[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/05\/07\/on-the-path-to-marketing-nirvana\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/05\/07\/on-the-path-to-marketing-nirvana\/","headline":"On the path to marketing nirvana","name":"On the path to marketing nirvana","description":"Market to an audience of one: I\u2019m not sure who coined the phrase, but we\u2019ve been using it internally at SAP to convey our vision of how we want to help enable our marketing customers. It\u2019s a simple phrase, just a few words, but to me, it has a wealth of meaning and power behind […]","datePublished":"2015-05-07","dateModified":"2023-07-17","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/laurie-hawkins\/#Person","name":"Laurie Hawkins","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/laurie-hawkins\/","identifier":127,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03cba3111031cfbea6a42882265879d06acd2c710b63d0629e1de23130aa2b1a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03cba3111031cfbea6a42882265879d06acd2c710b63d0629e1de23130aa2b1a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/FOC_2015-10-05_A_HERO.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/FOC_2015-10-05_A_HERO.jpg","height":370,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/05\/07\/on-the-path-to-marketing-nirvana\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/customer-engagement-marketing\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/marketing-general\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]}],"wordCount":641,"keywords":["Contextual Marketing","Marketing","Marketing Strategies"],"articleBody":"Market to an audience of one: I\u2019m not sure who coined the phrase, but we\u2019ve been using it internally at SAP to convey our vision of how we want to help enable our marketing customers. It\u2019s a simple phrase, just a few words, but to me, it has a wealth of meaning and power behind it.‘Market to an audience of one’ has a wealth of meaning and power behind it.To market to an audience of one is to be able to:Understand everything about each individual customerDeliver individualized, data-based experiences\u00a0that are completely unique to that personProvide just what the customer\u00a0needs, no more and no lessProvide offers and information that the customer\u00a0will be happy to receive, rather than annoying, irrelevant SPAM e-mails or pop-up ads that get the quick deleteWow.That would be nirvana to a marketer. (I just looked up the word \u201cnirvana,\u201d and the the literal meaning is \u201cblown out.\u201d Just to be clear, I\u2019m not talking about blowing out candles, but the more informal usage of a place free of pain and worry, of the ultimate state of being.)Achieving the state of nirvana in marketingI don\u2019t know of any companies that have really achieved this state of marketing. A lot of the great examples of marketing to an audience of one are really examples of outstanding customer service, such as the case of a Lego customer service representative who wrote a creative response to a 7-year-old boy in search of a replacement Ninjago mini figure. The trick is to be able to form an individual connection with each customer on a mass scale.As Johnathan Becher once wrote, \u201cI\u2019m Listening: Engage an Audience of One,\u201d: \u201cBeing the focus of someone\u2019s attention is truly rare and powerful. It feels really good. That\u2019s the same feeling you want your customers to have. You want them to feel that their needs are\u00a0understood and fulfilled during every interaction with your company. Your customers must be an audience of one, where every part of your company is focused on their needs, their desires, and their successes.\u201dBut that\u2019s not easy to do. B2B vendors face a real challenge in trying to market to an audience of one since their buyers tend to purchase by committee. It\u2019s difficult to personalize based on profile or purchase intent when a number of different individuals are doing the research and have different roles in the decision process. Even B2C vendors face similar challenges when they try to personalize. For example, my husband and I browse for and purchase very different items online. \u201cPersonalizing\u201d an offer to me based on some kind of technical doohickey that my husband bought on our Amazon.com account won\u2019t meet with much success.Gathering and understanding the data about the customers is the first task. It\u2019s also critical that that information is shared with all customer-facing teams and tools. Customers don\u2019t want to be repeatedly asked to enter their account number, to explain their service issue again and again (hello, Comcast), or to be presented with irrelevant offers and content. The knowledge about the customer has to infuse their experiences at each interaction point: online store, brick-and-mortar store, customer service, and so forth.Seven steps to marketing nirvanaThere are a number of steps that need to be taken to achieve marketing nirvana. Over the next few weeks, we\u2019ll be offering a series of blogs that will offer insights on how to move down the path. We hope you\u2019ll \u201ctune in\u201d latest post in the series.For now, I leave you with this:  What happens in Vegas …\u00a0creates connections + drives results.Join hundreds of customer experience experts at CX Connect Oct. 6-8. Register\u00a0HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2015","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"05","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/\/05\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"07","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/\/05\/\/07\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"On the path to marketing nirvana","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/05\/07\/on-the-path-to-marketing-nirvana\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]