Assignment 2 - MGT 463
Assignment: Consumerism Affecting Innovation DUE 2/6
- Identify a specific aspect of new consumerism and provide detailed examples of how this new consumerism resulted in innovative responses by an organization of your choosing. - Provide 3 or 4 bullets on ways that companies can 'listen' (and interact with) their customers in order to not miss innovative opportunities. Think like a consultant: if you had to provide 3 or 4 suggestions for an organization to do, what would you suggest?
_____________________________________________
All original writing please and provide your sources.
A business-like presentation / proper spelling, grammar is important.
“New Consumerism”
Overview
With the onslaught of disruptive technology, consumer behavior and ultimately decision-making is changing like never before. The new age consumers are taking control of their journey, discovering relevant product and service information and making decisions their way in real time. With Internet and social media as their weapon, consumers are making sure that businesses have no other way out, than to compete with each other in real time. The behavior of the interconnected consumers is not only changing, it is opening and closing traditional touch points, places, and ways to engage customers in real time and at the right time. Although we are talking about connected customers here, let’s also learn about the three categories that various consumers fall into –
Generation C is building an efficient human network where information and experiences serve as the ties that bind relationships. Therefore, it seems only fitting that firms apply a human touch in their marketing efforts. It is important that firms follow these four steps to connect with the customers:
1 Listen
2 Learn
3 Engage
4 Adapt
|
How do we manage the emerging trends being driven by these consumers? Understanding the customers is the only way to develop effective and meaningful marketing, sales, and service strategies. This is the only way a company is able to develop or inspire a vision to provide their customers the satisfaction and experience they desire. Without this, the experience is left to the customer to determine and share.
This creates chaos and confusion in the market. Since connected consumers are the most influenced by those they know, the brand value of a product or service spirals down faster than one thinks. This means organizations need to be on top of their products, brand - and customers. |
|
The Dynamic Customer Journey
|
The Dynamic Customer Journey (DCJ) is about businesses building on existing experiences to retain customers. During the journey, businesses should engage customers to gain insight on defining the customer experience. As customers are being engaged, businesses should orient the customers’ experience based on their reviews shared. This is important: too many feedback points from consumers go ignored. Social media is utilized but not used as a catalyst for change or to improve the customer experience. On the other hand, the DCJ is designed to capture the experience that customers desire by promoting awareness. |
|
|
Businesses are expected to determine what influences their customer’s decision-making process. The influence loop can be considered as a business journey to take the important steps in the discovery process: 1 Awareness 2 Consideration 3 Evaluation 4 Purchase 5 Experience 6 Loyalty 7 Advocacy |
|
The Influence Loop characterizes a constant and public elliptical path that often repeats itself. Every shared experience, every touch point influences the decisions of all those who enter this ellipse. Although these stages of the DCJ may look similar to the sales funnel, but the DCJ is designed to uniquely capture the path of the connected customer (Note: the AIDA funnel shows a linear path, whereas the DCJ reflects a constant elliptical path).
As customers share their experiences online, businesses must embrace listening, learning, engaging and adapting to promote customer satisfaction. You - the manager, the leader, and the employee - need to provide input and influence to your company to encourage them to pay attention to customers' feedback and activity on social media. By doing so, businesses will soon discover that the DCJ presents moments of truth that either lead people towards the company or away from them. To explain this better, each stage in the DCJ can be looked at from a higher level.
Business Advantages of New Consumerism
1 Increased Business Intelligence – Interacting with Generation C “The New Consumers” goes beyond just “social media listening.” This is about intelligence – about how to engage Generation C based on who, and what is important to them, and how they connect with each other and your business.
2 Meaningful Engagement (instead of Everyday Marketing) – Based on how intelligently businesses engage with Generation C could be the difference between meaningful engagement, as opposed to everyday marketing.
3 Great Marketer to Great Connected Marketer – The great insight tapped by studying Generation C will expedite the transformation from a great marketer to a great connected marketer. This is a tremendous coup for the business, as it would benefit from relevant and compelling marketing, promotional, and advertising strategies.
4 “Humanized Experience” for Customers – Customers experience a refreshing humanized experience exuded by the business.
5 Optimized Customer Funnel – Better customer experience would hopefully lead customers to move towards a state of loyalty and, ultimately advocacy.
6 More Focused Efforts – “The research into the dynamic customer journey (DCJ) would help businesses clarify how and where to focus efforts on shaping decisions and experiences before, during and after the purchase. The results of studying the DCJ will contribute to a far more accurate point of view that tailors marketing, sales, service and loyalty strategies to be more effective and engaging” (Solis, 2014).
Content Author: Barbara L. Ciaramitaro, Ph.D. / Revised by Terri Richards, Ph.D.
© Walsh College, All rights reserved