They're more focused on transactions than relationships
Organizations see dollar-signs - not people - when thinking of their customers according to a study by the Chief Marketing OfficerCouncil. While marketers admit their future growth and success will rely on leveraging deeper relationships with customers, 43% surveyed by the CMO Council admit that their organizations identify "transactional" as being the top attribute and descriptor of their customers.
The unintended impact of this transactional view of the customer is only 11% of marketers are fully confident that their current engagement strategies will actually achieve their growth, profitability and engagement goals.
The new report, Loyalty That Lasts: Evolving Growth Strategies to Activate Emotional Connections with Brands, with research fielded in partnership with Cheetah Digital, reveals key disconnects between marketing intentions and marketing mindsets about customer loyalty and engagement:
"What this research shows is that marketers are rightfully focused on ways to deepen their bonds with their customers, knowing that this bond can help crystallize customer behaviors and intentions while clearing a path to enriched engagement and more profitable long-term relationships," noted Liz Miller, SVP of Marketing at the CMO Council. "The only problem is that too many of these organizations are building relationships with line items and invoices, instead of the actual people behind the voice and the transaction."
Yet for those brands who have made the hard cultural shift of defining customers, and customer loyalty, as a deeper, more lasting and unwavering attachment to the brand that is not predicated on savings, rewards or promotions, the reward has been a more receptive and open dialogue between buyer and brand based on emotional loyalty.
According to Cheetah Digital, "emotional loyalty is the deep connection achieved when every action, input and communication a customer receives from a brand makes them feel valued and respected." It is a relationship rooted in trust, purpose-built to foster affinity and attachment.
Some 15% of total respondents indicate that their organizations define customer loyalty as this depth of bond. For this group, the top attribute describing their customers include being open to recommendations (52%), digital (48%), busy (44%) and loyal (40%) as compared to those who define loyalty as a length of time of consistent transaction and purchase that define their customers as transactional (43%), demanding (40%), digital (40%) and busy (37%).
While only 11% of all respondents were supremely confident in their current strategies, these organizations with a more evolved view of the customer as emotionally connected loyalists, only 8% express any doubt in their ability to reach all of their profitability and growth goals.
"This isn't a matter of launching a new program or delivering a creative campaign. What emotional loyalty demands is a shift in how we think, respect, and embrace the customer," noted Judd Marcello, EVP of Global Marketing at Cheetah Digital. "Creating lasting relationships with busy, tech-savvy consumers can be challenging for even the most experienced marketers. But, delivering experiences that develop affinity, attachment, and trust between your brand and its customers - creating true emotional loyalty - will soon not be a choice but the expectation our customers have of us."
The report has been made available for download at: https://cmocouncil.org
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