One of the many reasons I have loved working in marketing is that doing it well requires successful relationship-building skills. On one of my many job interviews I was asked to “prove that you are as good of a marketer as you claim.” My pithy response was “I’ve been married 18 years.” Some people have no sense of humor.
To extend the analogy … if curiosity is the straw that stirs the drink … confidence is the glue that binds a relationship together. People seek surety in their friends, life partners, business relationships and brand choices. That sense of confidence builds with actions that consistently meet expectations over time.
For marketers, creating confidence is the second pillar in establishing a successful selling strategy. The long-held assumption that product quality is the driver for consumer confidence still passes muster. But … and this is a really large Richard-Simmons-before-Pilates butt (humor, it really never has worked for me) … today’s consumer demands so much more than initial product quality to maintain confidence in a brand.
We live in an open-platform world. Consumers aren’t simply interested in a product relationship. They want a company relationship. Expectations are not only tied to post-purchase satisfaction but also to pre-purchase information sharing.
I suspect that someone far more intellectually adept than me has likely termed this a “Mass Customization” era. The Dell computer business model is driven to satisfy millions of consumers one-at-a-time. When we built a tournament wakeboard boat at Skier’s Choice, our customers physically shaped it from the bottom of the hull to the top of the tower.
Confidence is established before the purchase has been made. It is shaped by marketing materials that ring true. That deliver the appropriate amount of information at the appropriate time in the appropriate place with the appropriate level of production values.
Confidence is established on message boards, through social media networks and in chatrooms and bar rooms where people gather to talk about a particular brand or service.
Confidence comes from warranties, from post-purchase product support, from brand experience and from interactions between brand users.
Confidence allows people who own particular brands or subscribe to particular services to share their enthusiasm (or disappointment) with others.
As an example, I purchased an IPhone within the first 48 hours of launch. In airports, at restaurants and in a variety of social occasions, people stopped me to ask, “What do you think? Should I get one?”
Advertising made people curious. I provided confidence for others to follow my purchase activity. (By the way, I love my IPhone. I had issues with the original. Apple provided me with a new one – for free. I love the browser. I love the ease of use. I love the wide range of apps available for it. I’m an Apple IPhone enthusionist. Ask me about my IPhone … I’m not scared.)
And there it is. Curiosity leads to purchase. Experience with the company and the product lead to confidence. Confidence leads to word-of-mouth recommendation.
By the way, I’ve now been married for twenty-one years. I guess that makes me a heckuva marketer (see, that humor thing is out there not working for me again).
Confidence is one of the 5C’s … Curiosity, Confidence, Connection, Conversation and Community. At Doe-Anderson, we believe that together, the 5 C’s are the most efficient and effective manner for building a brand … in a tough economy, in an expanding economy, in any and all economic conditions. Our next communication in two weeks time will expand on the value of the 5C’s through a thought piece on Connection.
