The Agile Marketer

Chapter 14From Deeper Customer Relationship to Richer Customer Experience

To modernize the marketing function, companies must tap into a whole array of customer feedback gathered at multiple levels: direct user feedback, feedback from research, strategic feedback, and feedback that comes in the form of data flowing into your integrated marketing platform. Companies that are aligned internally to capture, analyze, and respond to all of these forms of customer feedback gain access to powerful marketing opportunities that arise out of a richer relationship with the customer.

Thus far we've looked at how feedback drives innovation and the facilitating role that marketing plays in this process. I presented marketing as the steward of the overall customer experience, but marketing is just as much the steward of the product's (or service's) community. After all, marketing is also the steward of the brand, and the modern marketer recognizes that the brand is no longer owned by the company. Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit, said it best: “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is.” Today, we are extending that concept beyond the brand to the entire product or service. And leading companies are beginning to grasp the notion that their communities of customers are not only their lifeblood but also, in effect, their innovation engine, marketing platform, and ultimately, their competitive advantage.

Increasingly, and especially in rapidly ...