Enhancing consumers’ brand experience through online footprints
By Felicia Nwosu
Today’s consumers have been so empowered in their relationship with brands like never before. With on-the-go sources of information and interactions with social networks at their disposal, they can easily share information with brands and one another. Technology and the digital revolution have indeed given consumers greater control over their consumption patterns and experiences.
There is definitely a paradigm shift in the brand/consumer relationship and brands that fail to key into this may be heading to oblivion. To foster a better understanding of the development, MARKETING EDGE went to town to seek expert opinions regarding the import of the new shift to brands and their handlers.
Instructively, the digital experts in the Nigerian IMC landscape that interfaced with us in the course of the survey were unanimously of the opinion that brands must consciously cultivate customers by engaging in social listening and take particular interest in monitoring their relationship with consumers online and on social media networks.
Uchenna Innocent, Head, Ad Operations at HippoAd, is of the opinion that there is no doubt that media has helped to raise the bar for today’s consumer to move beyond just being mere consumers to possessors of information power. He urged brands to also push the dial further by increasingly establishing their presence across social networks to enhance their response time and enable them create satisfactory brand experience rooted in trust.
“A brand has everything to lose when they do not actively look out for social mentions, especially if a brand does not handle negative mentions correctly. This can damage its reputation and by extension lead to loss of customers. There are negative impacts that brands can face if they do not handle negative mentions correctly, they include damaged reputation; this happens if a brand does not respond to negative mentions in a timely or helpful manner, it can damage its reputation.
Customers may also see the brand as unresponsive or uncaring, which can lead to them choosing to do business with a competitor. Loss of customers is also another one, if a brand does not resolve the issue that led to the negative mention, it can lose customers. Customers who have had a negative experience with a brand are more likely to switch to a competitor. If a negative mention goes viral, it can lead to negative publicity for the brand. This can damage the brand’s reputation and make it more difficult to attract new customers.”
Innocent opined that brands also stand a chance to leverage positive social mentions, as the mentions are a great way to boost brand awareness, increase sales, and improve customer loyalty. He charged brand managers to develop the culture of prompt response when consumers mention the brand on social media.
“It is important to respond promptly. This shows that you appreciate their feedback and that you are committed to providing a positive customer experience. Also, be personal when responding to positive social mentions; be sure to personalize your response. This shows that you are paying attention to the specific feedback that the person is providing. Another valuable advantage of this is the fact that it increases loyalty. If someone takes the time to leave a positive review or mention about your brand on social media, be sure to thank them publicly and also reward them. This will help to show you care and listen and encourage others to leave their own positive reviews and by extension increase word of mouth (WOM) or referral to your product brand and service.”
Israel Oladipupo Ogunseye, the Chief Marketing Officer at BuildBay, stated that brands monitoring tools are based on use, trends and there are effective tools that help brand and brand managers to know what sentiments are being expressed towards their brands.
“With the kind of digital age where we are right now, it is important that brand managers have systems in place that help to monitor, review and observe what is happening around their brands and competitors’ brands in different places. They are very strategic because they are routed, they can even set an alarm to keep you in check as events unfold so that the brand can quickly respond or react in real-time. They help you to know when something is going on against your brand by spotting negative comments, especially presently where consumers themselves are so empowered with enough information in their hands through their gadgets. It is a must-have for every brand. Consumers are happy when brands tag their profiles and respond to their problems. It helps to inspire a more genuine interaction that encourages them to engage with your brand more frequently. ”
He called on brands to deploy such tools such as Google Alert, Melt Water and others that can be used for monitoring on twitter to stay in tune with current trends for both the brands and the consumers. Ogunseye urged them to leverage positive social mentions to build credibility by sharing them on their social media channels, website, or other marketing materials to attract new consumers.
According to him, brands must proactively have contingency plans to leverage in times of crisis management both for its external and internal purpose. He revealed that the deployment of the various monitoring tools helps to bring immeasurable values with new shifts in the ever-changing, dynamic world thereby sustaining the relationship between brands and consumers.
Idowu Ayodele, Head Growth Officer, Business Strategy and Product Innovation at Connect Marketing Services, in his own remark also mentioned some of the benefits brands stand to gain by engaging in social mentions while affirming that social mentions and social monitoring are not the same.
“Engaging with social mentions helps boost brand visibility on social media platforms, exposes them to their network of followers and potentially to a wider audience, and also enhances brand reputation by demonstrating attentiveness to customers’ feedback and satisfaction.”
Ayodele outlined that social mentions are an effective tool in building brand loyalty; he noted that there has been a massive shift in how consumers (especially the younger generation) perceive brands and the factors that drive their purchase decisions.
“With social mentions, brands can easily build direct engagement with brands, because this is where the consumers get an easier, deeper access and connection with the brands personality and traits. There is also the presence of rich consumer insights, for the consumers (especially the younger generation) a good part of their daily lives are spent online, and they leave traces of themselves in that digital space. These are rich resources that brands pick up and further use to establish themselves in line with the consumers.”
They unanimously agreed that, for brands to boost visibility, develop and sustain long-term relationships with consumers in order to drive sales and build enviable equity, it must deploy and leverage these tools to interact with their audience as a means of demonstrating their commitment to customer satisfaction and strengthening their reputation as a customer-focused organization.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.