The Future of Customer Engagement: Part One

Has marketing really changed? Marketing is, as it has always been, about connecting buyers with sellers. Now mantle it with the more ethereal notions of enriching the
brand experience to drive client loyalty or deepening the level of engagement with consumers at every touch point, but in the end, marketing is about connections.

The time has come for employees at multiple levels of an organization to learn the art of interacting with consumers or indirectly risking the perception of consumers about their brand. Customer experience is impacted by the aggregation of such interactions, but this has always been the case; the employees who were, are and forever will be the ambassadors of a company.

Yes, what is more challenging today than was in the past is the coordinative process required to optimize consumer interactions. However, the task of delivering on the
organi-zations business plan must come from a binding concept of shared responsibility from key members of the executive team. This plan has to be derived from the company’s mission, vision and values.

When we compare the current era of customer engagement with past marketing techniques, we find an age when every advertiser could confidently win their skirmishes by engi-neering the positioning of their products, managing quality, enlisting the best copywriters and hiring star-endorsers. These things still work, but today’s consumers won’t just automatically walk to your products, without the right communication strategy.

Marketing is no more or less so than other functions and is certainly a key player in bringing success to a company. The success of any marketing campaign depends on how well you bridge the gap between customers, who crave to be partners, and your organization. Your brand teams need to indulge in an event that makes consumers believe that you are in serious business with them. There is no fixed agenda for this; there is no fixed rule.

Everyone in the organization doesn’t need to be a “marketing person,” but it is necessary for all the employees to understand that a company’s existence depends on retaining consumers and then increasing its network.

Ultimately, the purpose of marketing is to create

excitement. “Merchandising results from alliances between the marketing and sales departments,” says Mr. Yasir Ahsan, a TSM for Engro Foods Limited, “and is usually directed by sales — especially at the retail level.”

Whether it is B2B or B2C, excitement is the optimum goal.

Depending on the products which are being promoted in the regional economies in question, the core intent of companies’ sales and marketing programs can be easily
attuned by factoring in cultural discrepancies. Organizations must also entrench technical support into their marketing work. Numerous corporations have fallen
down on the back at end of their product’s lifecycle, and in many cases with really sophisticated customers as well as the products themselves. This has a major impact on brand impression—not just on that specific product, but on the company’s image as well. Thus, the importance of this phenomenon should not be underestimated.

About the author

Babar Khan Javed is currently Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer of Sociality360,
a social media think tank, as well as Program Director – Fat Torching Plan at the
BodyBeat Recreational Centre. He writes for local and international publications on
fitness, strategic management and political satire. You may reach him on babar.javed@sociality360.com