Marketing Canvas - Step 2 - Set Your Goals

The Marketing Canvas, developed by Laurent Bouty, is a powerful tool that provides a structured approach to crafting a robust marketing strategy. It's a co-creation method that intersects your environment (where you will play), your goals (what you would like to achieve), and your actions (what you will do). This article focuses on the second step of the Marketing Canvas Process - setting your goals. This step is vital as it serves as the reference point for the assessment phase.

Three Strategies for Growing Your Revenue:

In the Marketing Canvas Process, three strategies are highlighted for growing your revenue: GET, KEEP, and STIMULATE/MORE. These strategies focus on different aspects of customer interaction and are designed to help businesses increase their revenue.

1. GET: This strategy is all about customer acquisition. The primary idea is that your business can grow by attracting new customers. Tactics that can be employed include acquisition campaigns (welcome offers), channel incentives for new customers, "bring a friend" campaigns, and freemium models. For instance, a new restaurant might offer a "buy one get one free" deal to attract new customers.

2. KEEP: The second strategy emphasizes customer retention. The main idea here is that your business can grow by retaining existing customers. This strategy might seem defensive, but it is the cornerstone of customer experience and is essential for all businesses, including startups. Tactics include churn management, loyalty programs, brand and customer experience reinforcement, Net Promoter Score (NPS) programs for detractors, and below-the-line retention campaigns. For example, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company might implement a loyalty program that offers exclusive features or discounts to long-term subscribers.

3. STIMULATE/MORE: The third strategy focuses on customer stimulation. The primary idea is that your business can grow by encouraging your customers to spend more and/or more often. Tactics include cross-selling, upselling, promotion campaigns for usage stimulation, bundling, upgrade programs, and premium features. For instance, a telecom company might offer a bundle that includes internet, cable, and phone services at a discounted rate, encouraging customers to spend more.

Green Clean Use Case:

To illustrate these strategies, let's consider a hypothetical company, Green Clean, a startup offering eco-friendly cleaning services.

For the GET strategy, Green Clean could offer a discounted first cleaning service to attract new customers. They could also implement a referral program where existing customers get a discount for each new customer they bring in.

For the KEEP strategy, Green Clean could develop a loyalty program where customers get a free cleaning service for every ten services purchased. They could also focus on providing excellent customer service to ensure customer satisfaction and reduce churn.

For the STIMULATE/MORE strategy, Green Clean could offer additional services like deep carpet cleaning or window cleaning, encouraging existing customers to spend more. They could also offer a premium subscription service that includes regular cleaning and maintenance services.

Conclusion

Setting your goals is a crucial step in the Marketing Canvas Process. It provides a clear direction for your marketing efforts and serves as a reference point for assessing your progress. The three strategies - GET, KEEP, and STIMULATE/MORE - offer different approaches to growing your revenue. By understanding these strategies and how to apply them, businesses can create a robust marketing strategy that drives growth and success.

Remember, the Marketing Canvas is a dynamic tool. As your business environment changes, you should revisit your goals and strategies to ensure they remain relevant and effective. Regular review and adaptation are key to maintaining a successful marketing strategy.

Whether you're a non-marketer, an entrepreneur, or a marketer looking to learn something new, the Marketing Canvas offersa structured yet flexible approach to developing a marketing strategy. It breaks down complex marketing concepts into manageable steps, making the process more accessible and less intimidating.

The Marketing Canvas is not just a tool, but a journey. It's a process of discovery, assessment, and reinforcement. It's about understanding your market, setting clear goals, and determining the actions you need to take to achieve those goals.

So, are you ready to embark on this journey? Are you ready to set your goals and grow your business? Remember, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In the case of the Marketing Canvas, that step is setting your goals.

Marketing Canvas - Listening to

Last update: 06/12/2024

In a nutshell

The Listening To sub-dimension in the Marketing Canvas focuses on the systematic collection and analysis of customer voices (Voice of Customer, or VOC) to understand their perceptions, needs, and expectations. By implementing a robust VOC system, businesses can ensure they listen to what customers are saying about their brand and value proposition, enabling data-driven decisions and continuous improvement. This includes capturing customer feedback on sustainability, an increasingly critical aspect of modern business.

