Customers

Several good posts have been written about how much time brands should spend minding their social media store. Jeff Esposito related the time question to business objectives when he wrote a post evaluating these four areas as ready matches for social media: Customer support Brand awareness Sales Thought leadership His post touches on two important, individualized factors influencing the time equation: company size (resource availability) and level of target customers’ social savvy...

Brand personality is individual character expanded to an enterprise-level frame. Sometimes when the skin is stretched over that frame, things get out of whack. We think about the framework in abstract, but not about (or less than we should) how human customers intersect with theory. Our favorite people are close to our hearts because of their blend of humor, perspective, intellect, carriage, grace, style, values, and energy. Their wit, intuition, drive, selflessness, curiosity, honesty, and dependability...

The people that buy your product in a downturn?  Those are your fans. The pennies saved by choosing a less expensive option  just aren't attractive to those guys.  It's a non-option.  In the scheme of things, the money isn't important.  In fact, your product may seem like a safety net of normalcy when all else is going haywire.  A trusted beacon when one's 401(k) statement looks like 3rd grade math homework.  They're sticking with what they know, thanks. The people that remain customers...

Persuasive Selling We all know that customer testimonials are a primo tool leveraged within new business development initiatives. We like validation for our choices, and testimonials can be a low-key, non-invasive way to present a winning scenario that a prospect just might relate to (in whole or part) - whether it was due to similarities in budget, accelerated timing, market, customer base, etc. We want the same big win that the person offering the testimonial got.  We want to be successful, too. I'm...

It may be an innocuous-sounding creedo, but in my opinon, Know Thy Customer is likely one of the top three Truths a brand should live by.  I'll talk about the other two Truths I hold dear in the next two posts. I'm what many would call a loyal customer.  In the past eighteen years, I've purchased the same brand of vehicle (with the exception of one transgression in my youth).  Since footing my own rent and buying my own groceries, I've always bought the same brand of butter.  And I only buy one brand...