·Brands not only represent symbols, logos and identity symbols but embody differences, possess souls and express themselves.
·Brand communication is no longer isolated, one-way and short-term but the result of the long-term interaction of thousands of people.·Brand building cannot rely on excellent products, ultimate service, unified image, and creative advertising; but requires surprise, participation and common action to last.
· When you agree with the above three points, the answer to the right user-brand relationship is revealed.
· The "customer is God", "user first", and "consumer is the boss", which were once created by marketers and believed by many brands, should be abandoned.
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I, is the customer God?
· One hundred years ago, "customer first", "The customer is always
right", or "The Customer is King" became the motto of the service
industry and the slogan of many brands.
· Such a perception has led to the success of Marshall Field's
department store, the Ritz Hotel in Paris, and the Statler Hotel in
the United States.
·
· This is a big step forward from "shareholders first".
· However, it must be recognized that "customer first" emerged during
the Great Depression in the 1930s, when companies and brands had to
fight for every customer.
· In other words, these companies and brands still have "profit first"
in their bloodline.
II, the customer needs to be supreme.
· Sixty years ago, Philip Kotler, the father of marketing, believed
that "marketing is to identify and satisfy human and social needs" and
put forward the "4P theory" that has influenced today.
· In 2019, Professor Philip Kotler added to it during his trip to China
- "the whole essence of marketing lies in satisfying the needs of
customers".
· Under the aura of "customer first" of Wal-Mart, "customer first" of
McDonald's and "customer first" of Toyota, customers/consumers have
become the object of research and attention of major companies.
· You will still find that this perception came about when 'marketing'
became a profession, the purpose of which was to enable companies to
meet this demand better and to plan when effectively, where and
through collaborative approaches that would best meet this
demand.
· "If you don't care about your users, then someone else will care
about your customers."
· A darker understanding is - "shareholders reduce employee hostility
and work at full capacity by diminishing their own role and
exaggerating the role of the customer, keeping consumers consuming
through concessions + pandering".
· It is also interesting to note that the ignorance of "customers" has
been proven by the theory of "The Ravens" (Gustave Le Bon) and the
practice of "Bernays, the Father of PR" - they are a manipulated
rabble.
· The exception, of course, is the Kyocera myth created by Kazuo
Inamori's "customer supremacy".
III, the consumer is the boss.
· In 1990, marketing expert Professor Lauterpacht put forward the
famous "4C theory - the first C is Customer" he stressed that
companies "oriented by consumer needs, should pursue customer
satisfaction first.
· From 1995 to 2000, P&G had two CEOs with sluggish sales and even
experienced the nightmare of a one-day stock price plunge of 30% until
June 2000, when the new CEO, A. G. Lafley, took over and opened up the
recovery and global prosperity of P&G in the next 20 years.
· "Consumer is Boss" - this was the core of P&G's recovery under
his leadership.
· ·Lafley personally held what he called "Toun meetings" in companies
around the world to instil the "Consumer is Boss" philosophy.
· ·A team of 3,600 marketers from around the world were required to
attend the P&G Marketing University school for five days on a
rotating basis.
· ·P&G established a "Listening to Boss" customer service department
at P&G headquarters, with 200 "representatives" to receive
complaints and inquiries.
· ·Revolutionized the 60-year-old Consumer relation: broke away from the
bureaucratic approach of "research for the sake of research" and
"sample" work; took employees out of the office and asked them to Get
in touch with live consumers face-to-face.
· ·We are setting up scenario labs around the world. We set up
experimental facilities in both kitchens and bedrooms that mimic
consumer homes, where we can observe and observe the lives of ordinary
families as they deal with household chores and raise their
children.
· "Consumer is Boss" has become a treasure trove and a bible for other
brands.
· Then, "customer first" became the legendary Amazon and the
"unlearnable" Seabed and Xibei.
· "There are two kinds of companies in the world, one is the one that
convinces customers to pay high profits as much as possible; the other
is the one that desperately tries to reduce prices to the lowest
possible level and gives all profits to users." -- Bezos/Amazon
· These have proven difficult to replicate, and success is only
possible unless managers start with sincerity and care and have the
strongest will to follow through.
· At the same time, there is another phenomenon accompanying it.
Marketing commonly uses "funnel-type purchase tools" to study users:
consumer awareness → purchase interest → conversion consumption →
membership user, → loyalty user, and as brands exert themselves, a
percentage of people at each stage will leak to the next tier.
· Does it feel like stuffing consumers into the funnel to extract
profits?
