Big Ideas

Schaefer charts the shift from an era where brands could win in the marketplace by flooding the culture with entertaining or informative messaging about their products and services. Previously companies which could put their message in front of more people in a more compelling way could drive more sales and build brand loyalty. Technology enabled companies to accelerate and increase the volume and quantity of messaging.

Now, he argues, customers are overwhelmed with information, don't trust corporate messaging, and have no brand loyalty. Instead, marketers have to reimagine the way we interact with customers because they effectively have so many options and have access to a lot of information about your business and your competition.

Therefore the most effective marketing strategies interact with customers in a more human way and bring them into the marketing process. Most marketing is going to be done by your customers via referrals or evidence of social proof or through existing micro-communities which have already established trust among their members. Therefore you must empower individuals and micro-communities to adopt your messaging and champion your products and services.

In Summary:

• Engage with customers in a human and natural way
• Bring them into the marketing process and encourage their participation
• Use technology to improve the customer experience and to build trust
• Find ways to add value to existing communities, do not try to control or manipulate them
• Help people find connection and purpose through your products/services
  

Notes

"Consumers are in control. The sales funnel is gone. Advertising is dying. Great marketing may anger people. Loyalty is a myth. The traditional CMO role is a thing of the past. Technology may be the enemy. Engagement doesn't matter. Our customers are the marketing department."

The Third Rebellion

1. The End of Control

• First rebellion (end if lies) - companies can't just straight up lie anymore starting in the beginning/middle of the 20th century with regulatory agencies
• Second rebellion (end of secrets) - companies can't hide or obfuscate information to keep their customers in the dark, this started really with the internet
• The third rebellion (end of control) - companies can't really influence directly what people do anymore because customers are starting to play a disproportionate role in the marketing process
• "Two thirds of your marketing ... is not your marketing"

2. All Things Human

• "Over-reliance on technology has made us forget that those who are buying from us are people, not segmented data points on a spreadsheet."
• "Businesses will have to grow comfortable with marketing through experimentation and iteration in the "two-thirds" [that's controlled by the customer] even when the measures are less clear."
• "The practice of marketing is the intersection of all things human"
• ~Psychology
• ~Anthropology
• ~Sociology
• The goal should be to connect with core human needs
• ~Feel loved
• ~Belong
• ~Protect self-interest
• ~Find meaning
• ~Be respected

The Constant Human Truths

3. Love and the End of Loyalty

• Brand loyalty is dead
• "Consumers are dismissing products if there is no emotional attachment to the brand."
• Brand must communicate in a way that is human and emotional
• Strategies
• ~"Take exceptional care of the 13 percent of your customers who are true loyalists."
• ~"Prioritize marketing efforts that will keep you among the top brands in a consumer's mind when considering a purchase."
• ~"Focus on consumer-generated marketing such as recommendations, conversations, social media posts, referrals and reviews that occur after the sale."

4. Belonging: The Greatest Human Need

• The need for belonging is a core driving force and brands that are able to give a sense of community and identity to consumers will be very effective.
• Example Strategy
• ~Create conversation through design
• ~Use employees as conversation-starters
• ~Stores as conversation hubs
• ~Activate community influencers
• How to help people belong
• ~A brand community is a business strategy not just a marketing tactic
• ~A brand community exists to serve the people, not the business
• ~Smart companies embrace the conflict that makes communities thrive
• ~Communities can bestow status
• ~Live events and in-person connection matters
• ~Don't assert managerial control over your communities, you are a steward
• ~Manipulation kills communities
• ~The mission makes the movement

5. Self-interest and the Artisanal Brand

• Impersonal, corporate "storytelling", isn't believed, especially claims to benefit the world or help the environment i.e. greenwashing
• Corporate marketing is too distant from the reality of people's day-to-day life to matter to them
• Artisanal marketing
• ~It is so compelling authentic, believable, and natural that people will want to carry your story forward
• ~It provides an experience that is unique, remarkable, and meaningful on a personal level
• ~It dispenses an obvious benefit that connects to a person's self-interest
• "Consumers have learned to tune us out. Today, the focus can't be on storytelling, it's on story making."
• "Find your customer's deepest self-interest and then connect at the street level to show that you understand and care."

