It seems like a pretty standard principal – to make an exchange with a customer, you need to give them something they want. But, many struggle applying the principal beyond the walls of an exchange defined simply by the transference of dollars.
Insomniac Events, who is owned largely by LiveNation [see also Ticketmaster], recently demonstrated this principal perfectly. With their flagship music festival set to take place in late June, they experienced the expected buzz surrounding artist’s set times. Instead of simply releasing the schedule via social media as they’ve done in the past, they released it exclusively on their mobile application.
The result? Insomniac drove downloads of their app, allowing them to push notifications directly to the fingertips of their customer.
When identifying what your customer wants, here are a couple of thoughts so you can see the bigger picture:
- Understand where your customer lives – Knowing where and how to reach your customer is vital. Customer profiles and understanding their preferred communication channels allows you to identify unique opportunities to reach them.
- Value isn’t always a monetary number – Sometimes it is as simple as a fair exchange of information, such in the case of Insomniac. This is the exact reason many organizations offer free resources or downloads for consumers to engage with the brand.
- The exchange doesn’t need to be groundbreaking – Even a simple exchange between you and your customers, the schedule in Insomniac’s case, keeps the dialogue rolling between your organization and customer.
- Leverage your organization’s identity – Especially with your current customers, it’s important to leverage your organization’s identity. Using your identity to differentiate your organization will continue to put yourself above your competition.
The idea seems simple, but challenge your organization to find ways to give your customers something they want in new or different ways. It breaks up the monotony of the traditional monetary exchange and builds your organization’s credibility. Be the trendsetter, not the trend follower.
