“Thinking of people as ‘customers’ is an outdated approach,” Marcus Evans CMO Summit 2016 speaker Col Kennedy believes.
“Brands need to understand why they were set up in the first place, and adopt a broad, holistic and long-term view of how to build a relationship with people,” says Kennedy, who is Cotton On global head of marketing and eCommerce.
Kennedy says that to achieve real customer engagement and loyalty, his goal is to create deep and meaningful dialogues with the Cotton On community.
He has four cornerstones to this approach…
- Establishing a community-led brand agenda
Two elements come together here, says Kennedy: the direction brands are going, and understanding their role in the world. “I believe in the power of the ‘why’ over ‘what’. It is important for brands to understand why they were created instead of focussing on short-term financials. If they connect that understanding through to the right community, share different values with them, they will provide a much richer experience and build a stronger relationship. How do their fans want to interact? They should avoid thinking in terms of channel.”
2. Customer engagement and loyalty
“The trick is not to get lost in thinking about sales, transactions and conversion rates. If you end up there, it means you see people as customers. In the ’90s and most of the following decade, marketing was about cross-selling, up-selling and squeezing dollars out of people rather than adding long-term value or having shared values.
“It makes me nervous when people use the term ‘loyalty’. When I was at Disney and Sony, I found that fans were loyal to a degree. It was not black or white. People will not be loyal just to you. A comic fan might love Batman, Superman and Spiderman. Companies cannot be naive in thinking that loyalty is just squarely and solely with them. They can build a fan base or community, but it is about how they reward people.”
3. Reaching today’s digital and mobile-savvy consumers
“Many marketers are looking for the silver bullet, transferring from one platform to the next, but that is not the right way to go. They should always ask themselves why their company or brand exists, and relate that to what they stand for in the world and build relationships through multiple channels over a period of time.
“Channels may morph and evolve. If marketers keep bouncing between channels based on numbers, they will not have build over the long-term. Do not chase the platform – it is much more about who you are, what you stand for and remembering who you are talking to.”
4. Stay true to the brand
“Identify and develop your brand identity, and stay true to it.”
At the RACV Royal Pines Resort in Queensland, on Australia’s Gold Coast, from August 15 to 17, the Marcus Evans CMO Summit 2016 offers Asia-Pacific chief marketing executives, agencies and consultants an intimate environment for a focussed discussion of the key new drivers shaping the marketing agenda. The seventh edition of the summit will include presentations on measuring engagement, leveraging sales and marketing best practices, merging traditional and digital marketing channels, and creating streamlined marketing automation systems. It is a closed business event with a limited number of participants.
Marcus Evans Summits are high-level business forums for decision-makers at exclusive locations around the world. Its CMO Japan Summit 2016 will be at the Hotel Chinzanso in Tokyo on June 22 and 23.
