Don’t Just Relate—Advocate!: A Blueprint for Profit in the Era of Customer Power

Chapter 9. Questions and Answers About Customer Advocacy

In this book, I have proposed some rather radical ideas: 1) Give your customers open and honest information and advice about your products and competitors’ products, and 2) Passionately represent your customers’ best interests. Customer power has grown due to the advent of the Internet, so these ideas are becoming required features of an effective strategy, not just nice-to-have additions. Firms are making these ideas work, as evidence has already demonstrated in the travel, automobile, and financial industries. The mindset is shifting from traditional marketing-driven strategy based on Theory P to partnering based on Theory A. Our basic assumptions about customers are changing from viewing ...