Gimme an A–for Advocacy!

You’ve marketed, advertised, and promoted the heck out of your wares. You’ve listened to, managed, and motivated your customers. And yet your sales are disappointing. Is there any marketing technique left to try? Absolutely, asserts MIT marketing professor Glen Urban in his forthcoming book, “Don’t Just Relate — Advocate!” (Wharton School Publishing). Advocacy, he declares, is the single bold step that will propel marketers far beyond the realm of the ordinary.

Beginning with the admittedly clichéd notion of the customer as all-powerful, Urban goes on to propound what he calls Theory A (for advocacy), whose premise is that if your company repeatedly and devotedly represents its customers’ interests, those customers will reciprocate with trust, purchases, and enduring loyalty. This is hardly revolutionary stuff, although the author likens it to “the shift from subsonic to supersonic flight.”

Below, the seven basic tenets of Theory A:

1. Give your customers full, honest, and unbiased information about your product. Capture their trust.

2. Invest heavily in product superiority. These days, you can’t get away with just high-quality products — you have to have the best products.

3. Create value. Customers want the greatest benefits, not necessarily the lowest price.

4. Work with your customers to design merchandise. Find out their decision-making processes, their needs, and how they meet or expect to meet those needs.

5. Make fulfillment flawless. You’ve worked hard to earn your customers’ trust; do not break it by slip-ups in product or service delivery.

6. Be loyal to your customers. Establish a long-term customer relationship, and don’t jeopardize it for short-term gain.

7. Measure the trust customers have in you. Evaluate repeat purchases, share of wallet, and customer confidence in your firm. It is imperative to maintain these at the highest levels.