What are the “brains” in the boardrooms thinking about these days?
I’m sure you’ve found yourself asking, “what the hell are they thinking” as you read the headlines. For some, the question of whether there are any brains left in our boardrooms is a generous assumption at best.
Setting aside our incredulity, disgust, and anger for the moment, it may surprise you to learn that the number one focus of C-level executives is the customer – acquiring new ones, increasing retention and improving their lifetime value.
In fact, 88% of executives surveyed said acquiring new customers was important and 87% said the same about retaining their customers. This isn’t so surprising as there are only three ways to grow a business: 1) get new customers; 2) increase the average sale or 3) increase the frequency of customer sales. Pretty basic stuff. Simple but not necessarily easy.
The question is how to increase sales and customers. Among the top ranked growth objectives was:
- responding more rapidly to growth opportunities,
- improving the consistency of marketing and sales communication and
- targeting new market segments for incremental sales.
Also high in consideration was developing loyalty programs for customers and creating brand communities for those customers.
With the growing popularity of social media, passion brands and “tribes” coalescing around ideas and products that matter, those businesses with a strategy to serve those customers will thrive.
Health is the most compelling idea for the majority of people right now. I’m talking about health in an all pervasive context here. It’s the ultimate vertical and horizontal marketing channel. When we have Cheerios® making health claims, need I say more?
Your business has never been better positioned to take advantage of these converging trends, technologies and timing. Everybody wants the promise of optimal health and vitality that your store offers. How do you engage them?
You have to make a compelling case for customers to trust you, to believe that you can deliver on that promise. That takes education, a lot of it. It also takes a well designed strategy to consistently leverage customer education. That will generate the referrals that lead to new customers and to extending the lifetime value of those customers. It’s getting them to play the
“Is It Healthy?” Game – with you!
