I've just read a three page article on Customer Engagement in Marketing Week entitled 'Brands fail to follow rules of engagement'.
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/brands-fail-to-follow-rules-of-engagement/3010051.article
Is it me?
As far as I can tell from the article, customer engagement is.......well, marketing actually!
Of course there is a lot of baffling resarch and %age figures to support the article but it seems that customer engagement is about creating a conversation between brand and consumer. So what has marketing been doing for the last half century or so? Haven't we been creating a conversation?
Forgive me but I don't think so.
How many glossy and glitsy TV ads have you sat through when you haven't the slightest clue what they are on about and as for being able to recall the brand ...........?
It seems to me that the more obtuse and zany the campaign and the less the likelihood that we humble 'consumers' can link it to a brand, the greater the chance that the 'creatives' will get an industry award. The lunatics are running the asylum.
Now imagine you are single and at a party (oh happy days!) and you see someone attractive across the room. (Vision: As far as advertising takes us). You might pluck up the courage to go and talk to them. (Hearing and Talking: Customer engagement?). If the evening is going well you might lead them by the hand on to the dance floor (Touch: trial perhaps?). As the night wears on you might get to smell their perfume (Smell: preference, loyalty). And the ultimate measure of a really successful evening? A kiss! Hooray! (Taste: bonding). After a month or two of kissing we might even get engaged.
Which takes me full circle. Real customer engagement requires a full-on multi-sensory dialogue, engaging all the senses to get to the kiss quicker!