Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

THE ROLE FOR MARKETING

The role for marketing here is to almost literally IGNITE Activation. Unlike that unused gym membership, which is equivalent to flushing money down the toilet, Nike gave its customers five of the new marketing six Cs: context, community, content, customization, and conversation in a complete flipped-funnel package. (The final C—that of “Commerce”—will be Nike’s reward.)

Activation represents a new marketing system where organizational process supports a new customer-centric ecosystem—-one that is powered by loyalty, word-of-mouth, and most important, sales. It’s a self-sustaining environment with its own currency of both intangible intellectual property and tangible exchange of goods and services.