7 Things The 2016 USA Presidential Election Remind Us About Customer Experience Strategy

It has been said that the US Presidential election is the greatest (and maybe most expensive) marketing and sales campaign in the world.

So with less than a month to go and another tumultuous week in what is arguably the most emotional election in a long time and the 3^rd election in the era of ‘data driven social media engaged digital campaigns’ what are the 7 things the USA presidential election reminds us about Digital First But Not Digital Only Customer Experience Strategy:

1. Customer personas differences are real and fundamental – people have very different world-views, beliefs, needs and behavioral models and even electoral journeys and you need to consider those carefully – Most people hold these views firmly and only a small percentage are likely to change in a short period of time.

2. Making experiences easy to consume, effective and emotionally resonate starts with this persona model – you need to match your products and marketing messages to their expectations. Reinforcing your brand identity for your hardcore fans may make it impossible to recruit new customers and even alienate them especially if a competitor claims those other customers as their hardcore fans. If you do not understand or are offended by either Presidential candidate it is because they are not talking to you but they are talking to their respective 40%+ of the US population.

3. If you do not constantly strive to understand changing customer expectations and demographics and ensure your products and messaging to those changes you will ultimately lose your market share – “only 12.2% of Fortune 500 companies in 1955 were still on the list 59 years later in 2014, almost 88% of the companies from 1955 have either gone bankrupt, merged, or still exist but have fallen from the Fortune 500” Fortune Magazine

4. Of the 3E’s of experience objectives across broad customer bases with radically different personas “Ease” is the easiest to achieve simply making sure the messaging is simple, timely etc, “Effectiveness” means touching your targets through their desired channels and timing in a style they can absorb and a message they can consume, but “Emotional Empathy” is the hardest to achieve and the most likely to alienate customers that are not in your core.

5. It is a “digital first but not digital only multichannel world” everywhere including the power of social media and video to inform, support and undermine brands and competitive positioning – and in that digital world yesterday’s news and information is readily available to today’s audience, it is much harder to change your messages today.

6. There is a war underway between the “data and analytics driven business” methodology and the “inspirational from the gut” methodology – Sometimes violating data trends can lead to short term advantage but ultimately strong data and analytics supported trends will hold force. To quote Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the most esteemed politicians of the modern US era where facts = data “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts”.

7. “Customers Rule’ is the only strategy that works – understand them, treasure your relationships with them and treat them with respect and build trust over weeks, months and years. They will reward you.