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

BY LOSING TOUCH WITH OUR CONSUMERS

Practically the entire business of marketing revolves around consumer insights. We plow endless amounts of money into gaining a better comprehension of what makes them tick. Our logic is simple: If we can understand them more clearly, then we can better connect with and serve them, with timely, relevant, useful, and helpful information.

But somewhere along the line, we kind of lost touch with our customers. At no time was this more prevalent than during the recession of 2009 and, in particular, during the Super Bowl, with the likes of Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com making light of “being stuck in a job you hate” while millions of Americans were busy losing their jobs and desperately trying to figure out how to keep a roof over their families’ heads.

In the very same Super Bowl, one brand, Hyundai, stood out from the crowd by using the opportunity to announce their assurance program (as outlined in Chapter 2), where people who lost their jobs could return their cars. To be clear, the fact they used the Super Bowl is less significant than their incredibly smart (opportunistic?) move to stand for something valuable, especially during challenging times. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think this was the single most significant and potentially differentiating move this otherwise commoditized brand (and aren’t they all?) had done in its entire marketing life span operating in the United States.

As an aside, since Hyundai made this move, several other ...