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In our modern economic history, individuals and organizations that engage with businesses to buy goods or services have been grouped into three categories: consumers, customers, and clients. I called this triumvirate the 3C's of the buyer engagement spectrum.
Traditionally, you can imagine the marketing executives at P&G thinking about the working mom needing a better detergent as a consumer. The executives may know everything about their targeted demographic group, but they have never even seen 99.9 percent of the individuals in that market segment.
On the other hand, the owners of a restaurant see their customers daily. They greet and interact with each of them. However, they still don't know their buyers personally, except for a select few that come almost every day--which receive the honorable title of clients.
Finally, a law firm or a marketing agency, such as Sprout Marketing, knows each of its buyers very well. Often we know their spouses' names, hobbies, favorite places to go on vacation, what their pet peeves are, what the best times to reach them are, sleeping habits, etc. In other words, we know our clients, and it is because we know them so well that we call them clients.
In other words, the more you directly and personally engage with your buyer, the less a consumer she is and the more a client she becomes.
In recent years, we have seen a movement to push consumer and customer relationships into client relationships. For example, one of our clients, ProvoCraft, has created a remarkable online community for Cricut users. Through this community, ProvoCraft can interact directly with its buyers and get to know them personally. Users know some ProvoCraft employees by name and vice versa. Users can ask for new features, cartridges, or updates, and ProvoCraft can run new product ideas through a naturally formed panel of buyers and decision makers.
This strategy has moved a consumer-level relationship bridged through retail partners to a direct, almost-client relationship. The benefits are endless.
A similar change is occurring with retail chains that get your name, address, and email address for a store-specific card. Through your purchasing habits, which they track, they can learn almost everything about you: ages of your children, whether you drink or not (and how much and when), whether you like Hispanic, Asian, or Italian food, etc. With this information, managers can direct marketing communications directly to you that are completely customized to your interests and needs. You’ll feel that they know you closely and talk to you about the things you are care about; and in a way, that is actually true.
The key that has unlocked this shift is information technology and the Internet. With these resources, companies can establish direct relations that closely resemble personal relationships. This allows them to build top-of-mind awareness, be relevant to each buyer, and strengthen brand loyalty, which result in increase revenues and profitability. I think we’ll continue to see this trend grow as technology becomes more accessible to small- and medium-size businesses.
Tags: Client | Customer | Consumer | Relation | Relationship | IT | Information Technology | Internet
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Jorge Mazal
