Meet Your New Boss: The Consumer

January 10, 2012 at 05:00 am
1 Comment

Mohammad Wasim

Tagged:

brand experience, branding, convergence, IT innovation

If you thought you were in charge of your company, think again. The brand is everything in today’s digital world, and brand loyalty is a key facet of that. But gone are the days of a simple business strategy: one in which communication was a one-way street. Now, technology has given business organisations the ability to engage with the consumer on a personal level, but it also means that the consumer often wears the pants in the relationship — and they decide whether or not to continue that relationship.

They demand a brand that is much more than a mission statement and a shiny logo.

The solution is IT innovation and proliferation, which can bring your brand closer to the consumer than ever — yet many companies still haven’t fully tapped into its full potential. This technology that enables “brand interactiveness” is adding to the complexities of business organisations. And products, transactions, and relationships will all have to be digitised to ensure that consumers experience the brand in the right place, at the right time.

But how do you ensure that that experience is a positive one? To learn how to build better brand relationships with your consumers, and for the top four factors that will give your business a competitive advantage, read my paper New Commerce: The Way Forward.

Dbanks1

Mohammad, I really
like your article. You make solid points about how consumers are
definitely in the driver’s seat today.

I also believe there is a common thread
that is obvious to most of us, but doesn’t seem to get a lot of attention in
the industry from a strategic standpoint.
The common denominator for a brand or within brand loyalty is faith
– more specifically product faith. We discuss whether the consumer has
faith or trust in the brand, but it doesn’t seem to really become a part of the
strategy. In today’s digital space I
think it’s easy to gloss over faith because of the light speed pace of
technology. If we look at two other
examples of how faith establishes loyalty in our world today I think it would
provide us more insight.

For the first example we can look at the
religious world and see that faith is what holds a person’s devotion to a religion
or a denomination. History has proven
that faith in religion ignites a person’s level of participation and can become
so strong that they will share, defend, fight, and in some cases even die for
what they believe. Even if a person
doesn’t identify a specific religion they ultimately have faith in something or
someone.

This leads us
to the root of the first example which is relationships. The vast
majority of us long to be in relationships and are the core of human existence. There is even research that has shown that if
a baby doesn’t form a relationship with someone at birth they will not survive.
  Regardless
of the type of relationship platonic, love, or business they are all built on
faith.

In each of
these examples the faith is based on a certain assurance that the religion or
person is fulfilling a need or desire. Not
only are they fulfilling that need or desire they have become a reliable
resource from the perspective of that individual. Each individual’s level of faith is
determined by a combination of facts/quantitative information and/or emotional
encounters.

So how does
this all relate back to the brand and consumer? As you mention in the
article the consistency of the product, brand message, and ability
to foster and retain a consumer
relationship determines their faith in the brand (product). The
product is what consumers rely on whether it is an automobile or fast
food, if you change their product in any way you’re messing with their
faith. Over a certain time period you have provided them
with something they rely on just like a family member, friend, or their religion.

Not every brand
is going to be at the highest level of faith for consumers (just like
religion or personal human relationships).  And
obviously within their collective audience faith levels will vary and
even be segmented by brands in the same category.  Brands need to
respect a consumer’s faith while nurturing the relationship. A consumer’s
faith can grow stronger, but it requires consistency and improvements when
needed.

As we all know
a brand will eventually fail without a strong product. For example, consumers
lost faith in the auto industry causing the auto companies to refocus their
energy on improving the quality of their products and as a result it has
started to restore the faith in some consumers.

Another example
of a company establishing consumer faith and then damaging the relationship is
a company you mentioned Mohammad – Netflix. Netflix said checkmate to a huge brand
like Blockbuster in a short number of years because they gained strong consumer
faith in their product. Netflix was able to create and fulfill human’s
continuous desire for convenience. Unfortunately,
they lost the faith of their audience when they failed to communicate
appropriately in the relationship. The industry reported that over a
million consumers left Netflix. Despite
the loss they also had a strong share of loyalists, so once the dust settled on
the issue some just lost a certain level of faith, some are still evaluating,
and others completely left for another brand. Will it ever be the
same? Not likely, but Netflix can still make reparations and restore
consumer faith on a different level by continuing to listen.

One
way communication is in the past and now that technology has evolved and
given consumers the power to address brands directly, relationship building is
paramount.  Like any relationship, it starts with initial attraction that
fulfills a need or creates a want.   But, once the consumer has
interest and takes a chance with the product the relationship will either
blossom or end because all sustainable relationships are built
on FAITH.