https://hbr.org/2017/03/what-creativity-in-marketing-looks-like-today 

 

What Creativity in Marketing Looks Like Today

It’s about being an entrepreneur, not a promoter.

hbr.org

What makes marketing creative? Is it more imagination or innovation? Is a creative marketer more artist or entrepreneur? Historically, the term “marketing creative” has been associated with the words and pictures that go into ad campaigns. But marketing, like other corporate functions, has become more complex and rigorous. Marketers need to master data analytics, customer experience, and product design. Do these changing roles require a new way of thinking about creativity in marketing?

무엇이 마케팅을 창의적이게 하는가? 상상 쪽인가 아님 혁신에 가까운가? 창의적 마케터들은 아티스트에 가까운가 아니면 기업가에 가까운가? 역사적으로, "창의적인 마케팅"이라는 용어는 주로 광고 캠페인과 연관이 있었다. 그러나, 다른 조직처럼 마케팅도 더욱더 복잡해지고 엄격해졌다. 마케터들은 데이터 분석 / 고객 경험 / 제품 디자인까지도 알아야 한다. 이런 역할의 변화가 마케팅의 창의성에 대해 새로운 방식으로 생각하게끔 요구할까? 

To explore this question, we interviewed senior marketing executives across dozens of top brands. We asked them for examples of creativity in marketing that go beyond ad campaigns and deliver tangible value to the business. Their stories — and the five wider trends they reflect — help illustrate what it means to be a creative marketer today.

이런 질문을 탐구하기 위해, 우리는 몇몇의 탑브랜드들의 시니어 마케팅전문가들을 인터뷰 하였다. 광고 캠페인을 넘어서고 유형(tangible한)의 가치를 비즈니스에 가져다 주는 마케팅 크리에이티비티에 대한 예시를 문의 하였다. 그들의 이야기를 통해(그리고 그들이 가져온 5가지의 넓은 트랜드를 통해?), 오늘날의 창의적 마케터들에 대해 그려볼 수 있었다. 

 

1. Create with the customer, not just for the customer: 고객을 위해 만들지 말고, 고객과 함께 만들어라. 

Everyone likes to talk about being “customer-centric.” But too often this means taking better aim with targeted campaigns. Customers today are not just consumers; they are also creators, developing content and ideas — and encountering challenges — right along with you. Creativity in marketing requires working with customers right from the start to weave their experiences with your efforts to expand your company’s reach.

모든 사람들이 고객 지향적 이라고 말하기 좋아한다. 그러나, 이것의 의미는 자주 타겟팅된 캠페인을 목표로 하는데 더욱 많이 쓰이고 있다. 오늘날의 고객은 그냥 소비자가 아니다; 그들은 창조하는 사람들이며, 우리와 함께 컨텐츠와 아이디어를 디벨롭한다. 마케팅에서의 창의성은 회사의 영향력을 넓히는 우리의 목표와 바로 시작되는 고객 경험을 짜는것과 즉시 진행된다. (ㅎㄷㄷ) 

For example, Intuit’s marketing team spends time with self-employed people in their homes and offices to immerse themselves in the customer’s world. Through this research, they identified a pain point of tracking vehicle gas mileage. Based on these marketing insights, Intuit created a new feature within its app that combines location data, Google maps, and the user’s calendar to automatically track mileage and simplify year-end tax planning.

예를 들어, intuit의 마케팅팀은 집과 오피스에서 일하는 프리랜서들와 그들의 고객의 세계에 있기 위해 많은 시간을 보낸다. 이 리서치를 통해, 그들은 자동차 가스 마일리지를 트래킹하는것에 불편점이 있다는 것을 정의 내릴 수 있었다. 이러한 마케팅 인사이트를 바탕으로, intuit는 그들의 app에 위치 데이터를 활용한 새로운 형태를 만들어 낼 수 있었고, 유저들의 캘린더에 자동적으로 마일리지를 트래킹할 수 있게 하여, 매년말 세금 계획을 더욱 쉽게 만들었다. 

