Connection, Narrow Customers

Creating and strengthening relationships with customers has been on corporate America’s radar screen for quite some time-with the need for intimacy creating the largest blip. In recent years, marketers have implemented customer relationship management (CRM) programs and strategies to guide their relationships with customers.

Much progress has been made in terms of creating customer databases that track everything from individuals’ product choices and buying patterns to their birthdays and anniversaries. These data help marketers forecast sales of specific items, narrow customers’ product choices to those they are most likely to buy, and even remind customers it is time to buy a birthday gift.

Even the best CRM software, however, can’t transform customers into fans-that requires an in depth, from the gut understanding of and respect for human nature and behavior. The devotion of longterm fans to their favorite performers and bands, from Tony Bennett to the Kinks or 50 Cent, illustrates that it takes a connection at a deeper level to develop brands that people will not only buy, but incorporate into their lives and daily vernacular. And that is a primary goal of brand strategies-determining how strong those emotional connections are and how they can be reinforced or altered to develop loyalty to the brand among a target group of customers.

Rock and roll bands are notorious for writing lyrics, creating music and rhythms, and putting on shows that mirror what people are doing and what they fantasize about doing-the right mix of which entices certain fans to embrace certain bands. Once a performer makes that connection with a fan, it takes song after song, album after album, and concert after concert to cement the relationship. If a performer veers too far away from what has made a connection with a fan in the past, the connection may be jeopardized.