Marcus RichardsThe relationship between a brand and its stakeholders, and in particular with its consumers, has changed radically, drastically, changing even the corporate strategies aimed at enhancing the interaction between the company and its customers, including potential customers. Previously, until a few years ago, the relationships between companies and people interested in their services were strictly formal, beginning at the moment of the expression of interest and ending shortly after, with the actual purchase of the goods or product sold by the company.
Hardly anything more was expected on either side, and the situation remained virtually unchanged for many decades. But in recent times, and particularly with the advent of the internet and social media, the situation has changed considerably, significantly expanding the scope for interaction between brand and consumer and bringing them ever closer, thus achieving an intimacy that would have been completely unthinkable a few years ago. Company and customer, nowadays, know each other deeply, to a level never reached before, even going so far as to share the same emotions, the same values, or the same point of view on a given ethical issue.
The web has in fact enabled both parties to deepen their mutual knowledge: brands have learnt to study and analyse their customers’ tastes, languages and habits, while the latter, thanks to the information they find online and on social networks like Twitter, can now find out about the ethical and value-based battles waged by the company (such as those related to sustainability), thus coming to know their brand perfectly and making more conscious and well-considered purchasing choices than ever before, based also on intangible aspects (such as those related to values, for example).
Targeted and customised content
The expansion of mutual knowledge has also had another decisive effect: the brand, knowing its audience better and better, now has the possibility to elaborate personalised, highly targeted content, capable of satisfying the specific needs of a given consumer, even influencing their purchasing choices, often decisively. In the age of online communication and digital marketing, personalisation can take on extremely diverse forms: at the product level, personalisation can, for instance, lead brands to create special offers for a specific customer segment, whose behaviour and habits they have previously analysed in order to arrive at the perfect product or service for their tastes. A brand can also create specific content aimed at a certain target group, often represented by a small group of people or even a few individual high-calibre buyers, to whom it will send ad-hoc communications designed to perfectly suit the recipient’s tastes.
The Effectiveness of Social Media
By following certain particular tricks, even online communication via social media can take on an intimate and personalised tone. Who among us would not prefer to receive a direct message on Instagram from a brand, perhaps even on a first-name basis, as opposed to the usual advertising messages appearing between posts on our social media walls? The impression created is completely different: one is icy, cold and limited solely to the professional sphere, while the other is warm, intimate, personal, like a phrase spoken confidentially by one of our best friends. Since the internet has become part of our lives, we have the precious opportunity to learn more about our favourite brands, getting to know even their most hidden details.
Companies too can achieve the same result: having much more information about their end customers, each brand can design specific offers and ad-hoc messages aimed at a certain category of people, with much more freedom to manoeuvre than before.
Brands specialising in gambling are also profitably employing these principles. CasinoReviews.net.nz, for example, has decided to use its knowledge of the average gambler to offer him exactly what he needs, namely a series of very useful reviews of different casino games that not only save him hours and hours online in his frantic search for the most suitable casino, but also allow him to quickly find his favourite casino game from a selection of only reliable and impeccably reputable games. The experience of the team of experts at the site’s disposal, who were personally involved in the creation of these reviews, has been skilfully harnessed to provide the public with an even more fluid, pleasant and user-friendly offer, capable of generating endless fun.
Targeted, well-targeted (i.e. customised) content can drastically change the immediate fortunes of your brand, bringing it significantly closer to your customers and establishing, perhaps for the first time, a true and authentic relationship with your most valued stakeholders.
