Customer First Thinking

Select excerpts from interviews with some of marketing’s most prominent thought leaders on the state of marketing and the need for transformational change.

B2B companies tend to be laggards when it comes to delivering a superior customer experience, focused more on selling than servicing. But as a result of digital disruption, they have finally begun to embrace the need for a better post-sale journey, according to Jim Tincher, a leading expert in B2B experience design.

The market research industry is facing an existential crisis. Brand marketers have lost faith in old school methods of research – too slow, cumbersome and costly, in their view. To regain the trust of marketers, the consumer insights industry has to modernize their practices and start delivering insights that make more of a strategic impact, says Brett Townsend, a leading market research authority.

Buyer Personas have become a standard part of the marketing toolkit for creating customer empathy. But where they can go wrong is failing to reveal why customers make the decisions they do, according to persona design authority Jim Kraus.  

These days it can be risky for brands to take a stand on social issues or promote inclusiveness. But if marketers are able to honestly depict the diversity of society in their brand communications, their message has a far greater chance of being heard, according to cultural theorist Anastasia Karklina Gabriel.

Companies still tend to over-invest  in the acquisition of new customers while paying scant attention to relationships with existing customers. The solution to correcting that imbalance, argues value creation expert Allison Hartsoe, is knowing the collective lifetime value of all customers, known as customer equity. 

CX quality has declined in recent years as companies struggle to keep up with the expectations of customers. But the main reason, according to renowned CX expert Jon Picoult, is that they settle for mediocrity when they should be aspiring to make the experience more distinctive and memorable.

For all its flaws, social media has become the preferred way for people to stay connected with each other. Yet for too long marketers have failed to take it seriously. The time has come, says social media expert Andrew Jenkins, for marketers to give it the respect it deserves.

Brand tracking studies are a standard research tool for marketers who need to understand how people feel about their brand. The problem with them, according to brand health expert Jenni Romaniuk, is that they don’t tell marketers what they really need to know to grow their brand.

Content glut has suffocated the chances of discovery for most marketers. The only way for content marketing to succeed, according to renowned content strategist Robert Rose, is to transform content operations teams into specialized publishing units closely attuned to audience interests and needs.