due to significant investments in technology, algorithms, and analysts. But the company was shocked when findings from our interviews uncovered that people were unsatisfied with the personalization, referring to it as “old-fashioned” and “not smart.”

Following are additional representative quotes from the research:

• “What we receive is not smart personalization. They aren’t personalizing the things that matter to me!”
• “With today’s technology, I expect emails to reflect my interests and preferences.”
• “I want more than just buying history-based emails.”

Results from more than 15,000 hours of VoC research for brands such as MassMutual, Gilt, and QVC have identified a unique convergence of three factors that present CMOs and marketers with unprecedented challenges:

Factor 1: The power of technology, especially mobile, is an unprecedented enabler of better informed and faster consumer actions and purchases. To keep up, marketers need to develop strategies for high speed and high relevance engagement. A recent report noted that 69% of Britons are unsubscribing, closing accounts, opting out of emails, and deleting apps due to poorly targeted communications.

Factor 2: Consumers, in general, and millennials, in particular, are feeling a sense of tremendous empowerment and entitlement in terms of what they expect from brands. In the Deloitte report “The Growing Power of Consumers,” the authors stated that “there is an increasing expectation gap as businesses struggle to keep pace with more informed, more connected and more demanding consumers ... consumers have come to expect more, making it harder for businesses to keep up ... empowered consumers are actively sharing their views ... and becoming more involved.”

Factor 3: As illustrated by the ongoing Apple controversy with the FBI, consumers understand the value of their personal information, yet they desire higher levels of personalization. And, per our VoC research findings, reciprocity of value is a fundamental requirement for earning the right to in-depth customer information in exchange for significantly improved preference-driven personalization.

How can marketers better listen to their customers? Here are a trio of action items:

1. Actions need to meet consumer personalization expectations. Capture individual preferences, use preferences to drive "smart" personalization, and establish guidelines for safeguarding data privacy.

2. Don’t ruin the hard fought gains by sending “spray and pray” blasts that disregard preferences in hopes of generating extra sales.

3. Find the right mix between implicit and explicit data. Using only implicit data is not enough to power true personalization.

Marketers are dealing with the most demanding consumers in history. Leveraging new listening and responding capabilities is now essential in order to acquire and retain this empowered consumer. By acting on these three listening factors, marketers will be able to provide the highest levels of customer experience, value, and personalization.