All businesses look to maximise sales and revenue, and to do that they will normally look to grow their market share by as much as they can. So businesses will formulate ‘sales strategies’ and ‘growth strategies’ which will focus on how to win new customers, but less frequently on how to make sure they are satisfying the customers they have.
An often quoted example of a growth strategy gone wrong was the ‘Coca Cola’ re-launch in 1985. To combat falling sales figures and strong competition Coca Cola launched ‘New Coke’, not as an alternative but as a replacement to the existing flavour. It was a sweeter taste, aimed at winning over customers of Pepsi, but it ignored those fiercely loyal to the Coca Cola brand. Many customers protested and boycotted the product and sales dropped, leading to Coca Cola having to embarrassingly go back to re-launching their original formula.
There are several morals to the story, including understanding your own uniqueness and specialities as a business. But also it shows the dangers on focusing too much on chasing other people’s customers and not enough on satisfying your own. American research studies have shown that on average businesses lose 50% of their clients in a five year period, often because they take their existing customers for granted. Having regular dialogue with your own customers and looking for ways to improve their experience is vital to ensuring this doesn’t happen to you.
Keeping customers happy and coming back for more may be less exhilarating than bringing in a brand new account, but it could be the key to stability in challenging economic times.
Market Research Manager with over nine years experience in the industry. John is responsible for the operational side of the business. His remit includes project managing each assignment from…