· "Consumer is Boss" is a big step forward from the traditional
"profit-first", "product-centred", and "4P theory" in the perception
of "user", but it is still a long way from the most there is still a
gap between the two great gods.
IV, user-centred - "user thinking.
· "The sole purpose of any business action is to create customers."
Peter Drucker, the father of management, "The Practice of Management"
(1973)
· "Focus on user progress, not competitors and products" - Clayton
Christensen, the father of innovation, Competing with Luck 2016
· Their 'user thinking' transcended an era and crushed the perception
of 'customer first and 'consumer is the boss'.
· What are "user-centred" or "user thinking"?
· First, there was Steve Jobs, who created the myth of Apple by saying,
"users don't know what they want".
· Then there was Toshifumi Suzuki's 50-year insistence on "not thinking
for the user, but standing in the user's shoes" and Niaoya's Soaki
Masuda's "proposals for life.
· There is also Howard Schultz of Starbucks - "customer experience at
the center" and now "our partners, coffee and customers at the
core".
·Less, Nadella's refreshed Microsoft culture - "We will empower every
person and every organization around the world to help them achieve
the extraordinary.
· ·In China, Ren Zhengfei's "customer-centric and strivers-oriented" has
achieved the supreme Huawei.
· PS: The difference between "making customers happy" and "customers
feel satisfied".
· When the understanding of "my role is to make customers satisfied" is
formed, "I" becomes the main body.
· When "I" becomes the subject, a conservative state of mind is formed,
which is to think about what should be done next within the scope of
what has been done before, and based on its own experience and
experience, it forms the thinking that "if it is done this way, it is
good for the customer".
· However, as many companies grow, members become focused on internal
views and established processes. They become accountable to their
superiors, losing the ability to see things from the customer's
perspective.
· What matters is that the customer is satisfied," and this kind of
thinking puts the customer as the subject. What can we do to make
customers feel satisfied? You must make yourself one with the customer
and consider yourself the customer.
· If you do not put yourself in the customer's shoes, you will not be
able to find the answer to customer satisfaction.
· --7-11/Toshifumi Suzuki
· In the eyes of these great practitioners, consumers are no longer
hypocritically held in the palm of their hands or pretended to be
their bosses but are living, breathing human beings, and empathize
with their sensual cunning, capriciousness, laziness, laxity,
suspiciousness, imagination, ...... and other kinds of "foolishness,
haste Fun" and beautiful.
· Instead of meeting their needs (existing/any) without restraint,
companies and brands should put themselves in their shoes and create
new ways to help them grow, empower their lives and give them a better
future.
· It must also be said that in this process, employees are in the same
position as consumers, "family" that needs to be protected and
"partners", not "costs to be managed" and tools to meet customer
needs.
V, the user is a partner - "1+1=11
· When big data becomes productivity, membership system as the
infrastructure of user relationship, in a new credit system of
continuous efficiency, a new closed-loop ecology of "people", they are
still the object of brand services?
· When Generation Z becomes the top stream of consumption and values,
and life attitudes become purchasing elements, they not only buy
experiences and look for a sense of belonging but also expect to be
noticed and recognized through social networking. Customers? Are they
still consumers?
· When likes, shares and comments become the underlying ability of each
platform and brand, and more powerful penetration, interaction and
participation ability are derived from digital, when more diversified
opinion leaders and "active people" such as KOL, mastermind and KOC
become co-constructed daily, and experiences at destinations and art
galleries become the social norm, can they still be called fans?
· LEGO - "We have the blocks, and you have the ideas" - Trickster,
Adult Gamer AFOL, "LEGO Certified Professional Masters" (LCP), "LEGO
Masters
· Multi-Catch Fish (second-hand recycling store) - Instead of giving
users a fancy name, Multi-Catch Fish is simply "Friends"; the
employees of Catch Fish are "Fishermen", the editors of book lists and
tweets are "Fish Editors", and users are both friends and can be
"spiritual shareholders".
· MAIA ACTIVE (designer sportswear brand) - "We are not the girls'
coaches, but we will be her sisters and cheerleaders on the way to
sports!
· This is the new, future-oriented relationship between brand and user
- building a brand with the user or even sharing a brand.
· Our relationship model with users is no longer a "funnel" but a
"ladder" - we empower them, and they help us climb together to the
highest level of Maslow's needs - "self-actualization".
· The future of business competition is not about satisfying needs, not
about winning products, not about mind positioning, not about the
experience being king, but about how to grow and move up with our
users.
The brand that has the best relationship with its users will
eventually win!
Use BClinked to help desks build better customer relationships.