“Over half of marketing teams have restructured over the past 12 months, rising to almost 70% within large businesses.” Marketing Week, 23rd March
You might remember my ‘dead horse theory’ post last week, whereby leaders will make any number of changes to the conditions the horse must trot within in order to better its static performance, rather than recognising the horse is just, well, dead.
And here we have a stat showing an incredible amount of leaders are choosing the ‘change the rider’ option.
BUSINESS-CHANGING INSIGHT
But come closer, for I am about to share what could be business changing insight – it doesn’t matter how many times you change the team if your strategy is fundamentally wrong. And how do I KNOW it’s wrong? Because you are putting the instant gratification of quick sales, vanity metrics and an assumption that the market remotely cares about your new menu/offer/launch etc etc etc ahead of marketing which puts your customer first. And that’s why regardless of the rider, your horse is most definitely dead.
So how can you save the costs (both financial and emotional) associated with restructure after restructure and make your marketing work?
TO BE A CUSTOMER BUSINESS, YOU MUST BE A DATA BUSINESS
- Dig deep into your data to identify and profile your key groups. Their geo & demo traits, their behaviours and preferences and the mindset and motivation behind those behaviours and preferences
- Now seek to create a digital dialogue. This does not involve shouting quick win messaging to anyone who will listen, but it does involve investing the time into segmenting your base and making sure your messaging meets the intended recipient where they are, and resonates deeply
- Then keep doing it, learning from their responses to continually refine your comms
THE ERA OF DISLOYALTY
I talk a lot about the era of dis-loyalty which is upon us (80% of your base are visiting you no more than 2x per year according to our research), but there is a way back to loyalty.
customer first > customer connection > customer loyalty
So ask yourself, rider or horse? And make the change you need to make.
Drop me a line if you want to chat about this.
