Perception: The driving force behind marketing trends in 2017 – Part 1

Customerisation is one of three key marketing trends for 2017 that you can capitalise on to build better customer perception and successful engagement around your brand.

For small business owners, brand visibility is a key component of success and remains the one unchanging aspect of marketing, regardless of the date. Marketing before and after digital evolution always remains focused on one thing: perception.

Our audience’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. This isn’t news to marketeers, but what is important to note is the shift in which customers are engaging with brands. At the heart of marketing, it comes down to one thing – how customers see your business. And that perception should be the driver for all that you do.

The future of successful promotion lies in authentic, personalised, customised and original marketing that enables audiences to be meaningfully engaged, whether your business is online or offline. Businesses really need to challenge themselves to think about how to meaningfully engage with their customers, that’s more significant than just using a trending hashtag or the latest emoji.

There are three key marketing trends every brand needs to know about for 2017. Here is the first of those:

Customerisation

One of the many demands to come out of this rise of a competitive, technology-driven age is the customer’s involvement in the creative process. In light of this, customization is another way to enhance the customer experience.

In order to maintain a stable customer base, you need to act fast on demands or else you’ll be left behind for your competition. Believe it or not, people are prepared to pay a premium price if their customised experience is a good one. The big question to ask yourself then is not so much “what do we want to sell?” but “what do they want to buy?” Through a pyramid model, I ask my students to consider their product offering in the form of triangle. Writing down all low-entry level products and as they go toward the top, the higher priced items. If the product is not making money regardless of its price point or, if it is too time-consuming, its time to go. What if products could be combined to make a better offering? Customisation goes right to the top of the pyramid.

So, whether it’s your customised communication to build credibility and maintain reliability to a customised product offering, implementing a customization tactic is a key marketing ingredient in the recipe to a successful marketing strategy.

Next week we will look at the other two trends – personalisation and engaging your customer.

Franziska Iseli, entrepreneur and co-founder, Basic Bananas