Why do we need strategy?

Consumers and business are moving at different paces in their adoption and use of technology. Mind the gap.

Consumer behaviour is changing fast

Digital has had a transformative effect on consumer thinking and behaviour. For over a decade important new technologies and tools have arrived at a terrific pace: first browsers then algorithmic search, then comparison shopping and user generated reviews, social networks, the mobile web and smart devices.

Each new technology has an adoption curve while it goes from trial by early adopters to being used by a mass audience. There’s good evidence that this adoption lag is shortening: important new tools move into mass usage more and more quickly.

The result is that consumers are no longer willing to wait for shopping and customer experiences to be created for them: they are putting them together themselves. And this makes the decisions they make, like whether to buy a brand’s product, or whether to stay loyal as a customer, increasingly difficult to understand or predict.
 

Business behaviour is not changing at the same pace

What’s less widely discussed is that business is generally moving at a much slower pace in the adoption of, and adaptation to, digital technologies.

Each new tool and technology tends to be bolted on to an organisation’s business model; given a home within existing organisational silos. These silos increasingly struggle to collaborate in the creation of a high value customer experience.

Without a shared understanding of the customer, or a shared vision for how they need to be served, many companies are unable to create a coherent and valuable customer experience. The user experience feels like a patchwork of unrelated interactions, often irrelevant to the lives and goals of customers.
 

The brand experience gap

This divergent pace of change between consumers and business is putting increasing strain on brands. It’s very easy for consumers to see (and share) the difference between the brand promise and the reality of the customer experience. The only viable future for brand management is not around managing the message, but managing the experience.

Some brands, like Apple and Zappos, have already come to this conclusion and manage their brands in a very different way and through the full spectrum of their customer touchpoints, not just their marketing messages.

Is your organisation in a position to take on this challenge? The next page looks at some questions which will allow you to take stock.