Marketing is no longer about simply bringing in new customers. Marketers are also
responsible for managing customers to profitability. Our guest Steve Gershik explains
why customer management is the new horizon, and how we all need to develop the
tools and skills to understand our customers deeply. We must become digital anthropologists,
examining customer behaviors and signals to infer the steps needed to serve customers
and expand their value. Join us for a lively conversation, beginning with Steve’s
notion of the “funnel beyond the funnel” and the surprising origins of the AIDA
concept.
Cyndi Greenglass: What do you mean by “the funnel beyond the funnel,” and why
should we care as marketers.
Steve Gershik: In my opinion, the funnel is the most effective advertising
slogan ever for marketers. It was created 125 years ago by an advertiser named
Elias St Elmo Lewis. He was a marketer who had founded an agency, and like any
good guru, he didn't wait to develop his ideas—he just stuck it out there. He started
out with this idea of defining the stages of marketing as to catch the eye of a
reader, to inform him, to make a customer of him. It took him 10 years to develop
that A-I-D-A slogan. He said the advertising is creating desire in the minds of
careful folks and, and the salesforce is going to be organized and educated to
cash in on that desire. Once you've put somebody through A-I-D-A –attention, interest,
desire and action—it actually took them another 10 years to add the action part
at the end. That idea held true for a long time—for as long as the salesforce had
the power. They controlled information about the product. They controlled knowledge
about pricing, and the customers had to go through a salesperson. They have a lot
more control over what we all now call this customer journey. But a funny thing
happened, and the commercial web came along, and then what was called web 2.0.
It was not only about companies communicating out to customers anymore, the customers
could talk to each other. People can exchange information about products and services
without the need for a salesperson intermediary. That corresponded with this rise
in this new business model in B2B were products that had been sold with a one-time
charge and a small maintenance and support charge as an annuity. Now there was
this recurring revenue model where we had to earn the right to continue to call
the customer a customer. This recurring model now places a tremendous emphasis
on customer happiness and customer satisfaction. That really gave birth to this
idea of the funnel beyond the funnel. Companies are paying attention to post acquisition
customer marketing, but still it's not being budgeted for strategically.
