Creating Value and Trust

You do not have to look far here in the North Jefferson Area to find plenty of post Tornado recovery work. Now would be a good time to assess where the recovery falls with respect to the formal Comprehensive Development plans that exist. A bit troubling may be the realization that those plans are several years, and in many cases decades old, and have never been revisited or revamped. Now is a perfect time to take an assessment of those Comprehensive Development Plans and view them in light of the community mission and vision. Indeed, if you don’t know what you are aiming for, then you may hit just about anything. All of this plays into the ideas of your brand, your image, and ultimately how you are perceived by your customers. Or in the case of a city, or the entire North Jefferson area, how the growth, recovery and stability are viewed by local citizens and outside supporters. Is our leadership trusted? Do we have a credible and believable reputation?
Not long ago, trust and reputation was the domain of the public relations department. Marketing concerned itself with spending huge sums to maintain "share of voice" which is marketing speak for outspending rivals to drive brand awareness and endlessly reminding consumers of the "unique selling proposition".
Now, marketers are waking up to an awareness that in the world of branding, trust is the most perishable of assets. Polling in recent months shows that increasing numbers of consumers distrust not just the obvious suspects—the banks, politicians, insurance—but business and corporations as a whole. The shift in sentiment is forcing companies from Ford Motor to American Express to tweak marketing and focus on rebuilding credibility. Trust is what drives profit margin and share price and it is what consumers are looking for and what they share with one another. In the arena of local government, reaching out to the community to inform them about not only meetings, but meeting content, results and plans is key as well.
The recovery plan, just as is the Comprehensive Development Plan, is pulled from a systematic planning process. It should be based on sound technical studies, it should facilitate community involvement, it should be open to continuous monitoring, and it should be periodically updated.
It is key that recovery look at not only zoning, but future land use. Please keep in mind that an expert in real estate or real estate law may not be the best expert in land use law, as the two are different skills and area of expertise.
Think about what this means for your city and community. Perhaps you find that old approaches don’t work as well as they used to for you. Don’t just blame it on the recession, job insecurity and hammered home values as to why business and political dynamics are changing.
Techniques and share of voice strategy are easily copied by your competition, but they can’t copy your reputation or recreate the trust that you own with your customers or constituents. Mercifully, you control that. It is yours to grow or loose.
As you move into your week, take a minute to think about what your community and customers expect from you or your product. If you miss the mark on expectations, no matter how well you do, you fail. This sets a poor outcome for trust, and really makes your job of creating a loyal customer more difficult. The old saying about under promising and over delivering really rings true here.

Value Creation and Keeping Customers

Getting and keeping customers is an expensive endeavor and keeping the doors open in a time of local crisis makes it even tougher. The average U. S. business loses half its customers in five years. Generating a new customer costs five times as much as keeping a current one and firms pay a steep price when customers stray to other brands, or stray to other communities to make their purchase. In a slow economy, creating unsurpassed value for a customer so that they stay with you is even more important. So how do we create value?




Value creation in a firm takes a minute to think about. Ask yourself this question: Why does an individual make a purchase? The short answer is to fill a need. But the real answer is found in what motivates a person to do something to fulfill that need.



Psychologist A. H. Maslow developed a theory that characterized needs and arranged them in a hierarchy to reflect their importance called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow identified five levels of needs, beginning with physiological needs and progressing to the need for self-actualization.



Physiological needs are the most basic. They fulfill the needs for survival like food, water, shelter and clothing. Pepperidge Farm French Toast Swirl Bread appeals to this need by stating “It doesn’t go with breakfast. It is breakfast.” Campbell’s Soup hits the mark with “Mm, Mm, good!” as does, “Got Milk?” Food is the most basic of need and as we like to say here, “Full Stomach, Open Mind.”



Next up the ladder you find safety needs which include security, protection, and avoidance of the unexpected. State Farm Insurance appeals to this need by saying, “Like a good neighbor State Farm is there.” In the wake of our damage recovery, maintaining a sense of security in our communities is a key element of recovery. The presence of the National Guard as well as the local elevated sense of social responsibility has been a critical element of pulling us up by pulling us together.



