Enjoy, advocate and bond - the loyalty process in the digital age

Loyalty has always been about two things; getting a positive word and recurring purchases. To reach that goal organizations define small enough segments allowing them to overachieve their customers expectations. With a too broad defined customer base you will most probably not meet anyone's needs.
How does then loyalty work in the digital age? Is it any different from the traditional way?
The main difference seems to be that purchasing decisions are made much later in the purchasing process, majority in the store. The other is that influence from friends and social network are much more visible and play an integral role in the decision. The Enjoy, advocate, and bond cycle after a purchase is much more important than previous. It reinforces the purchase decision and drives recurring purchasing at a much greater extent than previous. The other is that it has much greater effects on what your friends decide to purchase.

So are your marketing Euros well spent? Are they in the store in due time for the purchase decision? Are they helping your customers to enjoy, advocate and bond to the product and brand?
Here are some ideas on what could make it simpler in the customer decision journey:

• Where do your customer encounter your products and services? Is it attractive to buy? Simple and convenient? Do capture the value and experience, do the customer have to make other decisions? Make the experience the purchase, not the product itself.
• What is the physical experience? Packaging, instructions, registration, etc.
• After the purchase, is the value there to be enjoyed? If the customer experiencing any problems, can they easily get access to support and advice?
• How can the customer advocate their purchase and experience? Which ways to express themselves through real world and on the web? If I buy a SAAB, will I get something that shows I have a SAAB outside of actually showing my car? Wallet, belt, shirt, iPhone app, email signature, etc? The more digital it is the easier to turn it into actual advocacy. If it is an iPhone app then you can easily share parts of it with your friends. 
• Bonding is a little bit harder as it requires more time to build up. The advocacy builds bond as well since a recommendation reinforces ones own perception.

Take aways: 

1. Purchase decision is much later influenced by friends. 
2. Advertisement Euros in the right customer decision journey steps. 
3. Ensure customer experience to start the reinforcement feedback loop. Experience, not discrete products that needs assembly.

More to read:

• HBR Dec 2010: Branding in the digital age

First Question in Stress-testing Your Enterprise Architecture: What is the driving purpose behind the business?

We've come to the first of seven questions to ask when stress-testing your Enterprise Architecture: What is the driving purpose behind the business?
The purpose of asking this question is to put the focus where it belongs: Why do we exist? What purpose do we have?
The answer to the driving purpose behind the business is underpinning all the other questions.

So how can the driving purpose behind the business be broken down into smaller pieces? Here's one way of breaking it down:

• What is the purpose? What value are we contributing to the world and justifies our existence? Some strategists claim that there are really only two main strategies possible to follow; cost focus addressing a mass-market or niche markets with value and segmentation focus. 
• Clearly articulate which of the two strategies you are following. In which terms is low-cost defined? How will low-cost develop over time? Which niches are you targeting now and will it be on segmentation or additional niches further growth will come from?
• For example IKEA, the furniture retailer, is following a low-cost mass market strategy. Adhering to a low-cost strategy its IT should be in line with that both from an IT perspective and from which business process support is most crucial. Within furniture retailing the supply-chain and store operations are most critical to maintain the low-cost of overall operations. Providing state-of-art supply-chain systems in line with operations, meeting their requirements of total-cost of shipping and keeping store balances in line with targets are among the most cost cutting actions IT can provide.
• What is the drive behind the business? What pushes it forward? Is it product development, customer satisfaction, geographic coverage or some other dimension? 
• Be specific on which drive your are focusing on right now. The drive varies over time and can be different things at different times. 
• For example Ericsson, the telecommunications company, were first driven by product development during AXE switch development, then by expanding globally through its product leadership, then products again when the mobile industry took up speed and now it is customer satisfaction in its professional services line. Following these shifting demands means that IT should shift focus over time. The critical issue is to know when to invest in supporting a certain area and when to stop further investments. It is as important to stop investments to afford supporting new growing dimensions.

When designing an Enterprise Architecture be sure to answer the question What is the driving purpose behind the business? and how it is supported, enabled and grown through the EA work.

More to read:

• HBR Nov 2010: Stress-test Your Strategy: The 7 Questions to Ask