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CONTACT: Pam Danziger, 717-336-1600

Connecting Is Key Trend Word for Future
Marketers must truly connect with their customers

Stevens, PA July 30, 2003 — Connecting: It's the word that characterizes the new dominant trend in the consumer market today. Like butterflies emerging from their cocoon, consumers today are searching for more meaning in their lives. No longer preoccupied with self-centered materialism, buying more and more things to feather their 'nests,' consumers today are turning their focus to the external world. They are looking for ways to link up and forge meaningful relationships with others in their social sphere. Today, cocooning is dead, as the age of connecting takes hold.

As consumers make new choices in the stores where they shop, the brands that they select, and the product categories they purchase, consumer marketers are discovering that their connection with the consumers is growing more and more tenuous. Marketers are being rendered less and less relevant in the consumers' lives. The key marketing challenge for the future is to establish a true, meaningful and lasting connection with the customer and prospective customer. Here are ways for marketers to forge a new connection with the consumers:

Talk less and listen more Today virtually all commercial communication is one-way, i.e. through advertisements the marketer tells the consumer what they want them to know. But that doesn't forge a connection, rather it results in consumers being less responsive to an avalanche of meaningless, irrelevant ads. Marketers must establish new ways of creating meaningful two-way dialogue with their consumers. The success of eBay is that their entire corporate culture is based upon the premise of listening more to the consumer.

Give more value, rather than take more money Marketers' reason for being is to make money, so naturally they want to take more and more of it from the consumers. Yet with consumers today driven by a passion for bargain hunting, marketers' profits are shrinking as they fall into the trap of constant and continual sales. There is another way, and that is to give the consumers more value in the products you offer and the shopping experiences you deliver. Women's fashion marketer, Chicos FAS, fully embraces the concept of connecting with the customer by giving more value and their reward is written every quarter on their rising balance sheet.

Become involved with the customer, rather than waiting for customer to get involved with you Marketers today have a totally backwards view of customer loyalty. They believe customer loyalty is something that the customer does for them, whereas in truly connecting with the customer, marketers discover that customer loyalty is something that they give to their customers. Southwest Airlines thrives by reaching out to their target customer and staying loyal to their customers' needs: dependable fast service at the lowest possible cost.

Connect with the consumers' community "No man is an island" and consumers are connecting more and more within their social, political, cultural landscapes. Connecting with the consumer today also means connecting with the community where they live. One of the secrets of Wal-Mart's phenomenal success is that despite their enormous size, each local Wal-Mart store reaches out to become a hub of the local community, for example, by supporting local schools and fraternal organizations in fundraising.

Create your business for your customers' needs Ultimately marketers need to turn themselves around 180° and look at their business, their products, their services totally from their customers' point-of-view. Connecting means you place their needs, desires, priorities, and concerns first.

About Unity Marketing
Founded in 1992 , Unity Marketing (www.unitymarketingonline.com) is a marketing consulting firm that specializes in consumer insights for luxury marketers. Using its proprietary why people buy research strategy, Pam Danziger, company founder and author of Why People Buy Things They Don't Need (Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market Publishing, 2002) uncovers the motivations, desires and emotional needs that drive consumers to buy. Unity also publishes market research studies on the luxury market, jewelry, garden, pet accessories, home furnishings, gifts and collectibles, greeting card and stationery, tabletop, art and wall decor, personal care and cosmetics markets, as well as the Luxury Business newsletter. Pam is currently working on her new book, Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses (as well as the Classes), to be published in 2004.

To arrange an interview or other media inquiries contact: Len Stein, Visibility, 914-712-2610; lens@visibilitypr.com