Creating Brand Semblance for Every Channel

Putting a Face on the Mass Market
Only 6.8% of marketers claim to have excellent knowledge of their customers, while 52% believe they have fair or poor knowledge of the customer when it comes to demographic, behavioral, psychographic and transactional data.ⁱ

Look your customer in the eye or at least make them feel like you have. Have you ever given a speech in high school? Remember what the teacher told you about communication? Look your audience in the eyes as you speak. Why? Because it makes each individual feel like you’re talking directly to him or her. You make an instant personal connection. You stand a much stronger chance of keeping that person’s attention and making an impact that resonates.

As marketing professionals, we should remember that. Too often we devote our attention to the demographic (the group at large) when what we should really be focusing on is the individuals that make up that demographic. It’s those individuals that allow us to make our brands personal. Personal to marketers because we get to sell a product or service that we believe in, and personal to the buyers because they get to enjoy the customer experience.

In a recent survey from the CMO Council and InfoPrint Solutions Co., of the 91% of consumers who had unsubscribed, or opted-out of e-mails from a brand, 46% said they had done so because their messages weren’t relevant to them. Forty-one percent of respondents said they would consider ending a brand relationship due to irrelevant promotions, while 30% said they are inspired to do business with a company after receiving personalized communications.ⁱⁱ Companies’ customer bases are key revenue drivers: 44.6% of surveyed B2B marketers say at least 60% of their new sales are generated via their current customers, and nearly three-quarters (72%) say at least 20% of new sales come from such customers.ⁱⁱⁱ

Though B2B marketers report most of their new sales coming from their current customers, only one-half (55.4%) say their companies have departments that focus primarily on customer retention, according to a survey by Loyalty 360 and SAS. And among those with formal loyalty programs, most are using traditional channels such as surveys and call centers to listen and respond to customers. Some results from the report:

What Percentage of New Sales Comes from Existing Customers?ⁱⁱⁱ
• 30% responded 60-79% of all new sales
• 17% resonded 20-39% of all new sales
• 16% responded that they don’t know
• 14% responded 80-100% of all new sales
• 12% responded 0 to 19% of all new sales
• 11% responded 40-59% of all new sales

Rethinking Mass Marketing & Personal Marketing

The top 20% of loyal customers make 500% of profit. The bottom 30% consumes 400%.^iv In a recent AdAge article, the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame Legend Lester Wunderman was quoted saying that “a much more personal form of communication (is happening now). We call it personal advertising, which 
is forward-looking. We’re not there yet, but we’re moving from mass.”^v Wunderman explains that with mass marketing, items and services become an undervalued commodity. With a personal approach, marketing helps fulfill the needs and wants of a specific buyer, be it an individual, a family unit, or an organization.

Think of it this way: If you stood in front of a room full of prospects and promised that your product would revolutionize the way they drove their car, and then months later you learned that the product didn’t live up to your promise, do you think you would call everyone in the room to explain? Chances are you wouldn’t, because calling everyone in that room will quickly become an overwhelming task. On the other hand, if you met with only one prospect and made the same promise, you would feel compelled to call that individual and explain what you would do to change the outcome.  When you’re looking your consumer in the eye, you are accountable for both a negative outcome and a positive outcome. Consumers appreciate that type of personal commitment.

Regardless of how many people you speak to—whether you stand in front of room of 30, send out an email to 250,000 recipients, or share a Tweet with your Twitter followers—don’t overlook the individuals in the crowd. In November 2010, eConsultancy released a report that found two-thirds of companies see a link between long-term business performance and customer experience.^iv

When you take the time to personalize your marketing message so that it speaks to the desires of individuals, you will create a memorable customer experience.

Personalizing Mass Marketing Messages
Multichannel buyers spend four to five times more than average, yet fewer than 35% of marketers track customer behavior across channels. It’s not surprising, then, that while 80% of CEOs believe they provide a superior customer experience, only 8% of their customers agree.^iv It may not be efficient to speak one-on-one with every customer, but you can personalize mass marketing messages. Even by personalizing your communications in small ways, you can still reach your larger audience – all the while creating a special connection with the individual.

The following items highlight only a few ways that you can create personal marketing experiences and reach the individuals within the masses:

• Customized direct mail campaigns that rely on variable data
• Websites with varying regional images and calls to action based on IP location
• Social media interactions between your brand and an individual
• E-mail marketing combined with personalized websites
• Mobile marketing campaign that prompts an action from the recipient

Notice that three of the five items listed involve new media. A November 2010 CONE report found that 63% of new media users are more aware of brands, and 59% say they are more likely to purchase from a brand if they have a high-quality experience with the brand through new media.^vii The same study found that 62% of respondents expect to interact with a brand through email, and 18% expect to interact through mobile devices—up 5% since 2009. Since both of these messaging platforms can be highly personalized and consumers expect brands to use them, the future of personalized mass marketing has already started, and is constantly picking up more and more speed everyday.

Creating a New Way of Thinking with Brand Semblance
You need a good amount of behavioral data from site visitors to provide highly targeted recommendations. But it is possible to offer a degree of dynamic personalization even without true artificial intelligence software.^viii Personalizing a marketing effort will grab the attention of the recipient, but the message that follows must capture and hold that attention by continuing to be personal. How do you craft a personal message?

