Customer First Thinking
Stephen Shaw
Businesses everywhere are struggling with change due to digital disruption. They are now at an inflection point: give up obsolete marketing practices, or risk being denied a meaningful role in the lives of people. The goal is no longer to amplify the voice of the brand – it is to serve the needs and interests of customers at every stage of the relationship lifecycle. This new marketing model is characterized by the strategic embrace of Customer First Thinking, where the emphasis is on delivering a more unified experience for customers. More than simply a platitude, this idea has evolved into a set of governing principles that can transform the corporate role of marketing from brand messenger to customer advocate.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 30, 2022 • 1h 6min
Lifestyle Segmentation: An Interview with Jan Kestle, Founder and CEO, Environics Analytics
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.
Oct 3, 2022 • 1h 9min
The Customer Experience Gap: An Interview with Colin Shaw, CX Pioneer and Founder/CEO, Beyond Philosophy
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.
Jul 26, 2022 • 1h 5min
Transformative Marketing: An Interview with Professor V. Kumar, Ph.D Marketing at St. John's University (NYC), CEO of IMC Institute
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.
Jun 20, 2022 • 1h 6min
Marketing Accountability: An Interview with Neil Bendle, Chair of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board
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.
May 12, 2022 • 1h 7min
E-Mail Still Rules: An Interview with Chad White, Head of Research, Oracle Marketing Consulting
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.
Mar 12, 2022 • 59min
A Question of Loyalty: An Interview with Fred Reichheld, Loyalty Guru and Creator of the Net Promoter System
The Net Promoter Score has become the primary method of calculating customer loyalty, adopted by companies everywhere as a beacon metric. Earning a top NPS score often requires a big shift in management culture, according to its creator Fred Reichheld, driven by a top-down commitment to enrich people's lives.
Jan 23, 2022 • 1h 1min
The Connected Omnichannel Experience: An Interview with Marty Kihn, SVP Strategy, SalesForce
In a post-cookie world marketing will need to give up campaign-building in favour of delivering a more dynamic and real-time omnichannel customer experience. But the quality of that experience will hinge on harnessing first-party data to drive more personalized interactions. And that will require a single view of customer tightly connected to a next generation engagement platform, according to SalesForce's Marty Kihn.
Dec 13, 2021 • 56min
The Golden Record: An Interview with David Raab, Founder of the CDP Institute
Tired of waiting for IT to build them a "single view of customer", marketers are turning to commercial solutions called Customer Data Management Platforms. That trend is likely to continue in coming years, according to the world's leading CDP expert David Raab, as more companies recognize the value of first party data.
Jul 28, 2021 • 48min
The Future of Retail: An Interview with Doug Stephens, Founder and President, Retail Prophet
Battered by the pandemic, and facing even more disruption ahead, the retail industry is in crisis. With even more stores expected to close in the coming years due to declining foot traffic and the flight to ecommerce, retailers will need to offer shoppers a more distinctive experience if they hope to survive. A new retail model is needed, argues retail futurist Doug Stephens, which will pull shoppers away from their screens and entice them to shop in person.
Jun 22, 2021 • 1h 10min
The State of Martech: An Interview with Scott Brinker, VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot and Chief Editor of Chiefmartec
Marketing technology is now essential to business success. Yet marketers continue to struggle with the complexity of their bloated marketing automation solutions, citing lack of application integration amongst their toughest challenges. The answer, according to Hubspot's marketing technology expert Scott Brinker, is to develop more open and compatible platform ecosystems that make it easy for marketers to add on any application they want.
