The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing: WRATH

We all agree that the customer is king. But we sure don't always act that way.  There's lots of way we're tempted to put other things ahead of the customer.  Let's talk about the Deadly Sin of...

CUSTOMERS!  GAWL!!

WRATH: Hating your own customers

This is a big one, and it manifests itself in many ways.

Do your employees make fun of your customers?  I mean, more than just the "oddball" story now and then (we all have those).  Check out this guy here: Undercover Boss: Boston Market interview with Ronnie.

It is impossible for a culture that values customers and is customer-focused to have people believe this about their customers.

There are a number of "I Hate My Customers" blogs out there, mostly from people in service and freelancing industries.  I have empathy - I've worked those jobs myself - but it just shows you how pervasive this problem is out there in industries that depend most on excellent customer service and being customer focused.

I think, however, this attitude flows into the marketing and advertising industry and permeates our marketing campaigns.

How many times have you attended a gathering of marketers, get talking about customers, and heard a lot of negativity, especially if the customer base isn't "cool" enough?  Too old, too poor, too suburban, too rural, too uneducated, too "low brow", too [insert whatever human characteristic you disdain here].

How many marketing leaders have you met that can discuss marketing campaigns for hours, but do not once mention what the customer wants and needs from his or her organization, or how customers are delighted by what they hear and see from the company?

How many product and campaigns have been launched with zero prior customer research and testing?

How many sponsorships have been created, not because customers have a connection with the person, event or cause being sponsored, but because it was something the marketer personally liked or benefited from?

If you or anyone in your organization regularly bad-mouths your customer base, never listens to customer feedback (or dismiss it), and does not keep the needs of your target audience in mind in all you do because you think it's stupid, uncool, or worthless... you should look for another line of work.

Because being wrathful towards your customer is a sin.

For other sins, check out LUST and GLUTTONY and GREED and SLOTH.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing: SLOTH

Customer centricity is a big topic with marketers.  Yet, it seems like we have to constantly talk about it, because we're not actually doing it.

I'll have you know, I'm the hardest
worker in this forest.

We're getting tempted into committing the Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing.  Today, let's dial it back a notch....

SLOTH: Doing just enough to not completely suck

I'm using "sloth" in the meaning of plain old "lazy".

We know that our web site could be easier to use for our customers, but we just aren't willing to put forth to effort to prioritize it.

We understand that our customers dislike our customer service process, but it's too hard to get everyone in the organization together to improve it.

We know our customers really prefer to use a specific technology, but it's just too hard for us to figure out and use.

We can't be bothered to properly onboard our new customers and thank them for their business, say, via email or direct mail.

We certainly never take the time to recognize our current customers for their loyalty.

It's just too hard to figure out - we just can't afford to take the time and effort.

And it probably wouldn't matter anyway.  Our customers wouldn't notice these things - we'll just make the same amount of money (or less, once we make these efforts).  They only care about getting the best price, nothing else.

Of all the sins, this one is my favorite  - or rather, the one that annoys me most.  It seems to be the easiest to solve on the surface, but I think it's the hardest to actually fix if you've really settled into this mindset.

Of course, this apathetic viewpoint in regards to customer engagement also creates a company culture that is averse to innovation and risk.  That's a fast way to kill a company.

For other sins, check out LUST and GLUTTONY and GREED.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing: GREED

Are you really customer centric, or is it just lip service?  Perhaps you've been tempted into the Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing.  Today, here's a big one (and it's very, very common)...

GREED: Squeezing customers out of every cent

Customers are just lining up to give you money.  They love your product or service.  They rave about you online.  You're the very best, and your customers just can't get enough of you.

I HAS ALL THE MONEYS!

So, now's the time to try to monetize that love in order to increase your sales margin - after all, they love you, they won't mind paying more!

So, maybe you raise your prices a little bit. And that works. So let's look for more ways to nudge that margin up a little higher...