6. Values-based Marketing and the Search for Meaning

• Consumers want to interact with brands that stand for something and that have a sense of purpose.
• People want to feel a sense of meaning and brands can help them express the values that matter to them
• Strategies
• ~Be clear on your values
• ~Create rock-solid alignment
• ~Take a measured risk
• ~Be consistent
• ~Emphasize action over words
• ~Take care with creative treatment
• ~Be ready for the heat
• ~Consider the first-move advantage
• ~Have a crisis plan

7. "Respect Me": A Call for Consensual Marketing

• Technology is increasingly being used as a blunt force instrument to pester customers in an automated way
• Just because you can doesn't mean you should
• These techniques may be effective in the short run but in the long run they erode trust and degrade your brand
• Marketers should:
• ~Offer real transparency around data collection and usage
• ~Change data defaults from open to closed
• ~Respect our right to own data
• ~Implement new data protection laws
• ~Build trust into everything we do

Reaching the Unreachable

8. A Manifesto for Human-centered Marketing

• "Stop doing what customers hate. Get out there and discover what customers love. Do that (at least)."
• "Technology should be invisible to your customer and only used to help your company be more compassionate, preceptive, fascinating, and useful."
• "You can't "own" customers, a buyer's journey, or a sales funnel. Claim a market space and help people belong to it."
• "Never intercept, never interrupt. Earn the invitation."
• "Be relevant, consistent, and superior. Build trust into everything you do."
• "Be fans of your fans. Make them the heroes of your story."
• "Transcend the public's inherent mistrust of your company through relentless honesty."
• "Don't be 'in' the customer community. Be "of" the customer community."
• "Marketing is never about your 'why'. It's about your customer's 'why'."
• "The most human company wins."

9. Your Customers are Your Marketers

• Enabled by technology culture has reorganized into clusters of mini communities of like-minded people.
• These mini communities have their own rules and norms and as a business you must respect these and be invited into each community and offer something of value in order to market your goods/services
• Strategies for human centric marketing
• ~Focus on the product/service customer experience
• ~Facilitate for user generated content
• ~Facilitate word-of-mouth marketing
• ~Make it easy for others to see your customers using your product, this provides social proof and trust
• ~Create peak moments for as many of your customers as possible
• ~Enable psychological ownership of your product, make people feel like insiders, give them the ability to put their own stamp on it
• ~Experience marketing
• ~Facilitate the creation of authentic reviews
• ~Influencer marketing
• ~Create social proof, social validation, and calls to action
• ~Use social media to create genuine human connection, entertain, display human emotions, act as a point of contact or connection with your brand
• ~Content marketing
• ~Go above and beyond for the 13% of your loyal customers, they are your best marketers

Marketing Reimagined

10. The Pathfinders

• These are a bunch of examples of brands marketing in a way that conforms to this new human centric, localized paradigm
• Marketing by no marketing (PBR) - this makes it cool because it's never perceived as "mainstream"
• Make the logo small - eliminate ostentatious branding
• Values first - e.g. actually changing supply lines to adhere with claims about respecting workers rights and safety
• Speak directly to your customers - airline who talked to their passengers about the delay instead of leaving them in the dark
• Transparency - clothing brand that shows their cost structure
• Companies that create unique, memorable experiences through big installations and quasi theatrical events
• Content marketing where the content is the product

11. The Quantum Leap

• Change is going to have to come from the top and from leadership with organizations
• This is because these new techniques are going to be harder to measure and therefore they are a threat to organizational norms
• The change is going to involve techniques that are perceived as riskier and therefore they need air cover from leadership

12. The Fourth Rebellion

• Not sure what this might look like but it's possible that with perfect customer information things may change
• In the meantime the most human company wins