How do you get customers to like your brand then? It’s easy enough when you have one customer – you can spend time with them and get to know them, but how do you get thousands of different people to like your brand? You can’t be everything to everyone.

True one-to-one communications are still in their infancy and very fragmented - email was supposed to solve it all, but the prophets of eDM forgot that email is only a delivery mechanic. Customer segmentation is often based on some broad rules that speak to groups and not necessarily to the individual. The problem is that we don’t have the necessary information to build influence-able relationships. 

Changing hats; would I, the customer, let the brand get that close to me? Only when it suits me. Not a true relationship then. Robert

Or in other words.

…it’s like getting married.

You make your presence known, that is called attractiveness, then you date, get to know each other learn a bit more, trust and build a better profile. Yes you get permission, but it’s not about interruption; adding to the copious amounts of clutter and then expecting people to start wading through the SH**. It’s about timely, enjoyable, relevant, engagement that we then will go onto recommend. Called 21st century marketing.

Amen. Graeme