Marketing Thoughts by Domus Inc.

It now includes your customers

One of the biggest changes that the internet has brought about in impacting your brand is that your customers now have a meaningful say in
creating impressions in the marketplace. Consider that in a recent quantitative study by the Society for New Communications, 74% of buyers
reported that their decision to choose brands was based on user-generated content on the internet about experiences with those brands.
Branding is no longer a one-way street. In order to manage a brand’s image, marketers need to monitor their presence on the internet and
engage with their customers.

The power of the internet is the real-time feedback marketers receive on the brand. But this power is lost (or even detrimental) if
marketers are unaware of their brands’ presence online or if they take no action to defend or build their brands accordingly. Many marketers are
overwhelmed by the daunting task of monitoring and building their brands online; however, a systematized approach built on traditional customer
servicing best practices will reap a tremendous return on investment in repeat purchases as well as brand referrals.

The internet may be the newest way to brand, but it is based on the oldest and most effective form of advertising, word of mouth.

At Domus, a full-service Philadelphia advertising agency,
we help our clients manage their internet presence using a combination of integrated strategies that together we call our “C.O.R.E.” approach.
Visit our web site and then contact us if you would like to find out more.

How Not to “Be the Client”

Over the last couple of months I had two interactions with marketers that left me uncomfortable and a little annoyed. But I didn’t articulate anything until reading Lisa’s previous post here about “Being the Client,” which got me thinking about how these two marketers definitely did not consider being me (the client).

The two interactions were almost identical. In both cases I received a communication through the mail from a company. The first was the car company who made the automobile I just bought and the second was from my mobile phone carrier. Both sent me something that started with one big, bold word:

One congratulated me for buying their new car and the other congratulated me because they designated me a VIP customer. My reaction to both was the same, “Why are you congratulating me? You should be thanking me for buying your product or service (and I congratulating you on being selected).” In fact, I was being more than nit-picky over their choices of a word—I was annoyed at their arrogant perceptions of our relative positions in the business transactions. They might have thought that they were providing good customer service, but they failed because they didn’t put themselves in my shoes before formulating their marketing messages.

Such a simple concept—“Be the Client”—but such a powerful foundation for any marketer. That’s one of the reasons why Domus has been so successful with its clients. Domus account managers never lose sight of their clients’ perspectives. And they make sure that their clients never lose sight of their customers’ perspectives.

As an addendum, here’s a follow-up to this blog: Arrogant Marketing, Part 2.

by “Being the Client”

A few years back, I had the distinct pleasure of actually being the client as VP of Marketing for a flooring manufacturer. During that time, my philosophy completely changed with regard to “client service.” After a good ten years of training on the agency side, I felt like I knew the client perspective pretty well and this was going to be an easy transition. Yeah…no. The pressures, the priorities, the issues were all very different than the way I felt them on the agency side. I found myself in meetings where my agency would present something that I would reject. On their face I saw “she does not get it” and in my heart I felt “they do not know the whole story.”

A big part of our philosophy at Domus is the notion of “be the client.” Most of our senior managers have been clients or are trained to think like clients. That does not mean we do not provide an outside objective opinion or be incredibly creative—that’s the job we are hired to do. But it does mean that we should think beyond the task at hand or the role we play and really understand the business and the day-to-day pressures around marketing a brand in this environment. This philosophy is as simple as asking ourselves, “Would I do this if I were making all of the final decisions?” (Well – maybe a simple question and a really well thought out strategic planning process.)

As a full-service advertising, PR, and internet marketing agency, we have maintained client relationships that long defy the industry average for the account lifecycle. We believe it is because we take this job as seriously as our clients do.

The Fallacy of Lowering the Bar

In most aspects of life, people conform to a standard pattern vis-à-vis expectations laid out before them. The vast majority of people will meet those expectations (or a little under or over), a smaller percentage will fall short, and another similarly small percentage will exceed them. In the below graph, the section on the right represents the roughly 20% of your employees who regularly exceed expectations and deliver 80% of your results (the Pareto principle).

What many people don’t realize, though, is that as those expectations are raised or lowered, the percentages of people meeting, exceeding, and underachieving remain relatively constant. (Your super-achievers will still find a way to exceed expectations.) Of course, there comes a point where expectations are so high that it becomes impossible for people to meet them, and there is a point where expectations are so low that everyone meets them. However, within a reasonable range, people will consistently rise or fall to the occasions as presented to them. Therefore, whether at a societal or business level, in the aggregate overall performance will increase when expectations are maintained at a high level.

So how does this apply to marketing in a slumping economy? Simply put, revisit all of your marketing goals, being very wary about lowering them. Insist that people rise to the occasion to meet the challenges in front of them. Aggressively pursue those sales opportunities that have been sitting unaddressed. Rather than cutting back, increase your advertising effectiveness and public relations impact. Work smarter AND harder.

Domus, Inc., a full-service marketing communications agency in Philadelphia, is doing this both internally and externally. With its clients, Domus is helping them extend their reach with reduced budgets and reluctant markets. Internally, Domus is aggressively pursuing new business, and as a result is right now in the middle of an expansion. This compares to many advertising agencies, who are currently struggling to prove their worth, both because of this recession and because of the overall changing marketing environment. Domus is expanding right now because it is maintaining high expectations for itself and also because it has maintained its promise to its clients that “whatever their expectations, raise them.”

In my last post I mentioned “Internet Presence Management” as a tool to help increase advertising effectiveness, and as an overall component of an effective marketing plan. To summarize the gist of that post, let’s start with a classic marketing principle: “One of the worst things you can do is advertise well a bad product/service.” The same applies to a product or service that consumers believe to be bad, whether or not it actually is. Next, it’s important to understand that the internet today is an open forum where consumers can air all of their thoughts (often complaints), which in turn become the basis of other prospective consumers’ opinions. Therefore, paying no attention to the “buzz” on the internet leaves your credibility out of your control, which in turn can damage your marketing efforts. To counter this, Internet Presence Management is an overall process by which marketers engage with consumers on the internet to ensure fair and balanced treatments of themselves and their products.

So what makes up “Internet Presence Management?” In general terms, it is a process whereby marketers do the following.

• Monitor online communities, blogs, review sites, forums, etc. to find out what people are saying about you, your products, your competition, and the market in general.
• Participate in those forums, responding honestly and respectfully to raised issues. (And respond in deeds as well as words.)
• Lead conversations (in those communities and your own) by initiating discussions, posting opinions and other thoughts. Ask for input and continue the cycle.
• Encourage your consumer base to join in the conversation with you.
• Use the above interactions to truly influence your business practices.
• Publicize what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and why you’re doing it.

In essence, it is a process whereby you help the truthful information about you to be widely disseminated. This improves your overall credibility in the market, which in turn enables your advertising programs to be effective.

There are many fine details involved with the above general points, and skilled marketers and advertising agencies, such as the Philadelphia-based Domus ad agency, have honed them into effective programs.