The Value of Respect
Are we fast approaching a world of retailing where every consumer is just a walking profile that retailers will be able to target with precision? How can a retailer use its customers' data in a way that respects their privacy and their individuality?
In redefining the way consumers shop in the future, retailers need to walk the fine line between respecting their customers' time by presenting a targeted selection and invading their customers' privacy. Retailers who are able to use their loyalty and customer relationship programs wisely will become the big winners.
In order for a retailer to become a loyal friend they first need to become a brand, and then infuse their brand with human qualities. Humanized retailers create an atmosphere where customers are able to relate with it and form emotional attachments, much like the way they relate to human beings.
Retailers who humanize their brands react to their customers in a manner that shows their own humanity. These retailers respect the customers and communities they serve because it is a sound business decision and the right thing to do. They seek to belong to the community because the community is made up of their customers and potential customers. As part of the community, retailers gain respect as "one of us," who live and breathe in our neighborhoods.
Communities can be geographic or demographic, virtual or three-dimensional. As long as it is a space where interaction takes place, there is the potential for community. In building their stores or Web sites to reach their community, retailers can begin the branding and loyalty process.
As members of the community, retailers gain entry into their customers' lives. This allows the retailer to begin the courtship of friendship and personalization. By showing respect, interacting, providing help and information, and respecting customers' privacy, the retailer becomes a friend.
Once a friend, customers are willing to open up and share their private information. Information that the customers give to help their friends get to know and help them, and in return, the customers help the retailers with their loyalty. After all, everyone is more loyal to those they have shared their secrets and private information with, and have proven themselves worthy of the honor.
Using a customer's private information to show her exciting and interesting solutions and meeting her unique needs wins friendship. It is about personalizing, not targeting. It reinforces the retailer's brand and the friendship with the customer. It creates a win-win for both retailer and consumer.
In being seen as a unique and special person inside a larger community that both the customer and the retailer belong to, the targeting process is humanized. It becomes desirable personalization instead of an annoying commercial targeting tactic. Personalizing a friend's shopping experience enforces branding.
Retailers need to remember that their brand is their personality, what makes them unique and personal. Retailers who shift the focus of their marketing away from their brand and onto consumer targeting may face the loss of their community appeal and find out that they no longer belong.