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Hello.
Your customers are smart. Are you listening to them? Let’s talk about that and monologue marketing this time in THINKing.
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Creatively yours,
Harry Hoover
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| Smart Customers |
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By Harry Hoover
Your customers are smart, but as marketers, we often misconstrue what they are telling us. We’ve written about this before but thought about it again today when I read a piece by Valeria Maltoni entitled “Your Customers Don’t Know What They Want.”
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“Whenever you design a survey, a feedback form, write a phone script - throw away everything you know about your product and service. Your customers and prospective customers are not in your head - they don’t have your same history and assumptions about what you ask. Instead, look to capture the outcome they’re seeking. What job are they trying to do?, says Maltoni.
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It’s not that customers don’t know what they want; it is that they don’t know the possibilities.
Krispy Kreme gives us a prime example of asking the right questions and actually listening to their smart customers. They didn’t ask the customers what they wanted in a donut. They asked questions that got to the heart of the Krispy Kreme brand experience. Consumer input brought about the “Hot, Now” signs and the drive-through window.
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| Zigging |
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By Harry Hoover
Back in the 20th Century when I first went into marketing, my mentor told me that when everyone else is zigging, you should consider zagging. Good advice now, as it was then. I got to thinking about this today as I was having lunch with a colleague I worked with back in that other century. More on that in a minute.
Think about what’s happening in marketing and advertising right now. Every brand is rushing to social media and converting every message into a digital one. Well, if you are going to zag now, what would you do?
I’m not saying to stop social media and go totally old school from a communications perspective. What I am promoting is some old school tactics that help bring the brand to life.
My lunch companion works in events and sponsorships. Now is the time to do events. Many brands - particularly those in NASCAR - have gotten out of the events and sponsorship business recently. This means that you can do events for less money now. Why would you want to, you ask?
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