emerge interactive

February 01, 2010 by Jonathon Hensley

To help build your momentum, we offer five key trends to consider. We hope that they all provoke thought and catalyze you, your team, and your projects. We're excited to explore these and other emerging trends in more depth in the coming months. 

#1 Build Trust - What does it mean these days?
2009 will be remembered as a year that shook our economic structure to its core, and, along with it, public confidence in business. According to author Stephen M. R. Covey, "significant distrust doubles the cost of doing business and triples the time it takes to get things done." There's a strong argument for and from the bottom line to re-affirm the foundations of trust with clients. How will you continue to build trust in 2010?

#2 Define Experience-Based Differentiation - Study, implement, refine, repeat.
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE said "Deal with the world as it is, not how you'd like it to be." Bruce Temkin of Forrester Research exhorts us to align our product with our customer. Three principles outline how we might approach this:

• Affirm brand promise at every opportunity. Whether it's online, on the phone, or on the floor, customers appreciate a consistent experience with your brand. 
• Take a hard look at your company's attitude towards the customer experience; it must inform every stage of development, each strategic decision, and all marketing efforts.
• Don't add new features without considering the reason behind the change. Greater sophistication without a justifying strategy may not perform as well as a simplified, streamlined user-experience. 

#3 Take a User-Centered Approach - "Will it help my customer
As competitors vie for market share in the economic recovery, we expect an explosion of choice for the end-user. What would happen if companies resisted the temptation to add their voice to the coming marketing uproar? What if "listening" for the users' needs replaced "touting" features and benefits? Social media has already initiated this practice. How are you balancing your needs with the needs of your customers? 

#4 Re-define Client Responsibility - We're on the same team.
We ask more of our clients so we can deliver more. Businesses do their best work when they have the engagement, support, and cooperation of their clients. We listen for core motivation and key concerns so we can identify critical success factors. We ask for temporary suspension of preconceived ideas to open up new possibilities. This is just the beginning of client responsibility. What more do you ask of your clients so you can deliver great results?

#5 Understand Consumer Behavior - Know the facts.
The 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer affirmed what we've known anecdotally for years; consumers prefer to do business with those whom they trust.

• At the end of 2008, 91% of survey respondents indicated they bought from a company they trusted, and 77% refused to buy from a distrusted company. 
• Trustworthiness is one of the most important factors in determining reputation. The importance of trust ranked just below product quality and treatment of employees, on par with a company's financial future, and more important than job creation, giving back to the community, and innovation in products and services.

(From www.edelman.com/trust/2009/)

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