Dear Colleagues,
In October of 2008 one of our clients received a letter that read:
“Dear Marketing: I’m most appreciative of my inclusion in your catalog mailing as I have enjoyed online catalog shopping, but due to the possibility of an Obama administration, I asked that you remove my name from your mailing list. Once he spreads my “wealth” around, I won’t have enough left for catalog perusing and shopping. Hope to see you again in 4 years.”
Our client passed the note to Marketsmith with the request: “Handle this and do not upset her anymore.”
You might think this is really a funny note, right? We laugh at the content and think it is better than the normal violence thrown at us like “tree killer” or that we trying to steal the earth from our children’s children. This “take me off your mailing list” Dear John letter at least has spirit and it lets us know that it is President Obama’s and the Democrats fault, not ours. But on the second look, it smacks of the rapidly changing times we are in. There are really two messages here. To the untrained eye, one could be alarmed thinking if Obama gets in, the world will come to an end. There will be higher taxes; the wealthy will not spend. Will we have to wait for four more years for this customer? But what we really learn here is: She tells us she enjoys perusing and online catalog shopping. She says she is aware of our terms; she knows the difference between catalog and online shopping, and she knows that her name is on our client’s mailing list.
Here is what I can tell you about this customer: She donated over $2,000 to John McCain’s campaign, raised over $41,000,000 for her College, and has stayed overnight in the White House when George W. Bush was President. I can tell you her phone number, age, and estimated net worth as well. Additionally, she has purchased three times from our client overall. Since this letter, she has been taken off the mailing list, but has purchased another two times, increasing her spend with each purchase.
The moral of this story is this: It is a new day and a new world. All aspects of our lives are intertwined – our politics, our lifestyles, our passions, our hometowns, our jobs, our incomes, our families, our technology, our home value, and our purchases. This information comprises our data footprint, and this footprint allows us all to be seen in some way. No longer are either we or our customers anonymous. Years ago a letter like this, if noticed at all, would have been sent to the CEO’s office and seen as a harbinger of doom. Without insight into who this customer is and her purchase behavior, we would not have known how many others like her there might be and how many sales we might lose. But now with the availability of data (our own, on the internet and social networks, and through search engines), we can see that her letter was a political statement and has not affected her purchase behavior at all.
But today there is a larger statement: Our consumer is emotional and savvier. But as marketers we need to be less emotional, more aware of the trends, and more knowledgeable about our multiple customer profiles, and how these different groups will be affected by current events and changing economic times, positive and negative. Most importantly, we need to know how to use the information that we have to be more effective marketers, brand builders, and customer-centric merchants.
In this edition of the “The Difference” we look to re-set and level-set the community for today’s new marketplace. The tools needed to be successful are the understanding and ability to read your individual constituent groups. Using data intelligently to gain insight allows us to create campaigns and tactics that trigger customers’ emotions, show them need, and take them to a place that puts your Brand front and center. I think each Brand should have laser focus on its end game which is to communicate and deliver the Brand’s value proposition to the customer, resulting in improved Brand performance.
Customers are fickle. They might be having hard times. They might want email versus a catalog. This is part of the marketing equation today. The old catalog direct mail/phone response paradigm is dead and gone. I know we sound like a broken record when we say that you need to figure out who these customers are and what you are going to do for them. Sending catalogs and emails is not enough. Let customers know what you can do for them, a tangible, palpable value proposition. Let them know you get it and you hear them. Let them know you are better than competitor A. Most importantly, let them know that you love them so much that even though they said you have to wait four years for another purchase, and they made one four weeks later, that you appreciate their patronage. You and your Brand understand anybody can have a bad day.
Happy Summer.
M-
Tags: brand branding, catalog marketing, customer experience, email marketing, internet marketing, Marketsmith, Monica C Smith, multichannel consumer, multichannel marketer, online catalog marketing, online marketing, online shopping Category: Blog, Letters From Monica C Smith, Newsletter Articles. Both comments and pings are currently closed.