MAX-e-MARKETING IN THE NET FUTURE

Max-e-Marketing is the emerging new marketing discipline of the digital business era. It focuses on maximizing profits by combining new marketing strategies, communications and interactions together to create more added value for customers while simultaneously adding more to the company’s bottom line profitability.

Max-e-Marketing focuses on three areas:

1. Relationships – How a business interacts with its customers or prospective customers and the way in which all responses are stored in a corporate knowledge base so the company can become progressively more responsive and productive.

2. Experiences – Whether a customer’s end-to-end experience in dealing with the organization adds or detracts from the value they place on that relationship.

3. Future Value – An underlying assumption that ultimately, the future value of any online business will be derived from the accumulated value of all its customer relationships.

The seven imperatives of Max-e-Marketing deal with how this focus on the three critical areas can be translated into action. As such, they provide guidelines for the successful implementation of Max-e-Marketing. The seven imperatives articulate how to take advantage of the new opportunities while avoiding the potential pitfalls.

In many regards, Max-e-Marketing is the marketing life form that best suits the competitive demands of the Internet business era. It embraces both the four P’s of conventional marketing (product, price, promotion and place) and the four A’s of direct mass marketing (addressability, accountability, affordability and accessibility). In short, Max-e-Marketing is the way all marketing will be done in the networked business environment of the future.

Imperative #1

Configure everything you do for a customer on the basis of what you know about them – and keep learning progressively more. The Internet makes it possible for companies to constantly gather more information about what each individual customer’s preferences are. Smart companies use that information to consistently enhance the customer experience and find completely new and original ways to generate profits.

The more that’s known about a customer, the more responsive the customer relationship can become. Quite often, valuable customer information already exists in abundance within the organization, but making that information accessible is a challenge.

Imperative #2

Don’t differentiate between products and services – create seamless offerings which include elements of both. In the future, products and services will become so tightly linked it will become impossible to see where the intangible benefits end and the tangible benefits begin. In that environment, offerings which blend products and services to meet customer needs will become all important.

The networked economy forces value propositions to shift, turning all products and services into commodities. As that occurs, companies are forced to develop new ways to provide added value. And that, in turn, forces companies to reassess how core business assets are being used. In many cases, what surrounds and supplements the product may become more valuable than the product itself.

Imperative #3

Make every customer relationship unique to create relationship equity. In the new era of individualized marketing, companies are moving from customized products to customized relationships. These newly formed relationships have a value and equity which can exceed that of the brand name.

Traditionally, companies tried to fit customers into predetermined categories or profiles. Today, the best marketers form a unique relationship with each customer, so that all future interactions with every person are driven by their own previous experiences.

Imperative #4

Outsource everything you can to harness the efficiencies of others. The Internet makes it cost effective for companies to harness highly specialized expertise wherever it is physically located. Therefore, instead of trying to do everything themselves, the success stories of the future will be those companies that find ways to let the specialists do as much as possible for their customers.

If outsourcing is to become a strategic weapon for your business, you need to be able to choose the experts with whom you will work. This is particularly important when the outside partners you choose become so involved in your business they become allies rather than simply vendors.

Imperative #5

Use your interactive processes to derive a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage in the network economy is built on relationships rather than products. Companies that are focused on relationships redefine what the customer is buying by integrating interactive processes – the delivery mechanisms by which intangible benefits are provided to customers.

The processes by which customer relationships are built cumulatively contribute to the overall brand experience. For an Internet based company:

BE = (P + C + O) x T where:

BE is the brand experience.

P is the product quality.

C is the interactive customer experience.

O is the experience and opinions of other customers.

T is time.

Note that a number of factors contribute meaningfully to brand experience, including interactions between the company and customers, customers with other customers and customers with competitors. This contrasts with brand perception, which is largely the result of positioning and one-way messages from the company to prospective customers.

Brand experience exists solely from the customer’s perspective. In fact, the customer is most definitely in the driving seat in this regard. The company may have some influence over what its own staff say, but customers have total access to everything other customers say and everything a competitor offers. Thus, there is always pressure for the company to perform.

Imperative #6

Factor some future value into every transaction with the customer. Treat direct customer interactions with your business as an investment in the future value of your business, not as an unnecessary expense. In other words, keep coming up with new ways to delight your customers.

Properly done, when customers interact with you via your Web site, it should be a great brand experience in their eyes. It should create an attractive perception of your brand in their minds.

Imperative #7

Make effective marketing the responsibility of everyone in the business organization. In the Net economy, marketing has to become a core value of the business if it is to survive. That will only happen if every resource available inside the company is properly aligned to serve customers outside the company. And that, in turn, means dissolving any artificial barriers between Net and non-Net activities.

For any business to add value in the future, it must create a better brand experience around everything the business does for and with customers. That means marketing will no longer be the responsibility of just the marketing department – every division of the company will be involved. And every employee of the company will need to be empowered and provided with the tools they require to create satisfied connected customers.

In the end, the business environment of the Net economy promises to be highly challenging, exceptionally information rich and entirely democratic in its reach. Surviving and excelling under those conditions looks certain to be quite a challenge. Fortunately, the rewards for success promise to be equally impressive.

“Now is the time to get everything inside your company lined up to serve customers outside your company. It is time to form a new partnership between IT and marketing.”

– Stan Rapp & Chuck Martin

Schooley Mitchell Telecom Consultants are recognized as one of North Americas leading authorities in Telecommunications. Our consultants are dedicated to helping businesses save money, add security and improve efficiencies.