Brocade, a data and network solutions provider, created a “customer first” program by identifying their top 200 customers, who account for 80% of their sales. They worked with these customers to understand their sources of satisfaction and identify areas of strengths and weakness. Brocade then worked with sales teams to create and deliver customized packages outlining what Brocade heard is working or not working, and what they would do about those findings. Later, Brocade followed up with these customers to report on progress against these objectives. The results? Brocade’s Net Promoter Score went from 50 (already a best in class score) to 62 (one of the highest B2B scores on record) within 18 months.

Brocade, 데이터와 네트워크 솔루션 제공자는, 그들의 80%의 매출을 차지하는 탑 200 고객을 가려내는 "고객 우선" 프로그램을 만들었다. 그들은 이러한 고객들과 함께 일하면서, 그들의 만족의 근본을 찾으려 하였고, 장점과 약점이 뭔지 확인하였다. Brocade는, 그들이 찾아낸 정보들을 통해 어떤것은 효과가 있고, 어떤것은 효과가 없는지 커스터마이즈된 패키지 개요들? 판매 부서와 만들었고, 그것을 송부하였다. 이후 Brocade는 이런 주제들에 대한 진행사항들을 고객으로 부터 팔로업 받을 수 있었다. 결과는? 18개월만에 회사의 Net Promoter Score이 50에서 62까지 올랐다. 

(Net Promoter Score: 순 프로모터 점수는 일반적으로 응답자에게 회사, 제품 또는 서비스를 친구나 동료에게 추천할 가능성을 평가하도록 요청하는 단일 설문조사 형식을 취하는 널리 사용되는 시장 조사 지표입니다. 위키백과(영어))

NPS에 대한 블로그 글 : https://www.andrewahn.co/marketing/nps/ 

 

성공을 예측하는 단 하나의 수치: NPS (Net Promoter Score)

실리콘밸리에서 십여년간 제품 및 고객 전략 관련해서 일을 하면서 생각보다 자주 쓰는 약어가 있는데, 그것이 바로 NPS. 최근 한국 스타트업들과 일할 기회들이 생겨서 NPS에 대한 질문들을 하였

www.andrewahn.co

2. Invest in the end-to-end experience : end-to-end 경험에 투자하라. 

Every marketer believes the customer experience is important. But most marketers only focus on the parts of that experience under their direct control. Creative marketers take a broader view and pay attention to the entire customer experience from end to end. This includes the product, the buying process, the ability to provide support, and customer relationships over time. That takes time and resources – and it also requires bringing creative thinking to unfamiliar problems.

 

모든 마케터들은 고객 경험이 중요하다고 믿고있다. 그러나 대부분의 마케터들은 그들의 직접적 컨트롤이 가능한 경험의 부분에만 집중한다. 창의적 마케터들은 처음부터 끝까지 고객이 경험하는 모든것에 집중하도록 시야를 넓혀서 본다. 이것은 제품 / 사는 과정 / 고객지원을 제공하는 능력 / 전반적인 고객 관계 등을 포함한다. 이건 시간과 리소스 투입이 필요하다. 그리고 익숙하지 않은 문제들에 대해 창의적 생각을 하게끔 요구한다. 

Kaiser Permanente believes that as health care becomes more consumer-oriented, the digital experience becomes a key differentiator. The marketing team instituted a welcome program to help improve the experience for new plan members. Members are guided on how to register for an online member portal, which provides access to email your doctor, refill prescriptions, make appointments, and more. The welcome program required coordination with many areas of the business. As a result of this program, about 60% of new members register within the first six months. These members are 2.6 times more likely to stay with Kaiser Permanente two years later.

Kaiser Permanente 는 

 

Like many retailers, Macy’s has traditionally spent 85% of its marketing budget on driving sales. Each outbound communication is measured individually for immediate ROI. However, recently they began to take a more holistic approach, focusing on lifetime value and their most profitable segment, the “fashionable spender.” This group looks across the business to gather behind-the-scenes information on the runway, newest clothing lines, and aspirational fashion content. The metrics also changed. Macy’s started evaluating engagement per customer across time and platform instead of per marketing message per day. The results? In the last year, customers in the top decile segment increased digital engagement by 15%, cross shopping by 11% and sales by 8%.

