Customer First Thinking

The mainstream banks are facing massive disruption due to the rise of fintechs, forcing them to speed up digital transformation. Leading those efforts at BMO Financial Group is Greg Brown, whose mandate is to change how the bank does business. 

Brand positioning has been part of marketing orthodoxy for over half a century now. Yet marketers often fail to get it right, due mainly to formulaic thinking. To come up with truly novel positioning statements, according to global branding expert Ulli Appelbaum, marketers must treat it as more of a creative exercise, coming up with as many potential ideas as possible.

To turn customers into lifelong fans, brands will need to put community development at the heart of their marketing plans. It is the “last great marketing strategy”, according to the acclaimed marketing consultant Mark Schaefer. People “long to belong”, he says, and that presents an opportunity to connect with them on a more meaningful level.

In a bid to earn front-of-the-wallet status, the Scene loyalty program has been transformed into a full-fledged coalition program with the addition of new partners in the grocery, e-commerce and travel sectors. But its greatest strength, claims Scene’s Senior Vice President Matthew Seagrim, is its strategic emphasis on creating membership value.

Many corporate leaders now accept the need to define a brand purpose beyond making a profit. Yet most purpose statements fail to resonate with people. The only way to excite all stakeholders, argues Scott Goodson, is to activate it through a grassroots social movement. 

Marketers have relied on lifestyle segmentation for half a century now, targeting people based on their shared values, interests, and attitudes. And it remains a highly effective tool even in a digital age due to the increasing segregation of society into like-minded communities, according to Jan Kestle, head of Canada’s largest marketing analytics company.

Despite all of the effort being made by businesses to improve the customer experience, it is not paying off in higher satisfaction ratings. A large gap still exists between what customers expect of that experience and how they actually feel about it. What businesses need to do, advises CX pioneer Colin Shaw, is design a more memorable experience, focusing on those parts of the customer journey that evoke the greatest emotion.

Every transformative era in the evolution of marketing has been triggered by a dramatic shift in people’s media habits. Now marketing has entered a new phase of evolution, according to Professor V. Kumar, only this time the catalyst for change is the desire of customers for more meaningful engagement.

Finance and marketing have always been implacable foes, unable to agree on the performance metrics that matter. Before they can ever see eye to eye, suggest MASB’s Neil Bendle, they need to develop a standardized measurement model that validates the contribution of marketing to the financial health of the business.

Despite its lowly status e-mail marketing continues to thrive as a media channel. The reason for its enduring popularity amongst marketers, according to leading e-mail expert Chad White: its versatility as a one-to-one communication medium.