I enjoyed a great discussion with my Principles of Marketing students yesterday about using price as a marketing strategy tool to fight competition. The case of Burger King going after McDonald’s dominance in the breakfast category was our topic. BK is offering a breakfast muffin sandwich for $1. A commercial for the product makes it clear that its inspiration is McDonald’s Egg McMuffin, but the point of difference is a $1 price. “It’s not original, but it’s super affordable” is the message.
To my surprise, the focus of the discussion quickly turned from using the Breakfast Muffin sandwich as a flanker brand to what is wrong with Burger King. The students’ lament: if you want a more profitable brand and higher market share, fix the brand experience. Several students shared stories of service failure they experienced at BK. One student said she called the corporate office to complain and gave my name saying that “you need to call my marketing professor so he can tell you how to fix Burger King!” I’m waiting on that call… not!
The issues raised by students in our discussion were a perfect segue to introducing the role of marketing communication. It is communication that supports the other elements of marketing strategy, but it must work in concert with other marketing mix elements. BK hired one of the hottest shops in the ad industry, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and the agency has delivered great work. However, as one of my students in another class pointed out, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. The same goes for building a great brand. Advertising and promotion is part of the equation for success, but creative campaigns cannot hide inferior product design, bad pricing strategy, or poor customer service.
For consumers today, brand relationships are often built on experiences. If you deliver a bad experience, why should you expect customers to be willing to repeat it? There are simply too many options to have to endure experiences that do not meet expectations. No one expects BK to begin white cloth table service, but giving customers a consistent experience positively reinforces the brand in their minds. It is an impact greater than a king with an enormous plastic head or a $1 breakfast sandwich could ever hope to make.
Don, your blog underscores just how important a branded, consistent experience defines how the brand is internalized by consumers. I was working with someone recently and focused on the following criteria to “manage” the customer experience. Here are the factors I believe are critical to managing the customer experience:
Trust How can trust be created during the delivery process of the product or service? Managers must focus on the exchange process as the critical place to build trust. Where is the real exchange process taking place and how can trust be extended once the exchange process is initiated?
Environment The environment should be built in a way that the consumer leaves saying, “my time and money was well spent” with the brand. In other words, the consumer believes they are better now than prior to their connection with the product or service.
Driving Benefit What is the most beneficial aspect of the product or service and how can that be captured in the delivery process? The reason this is called a “driving” benefit is that the consumer expects to see it from
Accessibility What points of contact make the product or service accessible in the delivery process. An even better point is with the convergence of mobile marketing, how can the product or service be optimized through mobile technology to make it more accessible?
Convenience Consumers want to win, win big, and win now with the products or services they engage. How can the delivery process be more convenient? Hint: Where do people meet technology?
Incentive How can the consumer be given a reason to engage the brand even further than they initially thought during the delivery process?
Utility Next to convenience, consumers want an experience that’s practical. This challenges management to really focus on how the experience can be practical to the consumer and forecast what those “practical” roadblocks might be for different demographics and build accordingly.
The first step is to develop the mindset that the customer experience can be managed. Obviously, I believe that the customer experience can be managed and these factors can be used as a baseline to allow managers to develop a system to lead in the delivery process.
As you know, Americans expect miracles in each one of its connections with the brands it chooses to spend time with and the subsequent experiences they have. The bottom line is managers must understand that consumers do business with the specifications of the experiences in their heads and these specifications are constantly changing!
By creating a system that is nimble, adaptable, and built on the criteria listed above, managers can arm front line employees with the tools needed to manage the branded experience.
Thanks for the opportunity to share!