Customer Engagement as defined at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_engagement highlights that in March 2006, the Advertising Research Foundation announced the first definition of customer engagement:
“Engagement is turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context.”
Customer engagement can also refer to the stages consumers experience as they interact with a particular brand. This Customer Engagement Cycle, or Customer Journey, has been described as using a myriad of terms but usually consists of 5 different stages: Awareness, Consideration, Inquiry, Purchase and Retention. Marketers employ Connection Strategy to speak to would-be customers at each stage, with media that addresses the customer’s particular needs and interests.
The term ‘Customer Engagement’ is most often referred to in terms of online engagement with customers on the Internet. My interest lies in how we can apply the marketing practices of online marketers to the offline world. As traditional marketing practices begin to lose their effectiveness because of changing social practices (people watching less TV and spending more time on the internet researching and social networking) the challenge lies in how to engage the new generation of consumers without ignoring the value of their parents as consumers. The ‘interrupt and repeat’ advertising model is no longer as effective as it used to be because of the fragmented nature of media and audiences. The issue with the Customer Engagement definition is it assumes that consumers are all aged 18-26. Let’s assume that some of us (older) are not on FaceBook or we’re not twittering. Other generations still hold significant controls of consumer spend.
Customer Engagement should be viewed more as a mantra which is talked about beyond online marketing departments. As it becomes more difficult to keep customers loyal, and as the effectiveness of traditional advertising wanes, businesses will need to explore creative ways to engage customers and keep them engaged throughout their lifetime cycle.
The internet has enabled consumers to speak their minds about the products and services they like and dislike. It has also enabled consumers to become tribal again. They no longer voice their opinions in isolation but find peer groups with the same belief systems about a product or service. The internet has become a tribal-enabling medium. These common groups established over the internet have regained the power base from companies back to the tribe. If companies are to start understanding how to effectively address the changes brought on by technology, social practices and shrinking markets, they need to understand tribal behavior and how to engage tribes. Thinking needs to shift away from online and offline engagement and become centered on understanding tribal behaviour and how to influence tribal leaders.
Many companies refuse to listen to the tribe and are essentially living on borrowed time until a new entrant emerges who has listened to powerful tribe members that can influence the tribe’s preferences. The emergence of Linux as a major operating platform in IT is a testament to how powerful tribal leaders can change the direction of multiple tribes.
I can envisage a future where the fastest growing companies work in collaboration with their customers to design both products and services. Their business plans will have been written by tribal leaders of key customer types and power will be displaced from Board room to chat room.
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