For example, Green Clean may use surveys, social media monitoring, and feedback forms to collect customer insights, helping refine its eco-friendly cleaning products and sustainability messaging.

Introduction

The Listening To sub-dimension within the Conversation category is about actively capturing and analyzing customer feedback to better understand their experiences and expectations. A strong VOC system ensures that businesses make decisions based on real customer data rather than assumptions, aligning their strategies with customer needs and preferences.

Listening effectively to customers enables brands to:

1. Build trust by showing customers their voices are heard.

2. Improve the customer journey by addressing pain points and unmet needs.

3. Strengthen their sustainability commitments by understanding customer expectations in this area.

What is Listening To?

Listening To involves the systematic capture, analysis, and application of customer feedback. Key elements include:

1. Comprehensive VOC System: Tools and processes to gather customer feedback across multiple channels.

2. Data-Driven Insights: Decisions based on accurate and objective data rather than assumptions.

3. Journey and Lifecycle Understanding: VOC systems tailored to specific points in the customer journey and lifecycle.

4. Multi-Technique Approach: Combining methods such as surveys, interviews, social media monitoring, and analytics.

5. Sustainability Insights: Capturing feedback on customer views regarding environmental and social responsibility.

For example:

• Green Clean might use a survey to understand customer satisfaction with its eco-friendly packaging while also analyzing social media for sentiment around its sustainability claims.

“Listening to the needs of your customers isn’t an optional exercise; it’s mandatory. Even if you don’t intend to differentiate on customer experience (and you’re in a small minority if so), the value of listening to customers is real, measurable, and immediate.” CMO.com

Listening To: an in-depth perspective

To create an effective VOC process, businesses must:

1. Establish a VOC System: Implement systems to capture customer feedback across all relevant touchpoints.

2. Leverage Data-Driven Processes: Use advanced analytics to eliminate assumptions and focus on actionable insights.

3. Understand the Customer Journey: Tailor feedback mechanisms to reflect the unique needs and touchpoints of the customer lifecycle.

4. Combine Techniques: Use a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods for a comprehensive understanding.

5. Focus on Sustainability: Ensure that customer feedback includes views on sustainability, a key driver of modern consumer behavior.

For instance:

• Green Clean could use feedback forms at checkout, analyze product reviews for sustainability comments, and track brand mentions on social media to capture a holistic view of customer perceptions.

Translating listening to into action

To listen effectively to customers, businesses need a structured and consistent approach:

• Design Your VOC System: Identify key touchpoints and feedback mechanisms across the customer journey.

• Implement Data Analytics: Ensure your VOC process is data-driven and includes tools to analyze qualitative and quantitative feedback.

• Integrate Sustainability: Include questions and feedback opportunities focused on environmental and social impact.

Questions to consider:

• Have you set up a comprehensive VOC system to capture customer feedback across multiple channels?

• Is your VOC process entirely data-driven, avoiding assumptions at every stage?

• Does your VOC system reflect an in-depth understanding of the customer journey and lifecycle?

• Are you using a variety of techniques to gather and validate customer feedback?

• Does your VOC system capture your customers’ views on sustainability effectively?

But listening is not the same as understanding. How you listen, and to whom you listen, is critical. Even a smart, high-end business can be led astray by misunderstanding the strengths and weaknesses of different customer feedback channels. HBR[2]

Statements for self-assessment

For a comprehensive evaluation of your understanding and application of the Listening To concept, rate your agreement with the following statements on a scale from -3 (completely disagree) to +3 (completely agree):

1. You have set a VOC system that captures everything that customers are saying about your brand and your value proposition.

2. Your entire VOC process is data-driven, and at no point are you making any assumptions.

3. Your VOC process is based on an in-depth knowledge of your user's journey and customer lifecycle.

4. You are using a few different techniques together to ensure you're getting the most that you can from your research.

5. Your VOC system captures your customers' views on sustainability.

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Marketing Canvas Method - Conversation - Listening To

Interpretation of the scores

• Negative scores (-1 to -3): Negative scores indicate significant gaps in your VOC process, such as a lack of data-driven decision-making, insufficient understanding of the customer journey, or a failure to address sustainability. These shortcomings may result in missed opportunities to align with customer expectations and improve brand perception. Immediate action is needed to develop a structured VOC approach.

