Keeping the Customer at Heart

    Energizing a customer base is an effective way to increase word-of-mouth marketing. As Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff write in Groundswell on page 131, “people believe other people more than media.” This understanding has begun to transform the way that organizations relate to their customers. This newly redefined relationship has been made possible through organizations new ability to dynamically communicate with their customers.

    Organizations do, however, need to be cautious about how they do this. Without the proper intent, they will be transparent to consumers. While new relationships between customer and organization are allowing organizations to be more responsive, and customers to be more active participants, it also allows organizations to strategically use this new trend in their marketing.

This advertisement is an example of how this school, ITT Tech, utilizes their relationship with their customers to advertise to other customers. They have, for a while, had commercials of real students talking about how ITT Tech changed their lives. These commercials ride a fine line, and may be construed as insincere. Ultimately, what I believe is important is that organizations begin to keep the customers’ best interests as the most essential asset.

As we discussed in Social Media Marketing and Communication class last week, one way to measure the success of advertisements is to see if they are generating discussion in the online community. These commercials have earned a lot of attention and, for better or worse, there are many parodies of them right next to the actual commercials on YouTube.

                       As discussed in chapter 10 of Groundswell, there has been an interesting shift in organizational ideology because of their new ability to relate with their customers. A value that seems like the easiest thing for an organization to maintain, may have been lost in recent years by the way that marketing and customer support divides organizations from their customers. The new ability for organizations and their consumers to have engaged back-and-forths about products and services allows organizations to more easily keep customers at the center, as their main focus.

      Many companies have begun to use Twitter for these conversations. Sharpie is one such company. This screen shot shows how the processes of tagging and retweeting on Twitter allow Sharpie to engage with their customers:

This is only one of many examples of how Sharpie engages with customers. Other ways include tweeting questions and hashtags that relate to Sharpies or Sharpie artists. This type of honest engagement allows companies to improve based on their customers specific needs and desires.