3. Turn everyone into an advocate

In a fragmented media and social landscape, marketers can no longer reach their goals for awareness and reputation just through paid media and PR. People are the new channel. The way to amplify impact is by inspiring creativity in others. Treat everyone as an extension of your marketing team: employees, partners, and even customers.

Plum Organics gives each employee business cards with coupons attached. While shopping, all employees are encouraged to observe consumers shopping the baby category. When appropriate, they ask a few questions about shoppers’ baby food preferences and share business cards with coupons for free products as a gesture of appreciation.

For Equinix, surveys revealed that a third of employees were not confident explaining its company story. The company introduced an internal ambassador program for its more than 6,000 employees. This program gives employees across all disciplines and levels tools to educate them on the company, its culture, products and services, and how they solve its customer’s needs. More than 20% of employees took the training online or in workshops in the first few months of the program, and employee submissions to its sales lead and job candidate referral programs were up 43% and 19% respectively.

Old Navy has traditionally dedicated their media budget to TV, particularly around back to school. However, over the past few years, they’ve focused on digital content to engage kids around positive life experiences and giving back. Through this approach, the 2016 #MySquadContest led to 32,000 kids sharing their “squads” of friends for a chance to win an epic day with their favorite influencer, creating 3 million video views, a 60% increase in social conversation about @OldNavy, and a 600% increased likelihood of recommending Old Navy to a friend (versus those that viewed TV ads only). In addition, the program led to record breaking donations for their partner, The Boys & Girls Club.

4. Bring creativity to measurement 

The measurability of digital engagement means we can now know exactly what’s working and not working. This gives marketing an opportunity to measure and manage itself in new ways. In the past, marketing measured success by sticking to budgets and winning creative awards. Today, the ability to measure data and adjust strategies in real-time enables marketing to prove its value to the business in entirely new ways.

Cisco has created a real-time, online dashboard where the entire marketing organization can look at performance. The leadership team conducts a weekly evaluation to assess, “Is what we’re doing working?” This analysis can be done across different digital initiatives, geographies, channels, or even individual pieces of content. The result is an ability to quickly adjust and re-allocate resources.

Zscaler, a cloud-based security platform for businesses, created a Value Management Office. The Office helps each client define, quantify, and track their unique business goals associated with Zscaler implementation. Zscaler and their clients hold each other accountable to specific, measurable, time-based results.

OpenTable recently launched a companion app just for restaurants to make better use of the data they’ve been collecting through their reservation system. Restauranteurs can now get a handle on their business right from their smartphone, allowing them to easily answer questions like “How did your last shift perform?” The app can tell them if they are running light on bookings, and soon they’ll be able to activate marketing campaigns to increase same day reservations. More than 50% of restaurant customers on OpenTable’s cloud-based service are already using the app, visiting an average of 9 times a day, 7 days a week.

5. Think like a startup

In the past, marketers needed to be effective managers, setting goals well in advance and then working within budget to achieve those goals. Today, creative marketers need to operate more like entrepreneurs, continuously adjusting to sustain “product/market fit.”

The start-up Checkr represents a trend we are seeing more of in the Bay Area in particular. Marketers are adopting the business practices of entrepreneurs such as lean startup and agile development. For its background check solution, Checkr wasn’t getting the results it wanted from traditional sales and marketing tactics as it expanded into new market segments. They realized they had to think beyond marketing as promoting an existing product. Adopting an agile method of customer testing and rapid iteration, they worked with engineering to rethink the product and bring a “minimum viable product” to market for these new buyers. As a result of this integrated, agile approach, the company easily hit some early 2017 revenue targets with conversion rates that are four times what is traditionally seen in the industry.

The changes happening in consumer behavior, technology, and media are redefining the nature of creativity in marketing. The measure of marketing success isn’t the input, whether that’s the quality of a piece of content or a campaign, but rather the value of the output, whether that’s revenue, loyalty, or advocacy. Marketers of the past thought like artists, managers, and promoters. Today’s marketers need to push themselves to think more like innovators and entrepreneurs — creating enterprise value by engaging the whole organization, looking out for the entire customer experience, using data to make decisions, and measuring effectiveness based on business results.