• A score of zero (0): A neutral score reflects partial implementation or limited effectiveness of your VOC system. While some processes may exist, they are not comprehensive or data-driven enough to provide actionable insights. Additional effort is needed to refine your VOC strategy and incorporate sustainability feedback.

• Positive scores (+1 to +3): Positive scores suggest that your VOC system is robust, comprehensive, and data-driven. It effectively captures feedback at all relevant touchpoints, aligns with the customer journey, and includes insights on sustainability. This ensures you are well-equipped to adapt to customer needs, improve experiences, and strengthen brand loyalty.

Case study: Green Clean’s VOC system

• Misaligned understanding (-3, -2, -1): Green Clean lacks a structured VOC system, relying on anecdotal feedback or assumptions. The brand misses key insights into customer needs, such as the demand for more refill options, and fails to capture sustainability-related feedback, weakening its eco-friendly positioning.

• Surface understanding (0): Green Clean has implemented some feedback mechanisms, such as a customer satisfaction survey, but these are not integrated into a comprehensive VOC system. The feedback collected is limited in scope, failing to address the full customer journey or provide meaningful insights into sustainability.

• Deep understanding (+1, +2, +3): Green Clean has a robust VOC system that captures feedback across multiple channels, including surveys, product reviews, and social media. The system is fully data-driven, with advanced analytics identifying trends and customer pain points. Sustainability feedback is a core component, helping the brand continuously refine its eco-friendly initiatives.

Conclusion

The Listening To sub-dimension is essential for understanding and responding to customer needs, preferences, and expectations. A comprehensive, data-driven VOC system that integrates sustainability insights enables businesses to make informed decisions, enhance the customer journey, and strengthen brand loyalty. By actively listening to customers, brands can stay ahead of the curve and build lasting relationships.

Sources

1. Hubspot, 12 Voice of the Customer Methodologies To Generate a Goldmine of Customer Feedback, https://blog.hubspot.com/service/voice-of-the-customer-methodologies

2. Harvard Business Review, 2015, Everyone Says They Listen to Their Customers—Here’s How to Really Do It, https://hbr.org/2015/10/everyone-says-they-listen-to-their-customers-heres-how-to-really-do-it

3. McKinsey, Are you really listening to what your customers are saying?, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/are-you-really-listening-to-what-your-customers-are-saying

4. Futurelab, Your VoC Programme is underperforming - and you know it, https://www.futurelab.net/slide/your-voc-programme-underperforming-and-you-know-it

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Marketing Canvas by Laurent Bouty

Marketing Canvas - Magic

Last update: 06/12/2024

In a nutshell

The Magic sub-dimension in the Marketing Canvas is about creating exceptional moments in the customer journey that go beyond functionality. By removing obstacles, reducing stress, and delivering sensory delight, brands can elevate the customer experience and foster emotional connections. When combined with sustainability, these moments become transformative, leaving a lasting impression.

For instance, Green Clean might make its eco-friendly cleaning products a magical part of the customer journey by offering beautifully designed, refillable containers and a seamless subscription service that eliminates hassle.

Introduction

The Magic sub-dimension within the Journey category focuses on enhancing the customer experience by creating memorable, delightful, and impactful interactions. It’s not just about solving problems—it’s about exceeding expectations, protecting customers from stress, and delivering experiences that elevate their sense of identity and well-being. Infusing sustainability into these moments further strengthens the brand’s emotional resonance with its audience.

Exceptional customer experiences transform mundane interactions into magical ones, fostering loyalty and advocacy.

What is Magic?

Magic refers to the unexpected, delightful elements that enhance the customer journey. These moments are carefully crafted to:

1. Eliminate Friction: Identify and reduce obstacles or points of stress in the customer journey.

2. Deliver Comfort and Reassurance: Protect customers from uncertainty or anxiety.

3. Delight the Senses: Provide sensory pleasure, such as appealing visuals, sounds, or textures.

4. Elevate Status: Make customers feel special, appreciated, or empowered.

5. Integrate Sustainability: Create magical moments that are environmentally and socially responsible.

For example:

• Friction Reduction: Green Clean provides auto-refill options to ensure customers never run out of cleaning supplies.

