Perspectives & Strategy

In my last article “Closer to the Customer? Do we Really Understand their Needs?” I talked about how understanding the customer has been an ever present business challenge over the past quarter century. Mark Landiak tells us that Customer Services is not a department, and the same applies to Marketing is not a department in a corporation. He talks of marketing being a verb; an action word and as such it is an action that needs to be performed across the whole business.

Throughout my investigation into Social Media it has become clear that the marketing aspect is about a more holistic message that runs through the whole of everything that the corporation does. There is a tendency to think that all outgoing messages need to be cleared by the head of Marketing or indeed by the company lawyer. As a Lawyer it would be expected if I agreed that all messages needed to be approved – a position I have never approved of. Yet accounting people talk to customers daily, as do delivery people, and production staff. They need to as an ongoing part of their job, yet these messages do not need clearing but they all contribute to the overall customer experience. They are, if you like part of the marketing message sent out, eventhough there is no sales activity involved.

Holistic thinking is that every person employed by the business whether this is the CEO, the salesman, the receptionist, or the accounts clerk are all spokespeople for the company in some little way. What matters is that the whole organisation is adhering to a set of goals, not the precise message sent. Each person in every activity in the business is focused to some extent on building awareness for the company, its brands, and products. How we manage the relationship with a prospect or a customer needs to be defined across the organisation. Internally staff know what is expected of them in performing their role. Yet every person in the business can continue to work as they have but additionally have a marketing mindset in how they manage their part of the relationship with their customer.

I am mindful of this approach when answering the question of who should be involved in the corporate Social Media deployment. It is clear that Social Media associates itself with trust based marketing. How better to demonstrate trustworthiness as a supplier than by demonstrating that you take an holistic and caring approach to managing your customer relationship. Who should answer the question “Why is my order late?” not Marketing, but the parts of the organisation related to order fulfilment. It is also important to be honest, and remember that we do all err once in a while.

Researching this aspect of our approach to Social Media deployment I have sought to hear from authoritative authors on this approach and was encouraged to know that there is support, particularly with Jay Conrad Levinson in talking about the Guerilla Marketing Mindset. The solution is is not solely one for Social Media but one that relates to holistic business development. In Social Media we simply are adding to the traditional marketing tools, the brochures, signs, and adverts. Levinson talks about a marketing mindset being “the way you think about how all of these activities and other things work together to achieve your marketing goals. It is about tying all your activity to the mission statement… understanding your target market, who will buy from you and why”. (From Guerilla Marketing in 30 Days).

To me it is clear he is talking about building relationships with customers and prospects – something that Social Media adds another dimension to in the corporate world. The why I go to my auto mechanic may be because I found them in Yellow pages, the why I go back is because they did a good job and kept within my budget. The new dimension is that when someone asks me on Facebook to recommend an auto mechanic in my area I can make a recommendation because of the job they did. This works for any size of organisation the global organisation can think globally, yet act locally. From the corporate standpoint it is always appropriate to thank a person for making a recommendation of our services, and the beauty of it is that this need not cost money – a simple, yet public, “Thank You” is great currency.

Levinson says “Your marketing can be compared to breathing. You can’t live very long on just a single breath. It takes many breaths, one right after another. Marketing works the same way. You won’t attract new customers or new business with one marketing initiative. You keep breathing to stay alive. You continue marketing to make more trips to the bank.”

Does any more need to be said?