The good old times are gone
Remember the times, when customers willingly believed all your great stories about how exceptional, valuable and innovative your products and services were? When this was all you had to do to make them open their wallets or unlock their investment treasure chests? Because they were convinced that you were “Mr. Right” they were looking for. It was a time when customers were almost born loyal to brands, when business relationships were created for a lifetime, when service contracts were signed for 30 years. It was very much like a good and stable marriage – once the rings were exchanged, your customer relationship was everlasting. That was a great time, right?
But as we all know, these times are gone and – without revealing any secrets – they won’t come back. All markets have outlived the era when success was primarily driven by the decisions that companies made before “entering the market” with a certain sales and marketing strategy. Now, the game has changed. Customers are in the often-cited driver’s seat. The same happened among the employees worldwide as they demand to feel like a valued and important part of the company – integrated and stimulated to deliver their personal best for a brand’s success.
Coming back to the picture of marriage that characterized the customer and employee relationships of the past decades, companies now face a much more challenging situation. With the multitude of opportunities, complex demand structures, multilayered customer segments and the volatility of expectations, brands find themselves in a never-ending beauty contest. They are under pressure to deliver the “perfect date”, over and over again. The time of safe harbor relationships have passed away – no certainty that the customers and employees that cherished you yesterday will stay loyal tomorrow. Companies constantly have to attract and convince their target audience by delivering perfectly on their expectations and blending into their lives. The positive side of this is of course that companies now have the chance to feel like an 18-year-old until the end of time – riding the wave in an everlasting dating marathon.
The secret of seduction: It’s not about you
So, the stage has changed, the rules of success have been re-written. And the core question is: How can a company be successful in the current market environment? What distinguishes successful companies from the “also-rans”?
Well, here is the answer: True champions surpass competition by delivering a highly engaging customer and employee experience across all touch points.
Of course, great products and services, a powerful sales team and all the other “key assets and competitive advantages” are still extremely important in future. Yet, they are all only means to an end and will fail to create any value if the company misses the real sweet spot: Excite and engage with your customers and employees. The variety of stakeholder expectations requires an equally bright number of perfect answers. And no company can have all of them ready at hand. Just like a good seducer, that can react to whatever signal he gets from his counterpart, companies need to be quick on their feet to understand and deliver what truly attracts and excites customers.
This aspect might sound easy, logical and out of the question. Yet, it bears one of the major challenges that companies are facing today. Of course, in the past it was very demanding, too, to achieve market success against the increasing competitive pressure in almost all industries. But at least, most of the business-critical decisions and actions were driven by the company itself. Now that customers and employees took over their comfortable spot in the driver’s seat, companies are no longer in control. They might still know the basic direction they are heading to, but there are way more surprises and course corrections along the way. And this means change, even more, it means continuous change and transformation if they want to stay on top of the game.
A major impediment for many companies is that they often lack the ability and willingness to unleash the power of transformation within their business. Transformation means alteration, uncertainty, upheaval and many other aspects that make life more challenging. But brands simply have no choice if they want to prevail. Only the most agile and open companies will be able to master the challenges of a customer-dominated market environment. The rest will perish. So, the sooner a company infuses its business approach and its cultural DNA with the spirit of change, speed and evolution, the better.
Get ready to bring your A-game
This is not a two-week program or a five-people job. Due to the extensive and enduring impact, it becomes more than obvious that it is a mandatory item on the Top Management agenda, having C-Level written all over it. In addition, it requires a bright range of functional expertise and decades of experience in translating strategic aspiration into operational reality. Good news is that every company has a set of these “natural born translators” on their payroll. The marketing department has the skill set and an unrivalled track record of engaging with customers and employees alike. This makes them the perfect go-to-guys to combine strategic positioning and organizational development as the driving force to ensure truly customer-centric market leadership that comes to life at every touchpoint.
The driving idea for this endeavor can be captured in three words: “Positioning For Change”, or simply P4X. This is way more than a new approach to enhance the impact of MarCom activities across different channels. P4X is the nucleus of an impact-driven management model for companies to commit their organization to that one core goal – excellent customer and employee experiences. This encompasses a complete set of initiatives, processes and tools that are perfectly aligned and intertwined to optimize each and every moment of truth in the interaction with customers and employees. It’s like creating the perfect game plan for your dates with customers – delivering a convincing hookup line for every occasion and making sure your brand always lives up to the promises you make.
As transformation is nothing less than the constant journey towards a mostly unknown future, it is extremely crucial to set a powerful guiding light. A company must determine its strategic aspiration and what it wants to stand for in the perception of its customers, employees and all other stakeholders. This big idea is captured in a relevant, differentiating and credible positioning story which represents the lifeblood of the P4X model. It gives guidance, energy, assertiveness and constant challenge for every strategic decision and operational endeavor of the company. As the goal is to ensure the perfect interaction of all core business functions, from R&D and product management over sales and service to marketing and HR, no area of action is “out of scope”, because the approach of P4X is not restricted by organizational silo thinking. Quite the opposite: as it focuses on the customer and employee experience, the approach can be put in simple terms: “all that matters”
And as a final reminder: The importance of the top management as the prime ambassadors of the company’s big idea cannot be overestimated. While the marketing experts in the company are the ones that build and maintain the P4X model, it is the C-Level team that is in charge to set the course. Ultimately, P4X brings back control over the steering wheel. Admittedly, it is a new wheel that only works with indirect control, but it is the perfect one to navigate the stormy waters towards market leadership in this new world order.
Now it’s your turn
Every successful endeavor always starts with a determined first step. So, here’s a check list of the core prerequisites for every company that wants to tap the full potential of “Positioning For Change”:
- Are you aware of the limitations of inside-out business management?
- Do you accept the fact that the customer determines your future success in the first place? And then it’s your employees? And only then it’s you in the third place?
- Are you ready and willing to twist your functional business setting and cultural DNA towards great customer and employee experiences?
- Do you believe in the power of modern marketing as a core driving force to translate your strategic aspiration into operational reality?
- Do you have the courage to fight change adversity and short-time operational obstacles on the way towards long-time business supremacy?
If you answered all five questions with a convinced “Yes”, then: Get ready for the date! And please DM me at benkovich@p4x.consulting to improve your brand’s tinder game.
#marketing #positioning #change #brandmanagement #brand #transformation