• Sensory Delight: Using naturally scented, eco-friendly products that enhance the cleaning experience.

• Elevated Status: Highlighting the customer’s role in supporting sustainability through their purchase.

Magic: an in-depth perspective

To create magical customer experiences, brands must:

1. Remove Obstacles: Identify pain points in the customer journey and minimize them to reduce undue effort.

2. Protect Customers from Stress: Offer clarity and reassurance at every touchpoint, eliminating confusion and uncertainty.

3. Delight the Senses: Infuse the customer journey with sensory experiences that engage and uplift.

4. Elevate Customer Status: Recognize and celebrate customers in ways that make them feel valued and important.

5. Prioritize Sustainable Magic: Reduce the environmental impact of creating magical moments while ensuring they align with the brand’s sustainability goals.

For instance:

• Stress-Free Experience: Green Clean ensures clear, concise instructions for using its products, reducing confusion.

• Sensory Appeal: Beautifully designed packaging and refreshing, natural scents create a pleasant experience.

• Sustainability: All magical moments, such as eco-friendly rewards programs, are designed with minimal environmental impact.

Translating Magic into action

Crafting magical moments requires a blend of creativity, customer insight, and operational efficiency. Brands must consistently deliver experiences that surprise and delight while aligning with their values.

Questions to consider:

• Have you identified and reduced obstacles in your customer journey to minimize undue energy expenditure?

• How effectively do you eliminate confusion, uncertainty, and anxiety in your customer interactions?

• Are your customer experiences designed to delight the senses and create memorable moments?

• Do your interactions elevate your customers’ status, making them feel valued and appreciated?

• How have you integrated sustainability into your magical moments to ensure they are impactful and responsible?

Statements for self-assessment

For a comprehensive evaluation of your understanding and application of the Magic concept, rate your agreement with the following statements on a scale from -3 (completely disagree) to +3 (completely agree):

1. You have identified obstacles across your customer journey and have reduced them where customers are expending undue energy.

2. You have eliminated confusion, uncertainty, and anxiety across your customer journey. Your customers are protected from stressful situations.

3. You have delighted the senses of your customer, as they all look for sensory pleasure (from delicious food to relaxing music).

4. You have provided a customer experience that elevates your customers' status.

5. You reduced the social and environmental impact of your efforts to create moments of truth and made sustainable moments magical.

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Marketing Canvas Method - Journey - Magic

Interpretation of the scores

• Negative scores (-1 to -3): Negative scores indicate that your customer journey is filled with obstacles, stress points, or uninspired interactions. These gaps diminish customer satisfaction and loyalty. Immediate action is required to reduce friction, alleviate stress, and introduce sensory and emotional elements that create memorable experiences.

• A score of zero (0): A neutral score reflects partial success in delivering magical moments. While some aspects of the journey may be effective, others lack the delight, clarity, or sustainability required to make them impactful. Further refinement is needed to enhance the emotional and sensory dimensions of the experience.

• Positive scores (+1 to +3): Positive scores suggest that your customer journey consistently removes friction, protects customers from stress, and delivers delightful, sustainable experiences that elevate their status. These magical moments strengthen emotional connections with your brand, fostering loyalty and advocacy.

Case study: Green Clean’s Magic

• Misaligned understanding (-3, -2, -1): Green Clean’s customer journey is filled with obstacles, such as unclear product usage instructions and difficult navigation on its website. Customers feel frustrated and undervalued, with no sensory or emotional engagement to make the experience enjoyable.

• Surface understanding (0): Green Clean addresses some customer needs but fails to consistently deliver magical moments. For example, while the packaging design is visually appealing, the online ordering process is cumbersome, and sustainability claims are not clearly communicated, leaving customers with a mixed experience.

• Deep understanding (+1, +2, +3): Green Clean delivers a seamless and delightful experience. Its website provides easy navigation and clear instructions, while the unboxing experience features eco-friendly, beautifully designed packaging. Customers are celebrated through personalized thank-you messages and loyalty rewards, reinforcing their status as contributors to sustainability.