Maybe you issue "basic" versions of your product or service, but to get the newest, coolest best, most fun stuff, you have to purchase additional items, or content, or products.

Maybe you make it difficult to redeem offers, or change the value of points in your loyalty program to make it harder for customers to redeem rewards.  Think airline rewards programs where they blackout the most popular travel dates, make sure that the number of points needed to redeem for popular routs is so huge, only the very best customers can "afford them.  Or again, let's pick on the airlines and think about how much they charge for wifi service.

Think about hotels where you are charged for every single thing, including a bottle of water that costs less than a dollar retail.

Think about coupons that are only good on a very small select product line - one that isn't very popular - or they're only redeemable by jumping through a lot of hoops.

Think about paying for video games that, in order to get the very best equipment, you must buy it (and these are not free games to begin with, mind you)...

Think about airlines charging a couple of dollars for a snack that would cost less than fifty cents retail.

You don't think that customers will ever get tired of being squeezed for all they have, do you? Everybody loves to be met with a hand out for their cash every time they interact with a company - right?  Especially if you're a top brand!

Come on, there's no way they'll go to a competitor that doesn't charge them for every enhancement to the basic product.  They wouldn't possibly be interested in a loyalty program that actually rewards them for being loyal customers, would they?  They wouldn't be drawn to change to a new company by coupons that are easily redeemed for stuff they really want?

Surely not.

For more deadly sins, check out LUST and GLUTTONY.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing: GLUTTONY

We love to talk about the customer, don't we?  But ARE we really customer centric?  I don't think we are, because we get tempted into committing the Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing.  Today, let's talk about...

GLUTTONY: For new customers

Delicious, delicious new customers.

It's easy to believe that our product or service appeals to everyone.

I once was told by someone that we should mail everyone in our database because even though many segments had never demonstrated any interest in a particular set of products, they might want it someday.

What we do or sell is just so incredibly awesome, it'll make everybody's life better, right?  Only a crazy person would refuse to buy our stuff at such incredible prices.

So we go after those new customers, chasing them down, finding the new markets, growing the new customer base.  All we have to do is get customers to buy our product or service once, and they are our customer for life.

Heck, many, if not most, marketers are measured and directly rewarded on this key metric - growth of new customer bases - and they spend a majority of their time chasing after them as a result.  So we go further afield to grow our customer base, sometimes at diminishing returns (but that's okay - new customers are new customers and growth is growth, and that's all that matters).

We get so wrapped up in this - new customer bonuses and rewards and the like - that we end up completely ignoring them once they are captured as existing customers.

Our rewards, our focus, and our metrics all say that new customer acquisition is the single most important part of marketing.

Hey, if existing customers are locked out of the best deals and offers only available to new customers... what's the harm?  They love us, they would never switch or abandon us, because we're just so awesome.  And if they do, well, we'll just replace them with new customers!  Problem solved!

Well... let's ask the cable and dish companies about that, shall we? Goodbye Cable TV

Great job, guys - continuously raising rates for existing customers, only offering deals for newbies, and poor customer service allowed services like Roku, Apple TV and others allow folks to just quit your business outright.

I know someone well who works for a small company with this attitude - once they close the deal with a new customer, the idea of treating customers well, offering rewards, and the like, are completely out the window.  The only real rewards in that organization is to close the deal with new customers.

They don't even measure the loss of existing customers (and they're bleeding in that regard) because nobody in the organization, especially not sales or marketing, is rewarded for keeping or growing existing customer business.  Do you think this company is going to be around long, or grow big?

So look at your own organization. Do you reserve your very best deals ONLY for new customers?  Is that an industry standard, like the cell phone industry?  Are you teaching your customers that loyalty means nothing because you'll always get a better deal as a newbie somewhere else?

Gluttony for new business will KILL your business in the long run.  The solution, of course, is moderation - you need new business, and you need to retain and grow existing business.  Do both, and make sure both are measured in your metrics and sales/marketers are rewarded for both.

For more deadly sins, see LUST.