Building Enhanced Customer Relevance with Lifecycle Aware Marketing

Customer Marketing is not about intuition anymore: it is about knowing the customer well and mining actionable insights that go beyond demographic segmentation. In order to do the right behavioral targeting, there is need to add psychographic segmentation in building audience profile. This brings focus on behavioral marketing where it is imperative that the Marketing Lifecycle intersect with the Customer Lifecycle Journey and Product Lifecycle. This intersection is what leading Marketers across the globe are looking to exploit to push the frontier on customer engagement and build brand advocates out of the buyers. As David Redhil, CMO, Deloitte puts it, “Great relationships are built on moments that matter – you are there when I need you, you have a capacity to own my problem and walk in my shoes.”

In his book Organizational Physics, Lex Sinsky argues that “In order to execute on a successful strategy, the stages of all three lifecycles must be in close alignment with each other. If not, like a pyramid with one side out of balance, it will collapse on itself and your strategy will fail. Why? Because aligning the product, market, and execution lifecycles gives your business the greatest probability of getting new energy from the environment now and capitalizing on emerging growth opportunities in the future” The same also applies in the customer marketing context.

This is further illustrated in the success of new consoles and gaming toys from the company with lion’s share of the gaming market. The CMO of the gaming giant ascribes its success to their customer relevant market strategy that keenly observes areas of overlap between marketing and product lifecycle, in the light of Customer Lifecycle and Life stages.

The Intersection Where Opportunities Abound
An awareness of Customer Lifecycle in the context of Product and Marketing Lifecycle allows the marketer to broaden his horizon and not only to predict the next logical purchase, but in ensuring that the Events of Marketing Relevance in the Customers’ life are in the radar. The intersection also provides for successful NPI (New Product Introduction) and increased brand adoption among customers. As the customer advances in her journey, the product and marketing lifecycles should be aligned in creating relevant offers and responsive price-points that win customer delight. “Consumers are not always selfish, rational and independent agents but instead they exhibit a strong interdependency and limited or “bounded” rationality”, a study on Consumer Decision making reveals.

Marketers today are gearing up to exploit the Events of Marketing Relevance, as they present themselves. To uncover these events it is essential that an inclusive and holistic view of products, marketing and customers are built, monitored and aligned. These need not walk in distinct directions away from each other, the marketer’s craft is now ably supported by the right analytics products and efficiencies to bring harmony into it and unearth opportunities unbound.