When I first started this blog I did a Google search on customer-centric marketing, which showed a lot results about smart use of databases to create hyper-personalized marketing opportunities. This is not what I call customer-centric marketing, and the difference can be clarified in the style of this (brief) tutorial.

SITUATION: The Regal Bank harnesses the vast resources of its customer database to develop a personalized marketing program around its products. Here are 2 contrasting examples:

1. Hyper-Targeted Customer Marketing Execution

Dear Ms. Higginbottom,

Congratulations on celebrating your 60 birthday. The Regal Bank is a continuing partner in your financial security and we would like to extend a special offer to you on this significant occasion in your life.

An expert adviser has been appointed to consult with you on your:

- Retirement planning,
- Investment portfolio and
- Estate planning.

It is our goal to give you as much peace of mind regarding your financial security, maximize your financial resources and help you to build a legacy for your children and grandchildren.

At your first consultation we will be delighted also to present you with a leather-bound album to contain your most cherished memories. Please contact your branch to arrange a convenient time for your appointment.

We at the Regal Bank look forward to sharing in all your important occasions in life and being able to offer to you the financial advice on which you have grown to depend.

Sincerely

VP Customer Wealth Management

Analysis: The Regal Bank is leveraging the existing relationship to grow its share of wallet by tracking the customer’s age, needs, family situation, and product sales opportunity. It can identify the products currently in her portfolio, her income, credit standing and personalize communications through its database for a mailer tailored to her needs, as the bank interprets them. Sounds good?

2. Customer-centric Marketing Execution.

Dear Ms. Higginbottom,

Congratulations on celebrating your 60 birthday. We have shared a relationship with you as your financial services provider for xx years and we want you to know how important a customer you are to this bank.

In relationships it is sometimes the small things that count. Ms. Higginbottom, you mentioned that your favourite colour is pink. From now on we want to use your favourite colour in the personal communications we send to you, to add pleasure to your day.

We have also designated an expert adviser to consult with you regarding your:

- Retirement planning,
- Investment portfolio and
- Estate planning.

We will contact you at your home to arrange a time to visit with you and introduce your personal financial consultant.

It is our goal to give you as much peace of mind regarding your financial security, maximize your financial resources and help you to build a legacy for your children and grandchildren.

Happy Birthday, Ms Higginbottom,

VP Customer Wealth Management

Analysis: The Regal Bank is willing to forego its colour preference for the customer’s. Does this sound really stupid and trivial? If you don’t grasp the customer-centric concept it does. A business that is willing to align its brand to the customer’s values can earn loyalty, frequency and continuity, and avoid the bribery of incentives. The bank can still identify the products currently in her portfolio, her income, credit standing and personalize communications through its database for a mailer tailored to her needs – but not just as the bank interprets them – also in a way that supports Ms Higginbottom’s sense of who she is. Visiting her at home is also a commitment, but it is not a key component.

Touch Marketing
This difference between Hyper-Targeted and Customer-Centric marketing required me to coin the phrase “Touch Marketing” as a technique to imply emotional context. Emotional context that is what resonates in the building of relationships. Hyper-targeted may win a transaction, but not the war. Customers won’t choose banks based on the colour of their logo independent of other more important criteria. But the bank that offers everything plus your personal favourite colour, because it takes the time to ask that seemingly trivial, non-bank related question, is the bank that demonstrates that it cares more about the customer than itself. And that is a reason to choose and stick with a bank.

Counter-Brand Culture
This will stick in the craw of the brand police that use jeweler’s loops to analyze the ink pigment of logo on the corporate brochure: the company that changes its logo colour to suit each customer’s preference will have a stronger brand, because the customer takes ownership of the value of that brand. The point is for illustration purposes. I don't want marketing professionals to have sleepless nights worrying about how to justify to the CEO the need to identify the customer's favourite colour.

Execution Built for Mass Markets and Niche Markets
For those of us who have trouble remembering our own birthday, the power of database technology is perfect for capturing customer-specific Touch Marketing data, aggregating common customer values and enabling the relationship to be supported. Within your database you can define a niche market segment built on Touch Marketing values, not simply historical customer analytics. The trick is to know the right questions and how to ask - how to woo the relationship to a point that you can support it exclusively and eliminate your competition. True customer-centric marketing is built, as equally in the strategy, as it is in the execution. And the execution can only be right if the marketer is able to determine the customer's values beyond the scope of its products and then put these customer’s values ahead of its own and deliver a solution within the context of its products and services.

P.S. See Attachment
A program we actually put out for Scotiabank in the Caribbean as a car loan service within the dealer store. The name, its accent and multiple connotations represented the local pop culture of 'fast and easy'. It did not conform to the Global brand standards and was awarded special exemption by the Global Brand Marketing Group. It launched very nicely.