Fishburn Hedges

12.07.2010

Blue chip business focus 

I went along to a recent seminar held by Rainmaker the new business search agency who presented the findings of their annual Intelligent New Business Survey of blue chip companies and some public sector clients. Clients they approached included: COI TfL, DfID, BSkyB, Casio, Heinz, L’Oréal, M&S, Mars, Orange, Peugeot, npower, Sony and Virgin Holidays.

Investments for the coming year 

One of the topics covered was investments for the coming year and there was an overwhelming feeling that many organisations are going to be refocusing on the consumer. A number of companies felt that they’d lost the relationship with their customers and were keen to reconnect with them put them back at the heart of 'what they do'. 
 
The survey indicated that marketing departments have become so involved in communications activity and are too focused on moneysaving, resulting in the customer often taking a back seat.

ROI to take a back seat

Customer retention was flagged as a key objective, as well as increasing customer spend, with 21% of respondents looking to increase their customer base over the next year. Looking more closely at the 'customer journey' and improving the 'experience at certain key touch points' were also key. 
 
ROI may subsequently be taking a bit of a back seat compared with previous years it’s a hygiene factor rather than a differentiator. "Our main focus is keeping on top of new and innovative ways to connect with our target audience and I see digital as the key to making this happen". "Customer acquisition is our focus.  We’re also looking into ways of tapping straight into key influencers and opinion-formers so that we can channel word of mouth more effectively".  

Full report

Their full report contains all the results of their survey which also looked at areas such as digital and social media, what disciplines will be under scrutiny in 2011, and the role of intermediaries and so forth.  The full report can be found here.