Understanding Consumer Centricity
So many corporate strategy documents cite some sort of consumer centricity objective or transformation. They consider their personalization efforts – putting the consumer’s name on a product or email, or carrying out an NPS survey, or integrating a fancy CRM platform what’s necessary to take do the trick. Yet, these same companies make decisions that go against the consumer on a daily basis. So, can we really consider them consumer centric?
And if carrying out a single action doesn’t do the trick, what exactly is consumer centricity? It must stretch far beyond these superficial gestures, but a search for definitions will likely leave you with, “putting the consumer at the center of your business,” or, “putting your customer first.” But what does that even mean?
For us, consumer centricity is about embedding your consumer into the very DNA of your entire ecosystem. That means changing your internal relationship with the consumer in order to impact the external one. Doing so requires uniformly understanding your consumer and his behavior; building the organization and ecosystem around his ideal journey; and setting the right parameters for connecting with the consumer so that each interaction is effortless.
What Consumer Centricity Is Not
At its core, consumer centricity is frequently misunderstood. Many equate it with something you add to the day-to-day, most commonly:
Adding technology. If you weren’t consumer centric before the latest and greatest CRM or analytics platform, you won’t be afterward.
WOW moments. If you’re not delivering a consistent, frictionless journey at least 80% of the time, a sporadic treat won’t make the pain go away.
Personalization. If they didn’t feel seen or heard from your standard assortment and touchpoints, a name on a product or communication won’t change how they feel.
Loyalty programs. If they didn’t want to stay before, some points probably won’t change their minds.
Satisfaction surveys. If you didn’t know what the problem was before they told you, it is unlikely that you have the mechanisms necessary to fix it when they do.
True consumer centricity is none of these.
It is, instead, the day-to-day. It is the strategy and then making strategic, consistent decisions that prioritize long-term value for the consumer, leading to sustainable business success.
The Core Elements of Consumer Centricity
Consumer centricity requires mastering three things: understanding, supporting, and connecting. The first two are internal exercises or constructs while the third is their external manifestation. The more invested the company is in getting the internal principles right, the more successful the connection and, ultimately, the results will be.
Understanding the Consumer
Real consumer centricity is rooted in a profound understanding of the consumer and what he or she needs.
The first step to understanding is knowing. It covers the facts: what they buy, when they buy it, where they buy it, how they buy it, and at what price they buy it. You may even have some demographic information whether anecdotal or extensive.
But understanding goes deeper. It requires a comprehension of what makes the consumer tick, his preferences, and dislikes. It is empathy. It is the ability to anticipate his needs and preferences as if he were a close friend or family member. If your teams really understand your consumer, they will empathize deeply with your consumers, interpreting the data correctly and thereby making the right business decisions.
This understanding must be ubiquitous. Every team member have a clear, unified understanding of the same consumer group(s), informed by real data and interpreted with empathy. This provides a sort of internal North Star to guide the second element, supporting.
Supporting the Ideal Journey
Even if we understand the consumer to the greatest extent possible, consumer centricity cannot be achieved if delivering the right experience is an uphill battle. Regardless of how clever we think we are, every internal misalignment presents itself as friction in the consumer journey. There’s no hiding.
Therefore, every aspect of the organization must work in symphony, starting top management and permeating every area through to the front line, including:
Long-term strategy and annual planning
Performance measurement and reporting
Go-to-market strategy and day-to-day operations
Organizational structure
Data strategy
Culture
Only once this happens will each department be working in unison to create a seamless consumer experience that allows for connection.
Connecting with the Consumer
If we understand the consumer and support his ideal journey internally, this last piece should be a cinch.
Connecting with the consumer means that, with limited effort, our links get clicked, our product sells through, and our traffic converts. In simple terms, he’s picking up what we’re putting down. Because we knew what he would want (understanding). So we built to it without getting derailed (supporting). And appealed to him (connecting).
Implementing Consumer Centricity
Transforming into a truly consumer-centric organization demands serious conviction, starting with the leadership team.
Our consumer-centricity transformation program consists of 4 phases:
Conceive: Create clarity and alignment around the consumer you have and want to target and his ideal journey.
Transform: Define the roadmap that closes the gap between your current consumer relationship and the one you defined during the CONCEIVE phase. This means both what it looks like on the outside and the internal conditions to make it happen – planning and strategy; go-to-market process; performance measurement; organization; data strategy; and culture. And create a governing process and/or body to ensure execution.
Act: incorporate the newfound consumer understanding into daily operations, approaching product, service, and communications through the consumer’s point of view.
Adapt: Monitor your progress compared to expectations, changes in the market, changes in the organization, and adapt to suit their needs.
This is a long-term commitment. A way of being. It is not a one-and-done project. It is most impactful when accompanied by the necessary data, but it can also be the best first step in understanding which data needs to be collected. The best time to start is now.
Measuring Consumer Centricity
Consumer centricity is not just a philosophy; it’s a measurable aspect of your business. However, it transcends traditional metrics like customer satisfaction surveys that are more of a vanity metric than a business driver.
Indicators such as retention rates and assortment usage offer a glimpse into how well your products or services resonate with your consumers on an individual level. And conversion and engagement rates let you know how well you are connecting with the consumer at each touchpoint. But they don’t necessarily provide insight into where the miss is.
This is why we created our proprietary MLR Consumer&Commerce Consumer Centricity Diagnostic. These tools enable us to dissect and understand the nuances that lead us to the pain points resulting in the lack of connection with your consumer.
The Benefits of Consumer Centricity
Consumer centricity offers profound benefits by streamlining focus and enhancing operational efficiency across an organization. When every facet of a business is aligned with consumer needs, unnecessary expenditures and efforts are substantially reduced, minimizing waste.
This alignment significantly boosts productivity, as all resources are directed towards initiatives that directly impact consumer satisfaction and retention. Moreover, with a clear, unified objective centered around the consumer, clarity within the organization is heightened, fostering a cohesive work environment where every team moves in unison. Such a well-synchronized setup not only simplifies processes but also allows room for introducing the right amount of complexity and nuance needed to achieve the pinnacle of business excellence. Importantly, this focus on the consumer also leads to improved employee satisfaction. Employees who understand and contribute to a clear, consumer-focused mission often feel more engaged and valued.
This increase in employee satisfaction naturally compounds into greater consumer satisfaction, as happier employees tend to provide better service and create more consumer-centric products.
According to a study by Deloitte, consumer-centric companies are 60% more profitable compared to companies that are not focused on the consumer, underscoring the tangible impact of this approach on business success. And even if you don’t believe the incredible impact that it can have, you probably won’t believe that being consumer centric is bad for business. In the end, without a consumer, there isn’t really a business to run, is there?
Conclusion
Embracing consumer centricity is not a one-off project; it's a perpetual commitment to understanding and serving your consumers better than anyone else. It’s about fostering a culture where every decision, no matter how small, considers the consumer's perspective first. For CEOs and founders aiming to build lasting, meaningful brands, the journey towards true consumer centricity is not just beneficial—it’s essential.
As you reflect on your brand’s path, ask yourself: Are you merely surviving on the fringes of consumer centricity, or are you ready to embed it into the heart of your business strategy? The choice will define your brand’s legacy.
