Something happened over the last fifty years. Companies stopped focusing on customers and, instead, started focusing primarily on shareholders. As a result, business became a lot less about creating value that customers would pay a premium for and a lot more about extracting value to try to keep shareholders happy.
Now, there’s clearly nothing wrong with making your shareholders happy but, unfortunately, those same fifty years also saw massive changes in communication technology, allowing customers to much more easily see all those shareholder-centric actions at the same time brands are saying they’re all about the customer.
That’s a recipe for cognitive dissonance and a significant decline in brand trust.
But what if companies realized their corporate walls are now corporate windows? That today’s ultra-transparent culture means they can’t keep secrets from their customers? What if they realized that the way to shareholder happiness must pass through customers (who are, after all, where revenue comes from)? And what if companies actually started focusing on giving customers what they need instead of what the company wants to sell?
In short, what if brands acted less like a stalker and more like a best friend?
You’d have the future of marketing.
Care to discuss? Call or email anytime.
Best Friend Brands 