COPENHAGEN, Denmark – The ever-evolving marketing communications world is rapidly transitioning from “it’s all about the brand” to “it’s all about the customer.” And it’s not just about the availability of big data; it’s about how big data is analyzed and used to not only meet customers’ wants and needs but to present them with options that they never knew existed.
“As customers’ media consumption and purchasing behavior change, companies and organizations are becoming more customer-focused. We see more and more of them appointing chief customer officers,” said Stiig Helgens Binggeli, founder and CEO of Brandhouse Group, a customer-centric marketing communications and consulting firm, hosting ICOM’s 2017 World Meeting from May 3-5. “As agencies, we must also keep our focus on customers to help clients throughout the customer journey.”
ICOM is a leading global network of independent marketing and advertising agencies with more than 80 members in 60-plus countries. At the network’s annual and regional meetings, member agency principals and senior executives share best business practices, tools and knowledge to stay at the top of their field. At this year’s meeting, themed Enriching the Lives of Customers, they are focusing on how to manage brand building throughout the customer journey.
“Technology has changed everything,” said ICOM board member and strategic planning director Karen Seamen, also president and chief operating officer, Chicago-based Cramer-Krasselt. “Consumers have controlled how and when and why they interact with brands for the last five years. As marketers we had to adapt to those new rules. And it keeps evolving.”
The conference offers a mix of top speakers, interactive workshops and networking opportunities. “Brandhouse’s expertise in understanding customers makes the agency an ideal host for this meeting,” said ICOM Executive Director Emma Keenan.
Brandhouse experts will share their knowledge along with outside speakers. Topics covered will include where to find customer touchpoints, how to interpret data and gain insights and then what to do next.
The evolution has wide-ranging implications. “For B2B, the shift to customer-centricity is entering its second tsunamic wave,” said Ken Whyte, president, Quarry, ICOM’s representative in Canada. "Marketing and Sales' new alignment, fueled by martech, now need to understand the buyer journey and experience to achieve a consensus among those making purchase decisions."
“For retail, there is new opportunity for brands to become hyper shopper-centric by creating relevant, personalized shopping experiences,” said David Longden, CEO, Golley Slater, ICOM’s member representing Great Britain.
Among outside speakers are David Gram, senior innovation director, LEGO Group; Chris MacDonald, leadership coach, inspirational speaker; Marc Comerford, educator-adviser, Hyper Island educational institute, Stockholm; and Thomas Starck, customer relations manager, Albatros Travel, Copenhagen.
Brandhouse’s customer-centric approach got its start some four years ago when the agency decided to invest in in-depth surveys of 250 Danish brands in order to understand all about their customers - where the customer touchpoints are, how customers work, how they think. After analyzing the data, the agency then approached each of the companies and offered to share the findings.
“The brands were amazed by the quantity of customer data gathered and the depth of analysis. Independent agencies typically don’t spend money on designing and building their own surveys and certainly not ones of this scale,” Keenan said. “It’s a considerable long-term investment to make.”
Since then, there have been numerous studies and surveys about customer centricity and its importance as a key component of any marketing strategy. For example, earlier this year Econsultancy found in a survey that 58% of respondents said that customer-centric was the most important characteristic in order to establish a truly “digital-native” culture, far ahead of the second characteristic of data-driven.
A recent survey by Deloitte & Touche found that customer-centric companies were 60% more profitable than those not focused on the customer, and Gartner reported that 89% of companies expect customer experience to be their primary basis for competition from now on.
While a number of ICOM agencies have started their customer-centric journeys, Keenan expects that everyone leaving the meeting will say “we should be doing more of this.”
ABOUT ICOM
ICOM is a global network of independent advertising and marketing communications agencies, with 80-plus member agencies covering 95% of the world’s markets. The network empowers global collaboration and brings people around the world closer to brands through connected thinking. Annual gross income exceeds US$500 million.
ABOUT BRANDHOUSE
Headquartered in Copenhagen, Brandhouse Group, a customer-centric marketing communication and consulting firm, is recognized across the region for solving business complexities by focusing on clients’ customers and their needs. Annually, the agency analyzes 18,000 customer experiences, spanning 220 different brands.
MEDIA CONTACTS
- Emma Keenan, ICOM executive director, emma@icomagencies.com, 33-6-63-48-01-37
- Nancy Giges, ICOM media relations director, nancy@icomagencies.com, 1-914-683-5108