Let’s say you’ve narrowed your online search to two hotels near Times Square to celebrate New Year’s Eve. One of the websites gives you all the dimensions, distances, and details of the property. The other includes images of people having fun in the lobby, favorable quotes from customers, and a useful 'things to do and see' column. Which hotel has you, the customer, at the center of its marketing?
In this post published in Oracle Voice/Forbes, Jeb Dasteel, Oracle’s senior vice president and chief customer officer (pictured left), has a bit of wisdom to share with hotels and all other organizations selling products and services: “The difficult truth is that your customers don’t care about your innovation or your products; they care only about the result you can help them achieve.”
So in the scenario above, you’re not just booking a hotel room for December 31. You’re looking for a memorable experience in downtown New York City to ring in the new year. So you want the best place to achieve that result.
Dasteel teamed up with Amir Hartman of Mainstay on this article. Even though consumers want to focus on results rather than products, Mainstay's research shows that the majority of marketing dollars are spent on "developing assets and content describing product features." And Forrester Research reports that “close to 70% of business leaders find the materials companies provide them useless.” 70%? Wow!
So what to do? According to Dasteel, organizations need to communicate in a language that is meaningful to customers with a focus on business outcomes. Your customer (not your product) should be “the hero and centerpiece of the story you’re telling.”
We really hope you will study Dasteel’s insight and recommendations. It could prevent you from wasting money on meaningless marketing assets and contribute mightily to your success.