Third are social and belongingness needs which include the need to be accepted by an individual or group. Think about Olive Garden and their tagline, “When you’re here, you’re family.” We also see this come alive with the wonderful belongingness and leadership given by our Churches to support our tornado relief efforts. Many of them continue to request anonymity in their efforts, but rest assured, we know who you are and we thank you!



Fourth is the esteem need such as a need for a sense of accomplishment, the need for respect from others and the need to perform better than others. This is a universal human trait that emerges after lower order needs are satisfied. This may present in the purchase made to upgrade an airline seat, to have premium concert tickets, or as Sony touts, “Like no other.” I have found myself reassessing how I view this for myself in the events of the past few weeks and those in our community. Even in tragedy, this need is still obvious all around. I am reminded of Shakespeare and Twelfth Night where we read that “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” If you are a leader in your community, please remember that the best help may come from the least obvious place.



Lastly, and also the very top need, is self-actualization. This is the desire for a person to reach their full potential. Many educational tours appeal to this need with an appeal to a person’s talent or capabilities. It may include a trip that includes a course of study such as language, history or cooking. Nike’s famous “just do it” is right on the mark for reaching potential. Self-actualization appeals to the desire to experience and learn something new such as at GE where “we bring good things to life.” Or, it may appear as the nice neighbor that you really don’t know who shows up with his chainsaw to help clear some trees from your driveway. And he also offers to get you some water and a sandwich. How cool and inspiring is that!



Understanding how your product fills one of these needs, and fits into the experience desired by your customer will help you to understand how to motivate that customer to act on a purchase. In light of the damage to our communities and continued recovery, I am reminded that this is not just about products, but it is in fact also about US. It is about our elected officials, our churches, and all the elements of our community. It determines who we are and how we react when the chips are down.

Closed Loop Marketing, Data Capture and Value Creation

The new economy requires us to think differently - to anticipate, react to, and exploit business opportunities at lightning speed. According to Myriad Marketing, Inc. , you can't afford to leave marketing successes to chance. To that end, companies are working to develop and evolve a powerful customer-centric solution for the digital age. Called Closed Loop Marketing, its strength is predicting and fulfilling customer needs while accurately measuring the return on investment of marketing. Ultimately the goal is to assess and quantify the effect marketing efforts have on sales in a feedback loop of information enhancement.


Closed Loop Transfer Theory in mathematics is the birthplace of this idea and enables the driver to control the outcome: The tighter the system, the more predictable the outcome.

The Closed Loop Marketing approach measures the results of marketing and communication initiatives by tracking the response of targeted groups. The results of responses, such as completed surveys, promotional entries, coupon redemptions and purchase behavior, are added to a database for tracking and evaluation to improve future marketing decisions. Real time feedback of likes and dislikes by the customer can be entered in to the marketing plan, and immediately considered for improvement. Marketing campaigns can then continuously adapt to the customers' wants and needs, creating a true relationship. Simply put: It allows marketers to develop, and monitor highly targeted strategic campaigns based on a wide variety of customer histories and behaviors.

When it works, ultimately there will be a higher level of delivered information that will continuously evolve to a higher level of product understanding and utilization.

Think about Netflix and Roku for your television. As you view movies and shows, the system uses a type of artificial intelligence to recommend other items that you may like to view. If the system gets it right, you keep paying your monthly fee. If the system gets it wrong, you get tired of the same old offering and move on to Direct TV, or Red Box or some other form of entertainment.

This style of messaging and conversation enhancement is finding use in a variety of industries, and may be coming to an industry near you soon. The pharmaceutical industry is embracing this method of messaging at a very high level as it works to recreate value in the physician office. Look out sales reps! Just when you thought you had mastered the spreadsheet and PowerPoint, now you have electronic messaging systems, and detail aids that time signature and learns from every conversation.

Fear not, there is a place for this type of change. Keep in mind that we all learn in different and evolving ways and that includes our customers. The caution is to keep the end result in mind, and insure that once the novelty of electronic detailing with a real person and a computer and a customer wears off, we still have a message that is worth giving a listen.