Dont just relate advocate
Maximizing profits in customer-driven markets
Description
Today's business growth relies on earning customer trust through advocacy, not better marketing. Advocating means understanding clients' needs and recommending the best solutions for them, even if that means promoting a competitor. Though you lose one sale, the trust gained leads to more sales long-term and referrals.
Customer power is rising exponentially thanks to the internet's information access. Businesses must embrace advocacy strategies or follow competitors who do. Failing to utilize advocacy means losing markets to customer-advocacy focused firms.
Advocacy represents a paradigm shift from traditional push marketing to relationship building. Pioneering an advocacy approach allows firms to gain customer trust and loyalty hard for competitors to replicate. While all companies will eventually need to compete on trust, first movers will cement durable advantages. The coming decade will see advocacy become the norm as businesses meet the threat and opportunity of growing customer power.
Table of contents
01Defining advocacy concept
Advocacy is the act of publicly supporting an idea, proposal, or way of doing something. An advocate is someone who argues in favor of a specific cause or policy. Successful advocacy efforts are crucial as they raise awareness, educate people about important issues, and can influence laws, policies, and access to resources. Advocacy plays a particularly important role in giving marginalized groups and communities a voice, ensuring they are not overlooked and that their rights are protected. This is essential in the fight for the rights of vulnerable individuals and groups. Even when advocacy does not immediately achieve its goals, the increased attention can lead to the discovery of additional resources and services, helping people to better utilize what is available to overcome challenges.
Advocacy can take many forms, including championing economic justice or testifying in legislative hearings. Advocates work to eliminate barriers caused by health problems, economic status, lack of education, racism, insufficient public services, and societal power structures that prevent the resolution of issues. Social workers, equipped with the necessary skills, are well positioned to effect change through advocacy. There is a rich history of advocacy achievements in social work, which is considered a cornerstone of the field. Advocacy continues to play a vital role in advancing social justice and other fundamental goals. For instance, recent advocacy has led to legislation that allows people with disabilities to earn and save more money without losing benefits. The National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics recognizes advocacy as an essential pillar, particularly because marginalized groups often lack opportunities to be involved in decisions about their care. Advocacy ensures that their needs are fully addressed.
02Current company advocacy strategies
The increased power of customers, which underlies customer advocacy strategies, is now being felt across various industries. As traditional push marketing tactics become less effective, companies are trying new approaches to respond. Lessons already learned in the marketplace should be embraced to move forward, rather than attempting to maintain old models.
In the travel sector, business travelers were once the foundation for airlines. By the 1980s and 1990s, leisure travelers became more prominent as industry capacity expanded. Airlines implemented complex, time-sensitive load management pricing schemes. The rise of discount carriers further drove this trend. Concurrently, online travel agencies like Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity emerged, enabling customers to easily compare prices. This wealth of information has led many customers to decide their own trade-offs between cost and quality, book travel independently rather than use an agent, and aggregate spending to secure better deals. The travel industry is reacting by providing open, honest information online along with more options, advice, simplified procedures, and personalized service. Online travel agencies seem firmly established as profitable, with some boasting higher market capitalizations than airlines. Consumers can now find better deals themselves or choose to use an agent or airline website.
The auto industry has long been associated with aggressive sales tactics, as dealership staff historically held greater power derived from superior information on inventory, costs, and ratings. Now, the internet allows buyers to be very well informed and make smarter decisions. They can enter negotiations knowing the specific vehicle they want, current inventory levels, what the dealer paid, and which other dealers they might visit if talks fail. Research shows better informed customers save about $450 on average. In response, manufacturers try building stronger customer relationships. As an example, General Motors created the AutoChoiceAdvisor.com site with J.D. Power to provide ranked recommendations from a questionnaire, advocating all models rather than just GM vehicles. Customers can also arrange 24-hour test drives of cars they are considering. Marketing is shifting from push tactics toward trust-based initiatives.
03Positioning on advocacy spectrum
In the current business landscape, the rise of customer power is undeniable, and companies must decide how to adapt. A crucial step in this adaptation is to assess and understand one's position on the trust spectrum, which is fundamental to customer relationships. Trust can be built through various components, and a profiling tool that measures a company's performance in these areas can be invaluable. By knowing where they stand, businesses can plan for the future and adjust their strategies to better align with the increasing consumer power.
Traditional marketing, often referred to as push marketing, operates on principles that may no longer be as effective in today's market. It typically involves providing just enough information to make a sale, heavy spending on advertising to raise product awareness, aggressive competition on price, and a focus on quality products and service. Success in this model is measured by sales volume and market share. However, this approach often lacks transparency and may not foster long-term customer trust.
In contrast, a consumer advocacy strategy prioritizes complete transparency and honesty with customers. It involves investing in superior products rather than advertising, offering the best value, collaborating with customers on product design, ensuring flawless fulfillment processes, and fostering loyalty through service bundles. Success in advocacy is measured by customer trust indicators, such as repeat purchases and the share of wallet allocated to the firm.
04Advocacy tools and tactics
In the current marketing landscape, where customer power is on the rise, companies are shifting from traditional mass production push strategies to advocacy-based approaches. Smart firms are already ahead of the curve, building advocacy toolkits to establish deep trust with customers. This trust is crucial because once customers develop a strong relationship with a company, they are less likely to switch, providing the company with a sustainable competitive edge.
To become effective customer advocates, companies must first build a strong foundation. This includes ensuring consistent high-quality products and services through a total quality management program, measuring customer satisfaction to ensure customers are happy, and employing customer relationship marketing to understand the individual needs of each customer.
The next step is to refocus customer relationship marketing efforts. The goal should no longer be just driving sales but helping customers make the best decisions for themselves and supporting them throughout the ownership experience. This involves providing complete, unbiased, and transparent information, enabling customers to easily contact each other to verify claims, and becoming an implicitly trusted brand. Customer relationship marketing should individualize marketing efforts, establish the brand as a trust mark, offer loyalty programs that reward continued business, maintain consistency through sales channel partnerships, enable permission marketing, and provide full information and advice. Good customer relationship marketing benefits both companies and customers. Companies gain valuable insights to improve their products, marketing strategies, relationships, and profits. Customers receive the information and support they need to make better decisions, fostering lifetime relationships that span the entire customer lifecycle from purchase to repurchase, which in turn builds customer advocacy.
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