A Customer Obsessed Culture is at the Center of Successful Marketing Strategy in 2016

As businesses embark on another year of battling on the fields and in the trenches of competition, the plethora of new and nearly new methods of connecting with customers and the marketing tools used in competing in this technological era is not only altering the tactical plan but also the overall campaign strategy. Traditionally a typical strategy would call upon the organization’s sales team to be dispatched to a specific market segment where a firm’s sales force utilizes techniques like personal cold calls, knuckles to the door or old fashioned telephone surfing of prospective customers.

The challenge for traditional marketing approaches in 2016 is to adapt to the “age of the consumer”. In an era where the customer chooses how they will engage with marketing messages, a traditional market approach must give way to a customer approach where the marketing process is driven to serve the customer, guide them to a purchasing decision, educate them or demonstrate your brand’s value. A successful “customer obsessed” strategy utilizes multiple channels, relies on quality of content over quantity and a focus on a process that values the needs of the consumer and promotes a seamless relationship between marketing and sales.

Strategy core components include; a firm’s brand reputation; a value added, authoritative voice; a clearly defined audience and seamless execution, regardless of channel, device, or method of delivery. Consistency and constancy of process rules!

For marketers who long for a breather from the intensity of a hyper competitive environment, or a “magic bullet” solution, 2016 will fail to deliver the bullet or offer little respite from the intensity of the battle. As Fred Brooks said, “There is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order of magnitude [tenfold] improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity.” For company’s who dedicate their every effort to establishing a consistent and controlled “customer obsessed” culture, the future holds much promise.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net