Individuals respond to different messages based on their backgrounds, interests, gender, etc., which is why so many marketers rely on the concept of a persona when marketing to groups. A persona is representative of one individual within a demographic who is defined by gender, age, socio-economic status, etc.

Some marketers will create only one persona that represents their key demographic, and then imagine that they are speaking to that person when crafting a message. But we suggest that you do not stop at creating one persona. Why not create several personas (make eye contact with each member of your audience) and present a slightly unique version of your message to coincide with each persona’s  interest. This is brand semblance.

While creating several versions of the same marketing brochure may take more of your budget and more of your time, the investment will pay off because you will be able to hold your target customers’ attention with information that matters to them. In essence, you can market to a smaller group with a much more targeted message. But before you can get there, how do you decide which segments of the market to focus on? A July 2010 article from Inc. Magazine offers up a treasure chest of tips, including:^ix

• Look at your existing customer base and identify the most profitable customer type. Find others just like them.
• Who is your competition targeting? 
Go out and target someone else.
• Pinpoint the greatest benefit of your product/service and decide who would appreciate it the most.
• Before marketing to anyone, decide if the people within that segment of the population can afford what you’re selling and whether they can be easily reached through marketing.

Applying Brand Semblance to Multi-Channel Marketing
Take what you already know, go one step further and complete the picture.

The concept of brand semblance can also be applied to each individual channel within your multichannel marketing strategies. Each channel is a fraction of the whole within the marketing equation, and while each channel contains the same overarching goal (to promote your brand), the message within each channel is told in a way that coincides with its intent.

For example, you represent your brand differently in a promotional e-mail than you do in your annual report. Your content should convey a consistent brand voice across multiple mediums. The tone will vary because the goal is different (to promote a product/service or satisfy stock holders, respectively).

Integration of Systems & Processes Across Channels
In a recent Foviance survey of businesses, only 4% of respondents felt that their organization had achieved the integration required to have a single view of the customer across multiple communication channels.^x
•  4% – Fully-integrated and harnessed cross-channel
•  24% – Tactical and single-channel driven
•  44% – Customer focused, but lacking cross-channel links
•  28% – Integrated, but not fully harnessed cross-channel

This is yet another good example of brand semblance. The reader of every piece of content across your multichannel marketing campaign is exposed to a version of your brand that matches the channel through which the message is launched or deployed.

Personalizing each one of your mass marketing initiatives, and developing multiple messages to match the channel and demographic you are targeting doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right strategy, compelling creative and utilizing insightful analytics, you will consistently convert prospective clients and responsive consumers into your most loyal patrons.

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Contact us today

RICG is a full service marketing firm that develops and deploys highly personalized, strategic communication programs. Our holistic approach to strategic creative, data analytics and cross-channel delivery is what makes us unique. For over twenty years, our innovative marketing solutions have achieved dynamic results and delivered unprecedented return on investment for our clients.

To learn more, contact Christopher DeSantis by telephone at 212.944.1133, or by email at cdesantis@ricg.com

References

ⁱ Business gain from how you retain, Bob Adams, Rob Petit and Will Nipper w/ assistance from Farrell Wilson , CMO Council , 2008,
http://www.acxiom.com/resource/white_papers/Pages/ImprovingMarketingResultsbyTargetingYourBestProspects.aspx

ⁱⁱ Data Segmentation drops the big, bad attitude, Chantal Todé, Direct Marketing News, March 12, 2010,
http://www.dmnews.com/data-segmentation-drops-the-big-bad-attitude/article/165624/

ⁱⁱⁱ Survey by Loyalty 360 and SAS, B2B Brands Tapping Loyalty Marketing to Drive Sales, January 12, 2011,
http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2011/4201/b2b-brands-tapping-loyalty-marketing-to-drive-sales

^iv Acxiom White Paper, The Moment of Truth, October, 2010,
http://www.slideshare.net/ibayne/acxiom-moment-of-truth-white-paper-10-6101

^v At 90, Direct-Marketing Legend Wunderman Looks Forward to ‘Personal Advertising’ Future, Rance Crain, AdAge, July 26, 2010,
http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=145075

^vi Multichannel Customer Experience Report, eConsultancy, November 2010,
http://econsultancy.com/us/reports/multichannel-customer-experience-report

^vii Cone LLC Releases the 2010 Consumer New Media Study, Cone LLC press release, November 2, 2010,
http://www.coneinc.com/new-media-users-follow-only-five-companies-online

^viii Dynamic Personalization Produces Dynamic Results, Sherry Chiger, Multichannel Merchant, December 1, 2010,
http://multichannelmerchant.com/ecommerce/dynamic_results/

^ix How to Define Your Target Market, Mandy Porta, Inc. Magazine, June 22, 2010,
http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/defining-your-target-market.html

^x Achieving a great customer experience, Foviance White Paper, October, 2010,
http://www.foviance.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Foviance_Whitepaper_Achieving_A_Great_Customer_Experience.pdf