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Brand loyalty, another recession marketing consequence
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Unless you’re selling to stimulus-spending infused federal agencies, your customers are probably spending less this year. (If you are selling to stimulus-infused federal agencies, and would like to continue to do more of it, brand loyalty is relevant to you too. Read on.)
Another fallout of this strange economy is the loyalty of your customers. Buyers are increasingly looking to make the absolute best decisions with their budgets. In an attempt to shave dollars, they will even incur greater risk by swapping you out for a new product or service provider. And there's also the risk of them cutting your portion of the budget entirely.
Brand loyalty will be limited. For five years, Forrester has been tracking the precipitous decline in brand loyalty -- particularly for complex products like cars. Brands will afford only limited protection for your company in the new world -- because choice has been radically expanded. All brands are subject to consumer testing, discussion, disclosure, and transparency. You can no longer own your customer -- your customer will own you.
Wow. Your customer will own you. Seeing any of that in your industry?
Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you know the Tech Marketing Examiner isn’t about gloom and doom or hand wringing. We’re about solutions here, people. The question is--what are you going to do with this information?
We all know that new customer acquisition is a high priority. But an even higher priority is keeping the customers you’ve worked so hard to attain. If your pipeline has slowed, you certainly can’t afford to lose customers. But if customer retention isn’t part of your current marketing strategy, be prepared to face that unpleasant reality.
Next week we’ll discuss marketing activities you really should be doing to increase customer retention.
Another interesting, if harrowing read, is from NakedCapitalism.com. If you're not on board with the severity of this issue, this is a very convincing read:
Join us next week for solutions, and visit www.q2marketing.com for lots of other ways to solve your tech marketing challenges. Till next time....
For more info: Referrals dried up? What now?
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customer loyalty ·
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economy ·
recession ·
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marketing budget ·
government contracting ·
branding
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