Look beyond the data, the customer is right in front of you…

It’s been over a month since I put pen to paper. A big move from the UK to the US has entailed all sorts of expected and unexpected learnings along the way. I suspect I could’ve written a daily post with the various discoveries but that might be saved for a prime time drama instead. This article is divided in two (I realized I might need to share some background on why I might be legitemate to spout opinions on data, marketing, customers, brands…) and out of respect to readers who may or may not have time or headspace.

I hope you’ll stay for Part 2: Marketing Teams that forget to look beyond the data… and lose customers.

Part 1: What makes me legitimate to ask you to look beyond data?

As a lifetime mover, I’ve always been the new kid on the block. This role comes with many inherent strengths or weaknesses - depending on which way you look a them. The fact that you don’t know anyone means that you have more time and headspace - to watch, to absorb, to listen and to learn. The fact that you don’t know anyone means you have to rely on whatever means you have to find solutions.

In this recent move, I’m experiencing things in a different way as an Outsider-Insider and as a mother of teens. I do have an American accent (mid-Atlantic I’ve been politely told by English friends) and I was born in the USA, so people think I just know how life goes here. Well, I don’t. I spent my entire adult life and career in the UK and Europe. My children have as well, but their accents now make them stand out… so, it seems, my normally boisterous children keep quiet for fear of being asked - yet again - to ‘say tomato’ or ‘say banana’… “We are Zoo Animals, Mum”, is how it was pointed out to me. I have assured them it’s simply payback time, for all the times they paraded their UK friends to ‘meet’ me, when in fact their friends just wanted to confirm that I talked like an American sitcom, which was always confirmed by the chuckles as they left the room. I still don’t know which character I sound like…

I digress. I’m here to share a learning as I think it relates to business, and more specifically marketing and communications, my other true loves. My career has led me into many professional situations where I sat at the intersection of creative and business, of art and science, of qualitative and quantitative. 

As an Account Director at MRM Paris (McCann WorldGroup)*, I often served as ‘ambassador’ (or ‘ambassadrice’ back in the day that different sexes had different titles, which they still do in France, but they are less used by younger generations) to The Relationship Centre, a flagship concept born of the union of communications and business between the force that are Michèle Ferrebeuf (former head of MRM France) and Jean-Yves Hepp (former Anderson business consultant). These two were a dynamo team, way ahead of their time and saw the benefits of bringing strategic business planning together with creative marketing as a platform for truly insight-driven Customer Relationship Marketing. The Relationship Centre was omni-channel from Day One, bringing customer service teams into the same building and planning table as the rest of the business, marketing, communications and creative planning teams. Listening and learning - literally - from the customer every single day and translating those insights to both data and cross-channel messaging every single day.

Since I was The English Speaker, I was often involved in meetings across brands and across seniority and cultures and countries that I may never have been without the gift of my native language in a foreign land. 

Here’s a thought - why don’t global agencies and corporations ever talk about the past? They are so busy staying relevant and showing current wins that they forget to mention the great leaders that carried the torch and continued to keep them relevant. Family companies always talk about and build upon the past. Just a thought as I link out and learn.

In my days as Marketing Director for Pantone in Europe, Middle East and Africa, the timing of my tenure coincided with the strategic and practical merging of X-Rite technology with the Pantone brand and business. From a key account and marketing point of view, customers and end users had yet to learn of the real magic of merging the art and science of color. So, I was often involved in the education of customers and color lovers. Sharing a room with colour scientists who are able to isolate and map colour by numbers in whichever colour space you subscribe to (analog or digital)  or to show the data behind colour that matters to business and marketing: the real inefficiencies and cost of colour mis-match in production, at scale (error-stacking, anyone?). This matters immensely to anyone working in design or production of fashion, home & interiors or print or packaging. Consistency = Visual Coherence and Cost Efficiencies. There is so much more here, so apologies to former colleagues for my kindergarten approach. Here is one of the articles I wrote about these complexities during the Day of Colour, hosted by the very clever Patrick Appels and his talented team in Amsterdam.

The point is that I have listened and learned and continue to do so, whilst at the same time educating teams around me about the importance of science and data and insight and creativity, but more importantly, looking beyond the data… to customer experience, especially when brand-building is part of the plan. What’s really happening to the customer, with the customer and increasingly ‘at’ the customer in this new data-driven marketing culture.

Stay tuned for Part 2: Marketing Teams that forget to look beyond the data… and lose customers.