Guest Blogger Jeff Hilimire: The Total Engagement Era
From the day of advertising's mad men to the era of the Internet, the relationship between marketers and customers has continued to evolve. And this era is no different.
Consumers are no longer content with the marketing status quo. They're calling the shots, and what they want are experiences -- not messages. Today's consumer wants to engage with a brand on all levels and at the time that they prefer, not the other way around. For a meaningful interaction to take place, they want a total engagement experience. Technology today has made it possible for customers to create real relationships with brands -- and the more technology evolves, the more they'll come to expect from these brands.
In today's new marketing era, marketers need to fully understand and embrace the idea of total engagement. They need to create consistent, positive, and persuasive interactions between brands and consumers at relevant moments in their day-to-day lives. Not just today, but every day.
Total Engagement recognizes three important marketplace dynamics:
Media is not the gatekeeper. Today's consumers have many ways to find information. They're facebooking, tweeting, texting, foursquaring, browsing the web on their iPad, listening to a podcast on their Droid, etc. Relying on traditional "mass" media formats is a losing proposition.
Product features and benefits alone are not differentiating. Today's production and marketing environments allow for quick duplication of a competitive advantage. The message itself can no longer be a sustainable advantage in the market.
Digital innovation offers unlimited opportunities to win or loose with consumers. Today's successful total engagements extend invitations to and embrace consumers not only as mass audiences, but also as social groups and individuals. At the highest level we need to create a brand experience that is bigger than the product or service alone.
Brands need to connect with the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the consumers they hope to attract. For this to happen, brands must become living brands -- active and relevant in consumers lives. Living brands express themselves; they make relevant connections to consumers in their daily lives and their real and virtual worlds. These brands know their consumers and invest in building meaningful and long-term relationships that evolve as their consumers do.
Successful marketers will design an infrastructure that champions consumer empowerment while incorporating measureable tools and holistic approaches for clients to retain their customers. They will understand that a successful relationship with a consumer begins by acknowledging that the consumer is capable of being the brand's most powerful marketer. The stakes are high, but the rewards are great.
+ + + + +
About the Author: Jeff Hilimire is Chief Digital Officer at Engauge.
Related Entries
- CRM de la Crème: a Social CRM Primer
- Hoffman's Hot Seat: Linking Customer Brand Preferences with Device Type
- You Have the Staff for Social Customer Engagement
