I just finished an absolutely wonderful book called Marley & Me by John Grogan. It a fabulous story about a families life with an absolute terror, but great dog they named Marley. If you have not read it, its a really fast read and a great story that works on so many different levels. The author speaks about even with all his faults, Marley the dog taught him so many things about life and how it should be lived. Specifically, he wrote about Marley’s unwavering love and loyalty.

Even though this dog was far from perfect and at times was a total nightmare, his positive qualities, his heart and his soul far outweighed the negatives. And when things were all said and done, this crazy dog had made a huge impact on the author and his family. He was a true member of the family that was loved unconditionally. After I finished the book, I was thinking about some parallels to this dog and this story to marketing.

It seems to me that this kind of loyalty and love is very rarely seen these days when it comes to customers and the companies and brands they do business with. In years past, there were brand names that absolutely owned the market. When you thought of a particular product or service, there was always one company that everyone knew and associated with. That does not seem to be around anymore and it made me wonder, how as marketers can we help actually getting that back?

My initial thought was that both we the marketers as well as the companies we work with are only looking at one side of the marketing coin and are pretty much ignoring the other side. We forget the multiple layers of what is the customer experience. For example, my focus for several clients recently has been developing marketing campaigns that will raise brand awareness and drive more traffic to these companies’ web sites. While that is definitely important, I believe there are numerous steps after that which are being either forgotten or not being given the attention that it needs. They include the following:

• What is happening once a user gets to a web site? I am not talking about basic analytics here, I am speaking about true path analysis to discover what is working and what is not.
• What do people really think about the brand I am working for compared to its competitors? How are we being seen and thought of and what we might do to change that thinking? What are people talking about?
• Post sale – how is a customer communicating to the company after a sale has been completed? What are delivery times? How is customer service? Is the experience not just good, but great so they will not only recommend our product, but rave to their friends and family, so that they will be a true customer evangelist?

Are my thoughts in line with yours or am I crossing the line when it comes to truly what our responsibilities are as marketers and what is not?