Motivational Marketing and Customer Loyalty Strategies for Business

Marketing has changed dramatically during the past decade with the advent of the Internet and Search Engines such as Google and Yahoo. In simpler times, the approach of creating aggressive strategies to propel sales, was very Pavlovian Stimulus Response, you placed the ad, generated the demand and the sales happened, not much focus was given to the customer. The new style focuses on developing a service-oriented business and marketing plan dedicated to solving customers' problems. Too often businesses only focus on providing customer service, but customer loyalty is the one we want to engender with our clients, the difference between the two is: Customer Service Is An Attitude, Customer Loyalty Is a Behavior. And customers vote with their wallets!

When we define customer-centric marketing, it requires providing Customers with real solutions and a good deal of research and insight into the motivational marketing and customer issues that they are facing. Many businesses too often adopt a quick-fix marketing and customer service response convenient for them and call it customer-centric. For example, 24-hour service lines are easily set up and seem customer-focused, research indicates that what a firm's customers actually need is a toll-free number, one that is not outsourced to substandard, underpaid, unmotivated representatives, but highly responsive, well-trained professional technicians who can solve the customers problems. In short, paying mere lip service to customersupport is not enough. Organizations must look beyond their internal challenges to focus the true needs of the customer.

The other challenge in customer-centric marketing and customer service is that it must also be competition-centered. The reason, say Al Ries and Jack Trout in Bottom-Up Marketing, is that the only way to pry customers loose away from your competitors is to offer better solutions than they do - and explore new market niches and newopportunities your competitors haven't thought of. This means being constantly aware of what the competition is doing.

The Riches in Niches Try Niche Marketing

Most successful companies have stopped broadcast marketing, taking out a full page ad in a national newspaper to advertise their product and hoping the product flies off the shelf. Instead they reach out to narrowly-focused groups, using a strategy called niche marketing. Niche marketing gained wide popularity through Donald K. Clifford, Jr. and Richard E. Cavanaugh's The Winning Performance, which studied 6,117 small companies that had grown four timesfaster than the Fortune 250. Ninety percent of these firms, the Authors found, competed in small market niches. All were customer- rather than sales-driven. All developed new products with the end-user in mind. And all concentrated on advertising to - and generating repeat sales from - not just any customer, but a small, credit-worthy, qualified group.

Clifford and Cavanaugh present a series of steps companies can take to adopt niche marketing for themselves: Compile a comprehensive list of your prospects and customers. Narrow the list to a profitable group you believe you can serve better than the competition. Create a profile of the traits common to these customers, such as sales volume or location. Use this profile to tailor products, services and advertising to your niche market and qualify new prospects. Be prepared to experiment with several niches before finding the one that fits your company best.If you follow these tried and true suggestions to improve motivational marketing and customer service you will see a dramatic improvement in your companys bottom line and in the satisfaction levels of your customers. Thank you for allowing me to share with you my thoughts on motivational marketing and customer service!

Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts on Motivational Marketing and Customer Loyalty. Cordially Yours, Doug Dvorak (847) 359-6969 http://www.dougdvorak.com