As usual, the The Yale Customer Insights Conference 2016 was great. Leading practitioners and academics came together to tackle some of the most challenging customer insights problems of our time. This as technology moves at warp speed and entire business models get wiped out in a couple of years. And customer behavior changes more rapidly than ever before.
The big message (paraphrasing by us) on Saturday was:
“What is your brand mission?”
If you are clear about what your brand mission is, then you can easily:
- Create continuous fresh content on the web
- Improve your social media presence
- Integrate technology to your business model
- Rework your business model including supply chain,production,advertising, distribution and revenue
- Have the same message across global markets
Here are some great nuggets from the conference:
1. Alison Lewis, CMO, Johnson and Johnson urged marketers to have one bold idea for each brand. You need to be super clear about the behavior change you are trying to activate in the market place. The baby bathing experience (video pictured below) was all about “Happy healthy baby development.” J&J clarified the idea by talking with scientists about the science behind baby skincare and with mothers worldwide. All mothers, everywhere , are interested in “Happy healthy baby development.” Once the idea was clarified then different global markets and local advertising agencies could execute on the concept as appropriate whether on TV,Billboard, point of sale, social media etc.
2. Pete Fader, Marketing Professor, Wharton School spoke about “customer centricity”. This is the idea of trying to identify your best customers and then treat them “special.” Small businesses are able to do this very well and bend over backwards to satisfy those special customers. Today both big and small businesses have the data, and yet are generally afraid to differentiate among customers in their processes. Focusing resources on your most profitable customers of the future can mean better growth and profits. There is a great podcast online where Pete Fader explains his idea.
3. Kristen Lynch, CMO, Vail Resorts explained about how big data is helping them constantly refine the customer experience at Vail Resorts. Their brand mission is “Experience of a lifetime.” Amazingly, there were at least five people in the audience who were regular customers and said great things about the Vail Resorts experience. Look at Trip Advisor reviews.
More about great ideas from the conference in later posts.