In this essay, I will be comparing the different marketing approaches and I will discuss the superiority of customer-centric approach. There are many different types of marketing approaches, for example, market orientation, a company which is market orientated organises its products and services around the requirements and requests of its customers. Product orientation a company, which chooses to follow the product orientation, would tend to ignore what their customer’s need or want and focus on the quality of their product. Competitive orientation, some companies constantly re-examine their strengths and limitations compared to its competitors. Customer-centric orientation, companies that are customer-centric orientated emphasis on providing a positive customer experience while selling the product and even after the purchase keeping up with providing the best customer experience. The customer-centric approach is a combination of the market approach and the product approach as the company would need to give the customer a top quality product as well as focusing on what the customer requires.
A product-oriented institute focuses on the products it releases in the market rather than focusing on the customers, therefore the products quality standards are usually higher than products produced by a customer-centric company. Product-centric marketing often ignores the needs of individual customers and aim for the mass market and as a result organizations compete for customers and often lack a coordinated approach. “The classic example of this is the “Last buggy whip company” the company that made the best buggy whips in America! It just failed to see the car was coming to obliterate its market.” (Brown, 2012) The product-oriented companies tend to focus so much on their products that they cannot keep up with the changing trends and the advancing technologies.
Another marketing approach in the competitive approach, in which the companies compare their performance with competitors, so they would be able to do better than them. The competitive approach could lead to an unbalanced focus towards the competitors, which is not required as too much attention on the competition could cause the company to neglect the customer’s problems. “Military people want to destroy a target, business executives want to eliminate a competitor.” (Hendon, 1986) Businesses want to eliminate their competitors at the cost of all other objectives like customer satisfaction, product quality or customer service.
The customer-centric approach places an individual customer at the centre of the marketing design and delivery. This approach realises every customer is different, not every customer want the same product and service. “Similarly, your loyal weekly customer who loves engaging with your brand on social media is different from your casual holiday shopper who only buys items on steep discount. And as a customer-centric marketer, you have an opportunity to communicate to these customers in fundamentally different ways.” (Custora, 2013) When a company is customer-centric it can deal with every customer differently as not every customer comes with the same purpose, for example, a holiday shopper would be looking for products on discount whereas a regular customer would look for essential products.
A business needs customers for it to run smoothly, but customers need the right information and they need to be approached in the right time and manner for them to be attracted to the products and services. “Customer centricity empowers the marketing team to target the right customer with the right channel and right message – at the right time. It also helps teams align around a strategy that will drive long-term value to the business: acquiring high-value customers, and keeping them coming back.” (Custora, 2013) The customer-centric approach makes sure that the customer gets all the correct information and it makes sure that the business understands the wants and the needs of the customer so that the customer gets the products and services, which are perfectly suitable for them.
The customer-centric marketing approach has four parts, influencers, advocacy, content, and community. The industries influencers are the most trustworthy for all the potential customers, so for a business to grow it needs to establish its relationships with the industries influencers. The industries influencers are the people who have the highest power in the industry; this power could be used to spread the message, which your business is trying to convey and to make your business known in the industry
In today’s time, influencer marketing is lead by social media; the person with the highest followers is the industries influencer. “Some fans want to be just like their favourite influencer (which is why you may walk down the street and see people wearing a YouTuber’s merchandise).” (Lee, 2018) As some fans want to be like their favourite influencer, they copy what their influencer does, and do what their influencer tells them to do therefore companies can have a deal with these influencers and get them to promote the company for them. This is one of the easiest ways of boosting the customer attraction for a business.
One of the main problems businesses are facing nowadays is that traditional tactics aren’t working anymore. The advanced technology allows the customers to get self-educated for example customers use the search engines and social networks to find the best and most suitable products and services for them so the businesses which try to use the traditional tactics like sending emails and calling customers to advise them on the offers do not work. “Tectonic shifts in technology and marketing have changed the game. Where once advertisers held all the control, the customers are now in control.” (Scribewise, n.d.) The contents marketing of the customer-centric approach states that the businesses adverts should be visually appealing, and they should use more than one way to advertise their business.
Content marketing is all about the information, which is shared with the customers, but you cannot just give information to a customer you have to portray it to them. “It's the marketing of a business or brand through the sharing of educational, entertaining, or insightful information that will ultimately help readers improve their lives.” (Ruffolo, 2017) The company needs to share all the important information in the most entertaining or educational way so that the customers would be attracted to the business and would be interested in the products. There are many ways to make the information entertaining for example television adverts, they are short but very interesting, they can get the customer hooked and make them aware of any new products and services.
In every industry, everyone including the partners, employees, and customers should be able to connect with each other; they should be able to support each other, to do so they need a community. If the employees have a community in which they are able to connect with each other they would be able to work together to give the customers the best service. “Community marketing is a strategy that involves forming an engaging brand presence in order to interact with a community of existing customers.” (Marketing-schools.org, n.d.) The community of existing customers need to be updated on the offers and the latest updates on the business, so firms need to form a brand presence in order to interact with the customers.
Community marketing is one of the cheapest ways to attract customers as it is all about gathering the people with the same needs and wants and advertising the product to them. “Some of the world's strongest brands were originally built through low-cost community-based marketing. Nike, Starbucks, Google … The list goes on.” (Lee, 2009) Many of the worlds leading brands use this way so they are spending less on marketing their products, which means more of a profit. These companies find a gap in the market and utilise it to make a brand and product so that they have fewer competitors and they are the influencers. “When they stay close to their communities they don't need market research to tell them what people want.” (Lee, 2009) If the companies interact with their customers on a regular basis they would know what their customers want and what the customers are expecting from them so there would be no need to carry out any market research which would also save money.
One of the best ways a business could drive in more customers is by giving their existing customers a great customer experience. If a customer likes the products and service provided to them they are most likely to recommend the business to other people, which would allow the business to expand its sales. “I call this new era “customer advocacy” because it is based on the firm representing the customers’ interest by providing them complete and unbiased information, advice on which product is best for them (including fair comparisons with competitors), joint design of products, and a partnership that breeds long-term loyalty.” (Urban, 2005) If all the information on the products and services is provided to the customers they would find the customer service very appealing and they would tend to bring in more customers.
When a customer likes a product and the services provided to them they would leave good reviews for the business which other people look at and if they find the product useful for them it would enhance their confidence in the product “In a 2015 report by Nielsen, a global information and research organization, it was found that 83% of consumers placed the most trust in the recommendations of friends and family. Furthermore, 66% trusted the opinions of consumers they found online.” (Big Commerce, n.d.) If a business gives the best customer service and good quality products then they would get a lot of customers, as 83% of consumers trust their friends and family so if people are getting a good service they would recommend it to friends and family. A company which has many good reviews is more likely to do better than a company which has less good reviews as 66% of the consumers look at customer reviews.
In conclusion, Influencer marketing, advocacy marketing, content marketing and community marketing form the customer-centric marketing approach as each of the marketing approaches keep the customer in the centre and the aim is to give the customers the best experience. As discussed customer-centric marketing has many advantages like loyalty, efficiency, agility, and differentiation. The influencer marketing brings the efficiency; the content marketing brings the differentiation, the community marketing brings the agility and the advocacy marketing brings the loyalty. If all the marketing strategies are followed correctly and the business is following the customer-centric marketing approach properly it is most likely to succeed and attract a lot of customers. Customers are the biggest part of a business as if a business has no customers it would not work so customers should always be kept in the middle and as the main part of a business as a result customer-centric is the future of businesses.