Conclusion

The Magic sub-dimension is about turning ordinary customer interactions into extraordinary moments. By addressing obstacles, eliminating stress, and delivering sensory and emotional delight, brands can create lasting impressions. When combined with sustainability, these magical moments not only enhance customer satisfaction but also align with modern values, strengthening the brand’s reputation and loyalty.

Sources

1. Matt Watkinson, Book, The 10 Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences.

2. Google, Zero Moment of Truth, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/micro-moments/zero-moment-truth/

3. Brian Solis, 2013, Ultimate Moment of Truth and the art of engagement, https://www.briansolis.com/2013/11/the-ultimate-moment-of-truth-and-the-art-of-engagement/

4. customer experience.io, Great Customer Experiences Are Effortless, https://medium.com/@_cxio/great-customer-experiences-are-effortless-2dea2f300d4e

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Marketing Canvas - Channels

Last update: 5/12/2024

In a Nutshell

The Channels sub-dimension in the Marketing Canvas focuses on the platforms and touchpoints through which customers interact with your brand. An effective channel strategy ensures that customers can access relevant and personalized experiences seamlessly, whether physical or digital, while maintaining consistency and minimizing environmental impact.

For instance, Green Clean might use both physical stores and an e-commerce platform, ensuring that customers have access to personalized product recommendations, consistent information, and eco-friendly packaging, regardless of the channel they choose.

Introduction

The Channels sub-dimension in the Journey category is essential for creating seamless and engaging customer interactions. Channels serve as the interface between your brand and your customers, facilitating communication, transactions, and service delivery. A well-orchestrated channel strategy not only meets customer expectations but also enhances their experience by ensuring relevance, personalization, and sustainability.

Effective channels are not just a means of delivering your value proposition—they are integral to shaping the overall customer journey and reinforcing your brand’s values.

What are channels?

Channels are the pathways and platforms through which customers interact with your brand. These can include:

1. Physical Channels: Retail stores, kiosks, in-person consultations.

2. Digital Channels: Websites, mobile apps, social media, and email.

3. Omnichannel Integration: The seamless connection of physical and digital channels to create a unified customer experience.

Effective channels:

• Adapt to the customer’s context at each moment.

• Offer personalized and seamless interactions.

• Deliver consistent, accurate, and real-time information.

• Ensure orchestration across platforms, avoiding silos.

• Minimize social and environmental impact.

For example:

• Physical Channel: Green Clean’s eco-friendly cleaning products are available at local stores with clear labeling.

• Digital Channel: The brand’s app provides personalized recommendations and subscription services.

• Omnichannel: Customers can browse online, pick up in-store, or arrange delivery with eco-friendly packaging.

Channels: an in-depth perspective

To optimize channel performance, businesses must:

1. Adapt to Context: Ensure customers can access the most relevant channel based on their needs at each moment.

2. Enable Omnichannel Integration: Provide a unified experience across physical and digital platforms, avoiding disjointed interactions.

3. Maintain Consistency and Accuracy: Deliver real-time, useful, and personalized information across all channels.

4. Orchestrate Seamlessly: Connect all channels to allow customers to transition smoothly between them.

5. Focus on Sustainability: Optimize physical and digital channels to reduce environmental impact and promote social responsibility.

For example:

• Customer Context: Green Clean offers an app that helps customers locate nearby stockists or order online for delivery.

• Omnichannel: The app integrates with in-store experiences, allowing customers to scan products for additional information or place orders for out-of-stock items.

• Sustainability: All digital communications are optimized to minimize energy use, and physical deliveries are made using eco-friendly packaging.

Translating channels into action

An effective channel strategy requires alignment with customer expectations, brand values, and operational efficiency:

• Customer Context: Identify customer needs and ensure channels are available and relevant at each stage of their journey.

• Orchestration: Integrate all channels to avoid silos and create a seamless experience.

• Sustainability: Incorporate eco-friendly practices in both physical and digital channels to reduce the brand’s environmental footprint.

Questions to consider:

• Are your channels tailored to your customers’ specific context and needs at every moment?

