By M. Isi Eromosele

The marketing challenge that we face today is far different from what existed as recently as ten years ago. The task has changed from marketing and selling a company’s products or services to promoting and providing customized needs and solutions that customers regard as valuable to them. As such, developing required global, regional or national marketing plans and strategies are more distinctive and more complex.

The imperative is for companies to develop a sharper strategic market focus while ensuring that the execution and delivery of their products and services are consistently excellent.

To ensure continued profitable growth, Customer Centered Marketing needs to be the driving force behind a company’s business development, sales and customer retention efforts.

The four components of Customer Centered Marketing (1) customer focus (2) value-added solutions (3) customer satisfaction (4) niche (deep market understanding) - will be the foundation for competitive advantage and high-margin revenue.

Customer Centered Marketing is a core business process that makes an individual customer or high value potential prospect in a targeted market niche the focus and beneficiary of a company’s specialized capabilities, resources and experience.

The preliminary actions to making the strategic decision to implement customer centered marketing include:

• Selecting a targeted market or industry niche for special attention
• Developing a detailed understanding of the market or industry in order to identify needs that the company can meet
• Creating a positive awareness of the company and earning an insider’s reputation with influential members within the niche
• Planning, positioning, endorsing and offering value-added solutions to selected high priority needs of customers
• Building excellent, value-based relationships with specific individuals who can be influenced by the company in order to meet the customers’ needs
• Efficiently leveraging the time, resources and relationships available to the company

Customer Centered Marketing involves developing a top-quality, sustained relationships with the most desirable customers within a vertical or niche market. Once these special relationships are established, the main task would be to sell, serve and satisfy the needs and expectations of the target customers.

When appropriate, a company can use passive or active marketing to ensure that all marketing activities are fully linked to a series of events and that follow-up actions are taken.

Components of active or passive marketing include:

• Corporate Marketing Activities: These activities build the image of the company and create a general awareness of what it does. The elements include corporate brochures and presentations, public relations and event sponsorship
• Capability Marketing Activities: These activities illustrate accomplishments of the company. They include products/services brochures, public speaking events, newsletters, the Internet and the company’s website
• Contact Marketing Activities: These activities demonstrate the added value that the company can provide and show how it differentiates itself from the competition. These are the activities that are most influential in building the relationship between the company and its prospects. Contact marketing tools include articles, blogs, white papers and advisory services and seminars.

These actions will accumulate and help in building trusting relationships that is imperative before targeted prospects will commit to becoming customers.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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