• Do your physical and digital channels offer clear, personalized, and seamless interactions?

• Is the information shared across channels consistent, real-time, personalized, useful, and accurate?

• Have you orchestrated your channels to eliminate silos, ensuring customers can navigate seamlessly?

• How do your channels optimize social and environmental impact?

Statements for self-assessment

For a comprehensive evaluation of your understanding and application of the Channels concept, rate your agreement with the following statements on a scale from -3 (completely disagree) to +3 (completely agree):

1. Your customers can use the most relevant channel in function of their specific context at each moment.

2. Your channels are physical and digital. You provide clear, personalized, and seamless interactions, anywhere, anytime.

3. Information captured or shared in your channels is consistent, real-time, personalized, useful, and accurate.

4. You have orchestrated all your channels, and there is no silo between them. Your customers can navigate seamlessly through them at each moment.

5. You optimize the social and environmental impact of your physical and digital channels.

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Marketing Canvas Method - Journey - Channels by Laurent Bouty

Interpretation of the scores

• Negative scores (-1 to -3): Negative scores indicate significant gaps in your channel strategy, such as disjointed experiences, inconsistent information, or poor adaptation to customer context. These gaps can lead to customer frustration, weakened brand perception, and missed opportunities to promote sustainability. Immediate action is required to enhance channel integration and alignment.

• A score of zero (0): A neutral score reflects partial alignment or incomplete execution of your channel strategy. While some elements may be effective, inconsistencies or silos between channels may hinder a seamless customer experience. Additional efforts are needed to fully integrate channels and optimize their social and environmental impact.

• Positive scores (+1 to +3): Positive scores suggest that your channels are well-orchestrated, tailored to customer context, and consistently deliver personalized, accurate information. Your strategy integrates physical and digital channels seamlessly, enhancing customer satisfaction while promoting sustainability.

Case study: Green Clean’s channels

• Misaligned understanding (-3, -2, -1): Green Clean’s channels are poorly coordinated, with no integration between its website and physical stores. Customers experience inconsistent information and limited options for switching between channels, leading to frustration and disengagement.

• Surface Understanding (0): Green Clean offers basic functionality across its channels, such as a website and in-store availability, but fails to fully integrate them. While customers can purchase products online or in-store, they cannot seamlessly transition between these options, and sustainability efforts are minimal.

• Deep Understanding (+1, +2, +3): Green Clean delivers a fully integrated channel strategy. Customers can explore products online, check in-store availability, and order for delivery or pick-up seamlessly. The brand provides consistent, personalized information across all touchpoints, while minimizing environmental impact through eco-friendly packaging and sustainable delivery practices.

Conclusion

The Channels sub-dimension is critical for delivering seamless, customer-centric interactions that align with brand values and sustainability goals. By integrating physical and digital channels, maintaining consistency and accuracy, and optimizing environmental impact, businesses can create a cohesive and impactful customer journey.

Sources

1. Wikipedia, Omnichannel, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnichannel

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Marketing Canvas - Experience

Last update: 03/12/2024

In a nutshell

The Experience sub-dimension in the Marketing Canvas emphasizes how your brand interacts with customers at each moment of their journey. It ensures that every response is tailored to customer identity, goal-oriented, consistent, clear, and aligned with sustainability. A well-designed experience fosters trust, loyalty, and satisfaction, creating a seamless connection between the customer and the brand.

For instance, Green Clean might ensure that every customer interaction—from website navigation to product use—reflects its commitment to eco-friendliness, customer care, and reliability.

Introduction

The Experience sub-dimension within the Journey category focuses on the quality and consistency of your brand’s interactions across all customer touchpoints. It ensures that your brand provides meaningful, goal-driven answers tailored to customer expectations and values. Delivering exceptional experiences is essential for building trust, enhancing satisfaction, and nurturing long-term relationships.

Experience goes beyond functionality; it aligns with customer identity, fulfills their objectives, and leaves a lasting impression.

What is experience?

Experience represents the totality of interactions customers have with your brand, encompassing:

1. Tailored Responses: Addressing customer needs and reflecting their identity.

2. Goal Fulfillment: Helping customers achieve their objectives at every touchpoint.

3. Consistency: Delivering the same level of quality and messaging across channels and moments.

4. Clarity and Reliability: Setting and meeting clear expectations for customers.

5. Sustainability Alignment: Demonstrating environmental and social responsibility throughout the customer journey.

For example:

• Before Purchase: Providing clear, personalized guidance on choosing the right product.

• During Purchase: Offering a smooth and intuitive buying process.

• After Purchase: Following up with useful tips, support, and opportunities for feedback.

Experience: an in-depth perspective

To deliver a high-quality customer experience, brands must:

1. Adapt to Customer Identity: Understand and reflect customer values, preferences, and expectations in every interaction.

2. Focus on Customer Goals: Ensure that every response aligns with and supports customer objectives.

3. Ensure Consistency: Provide a seamless experience across all touchpoints, from marketing to post-purchase support.

4. Set and Meet Clear Expectations: Communicate what customers can expect and deliver consistently to build trust.

5. Embed Sustainability: Highlight and act on your commitment to sustainable practices at every stage.

For example:

• Customer Identity: Green Clean recognizes that its customers value health and eco-friendliness and tailors messaging to highlight these benefits.

• Goal Achievement: The brand ensures its products deliver effective cleaning without harmful chemicals, fulfilling customer expectations.

• Consistency: Its eco-friendly mission is evident across packaging, advertising, and customer support.

• Clear Expectations: Green Clean provides transparent product usage instructions and reliable delivery timelines.

• Sustainability: All interactions reinforce the brand’s commitment to reducing environmental impact.

Translating experience into action

Creating exceptional experiences requires a structured approach:

• Understand Customer Expectations: Use research and feedback to tailor responses to customer identity and goals.

• Map the Customer Journey: Identify touchpoints and ensure consistent, goal-driven interactions.

• Align with Sustainability: Integrate environmentally and socially responsible practices into every customer experience.

Questions to consider:

• Are your brand responses tailored to your customers’ identity at each touchpoint?

• Does your brand help customers achieve their goals in every interaction?

• Are your responses consistent across time, channels, and moments?

• Do you set clear expectations and deliver consistently to meet them?

• How does your brand incorporate sustainability into the customer experience?

Statements for self-assessment

For a comprehensive evaluation of your understanding and application of the Experience concept, rate your agreement with the following statements on a scale from -3 (completely disagree) to +3 (completely agree):

1. For each moment, your brand answer has been adapted to your customers' identity.

2. For each moment, your brand answer has helped customers to achieve their goals.

3. For each moment, your brand answer is consistent in time and space, leaving nothing to chance.

4. For each moment, your brand answer has clear expectations and delivers it consistently.

5. For each moment, your brand answer is compatible with the concept of sustainability.

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Marketing Canvas Method - Journey - Experience

Interpretation of the scores

• Negative scores (-1 to -3): Negative scores indicate significant gaps in the quality and consistency of your brand’s customer experience. This may result in confusion, unmet expectations, and weak customer relationships. Immediate efforts are needed to improve customer alignment, goal orientation, and sustainability integration.

• A score of zero (0): A neutral score reflects partial execution or incomplete alignment of brand responses with customer expectations. While some aspects of the experience may be effective, inconsistencies or unclear messaging may hinder trust and satisfaction. Refinement is needed to ensure a cohesive and impactful experience.

• Positive scores (+1 to +3): Positive scores suggest that your brand consistently delivers tailored, reliable, and sustainable experiences. This ensures that customers feel understood, supported, and aligned with your values, fostering trust, loyalty, and advocacy.

Case study: Green Clean’s experience

• Misaligned understanding (-3, -2, -1): Green Clean fails to adapt its responses to customer identity or goals, providing inconsistent and unclear interactions. For instance, its advertising highlights sustainability, but product instructions lack clarity, creating confusion and mistrust.

• Surface understanding (0): Green Clean delivers partially effective experiences. While its packaging reflects eco-friendliness, its website and customer support fail to align with these values consistently, leaving customers with mixed impressions.

• Deep understanding (+1, +2, +3): Green Clean ensures that every touchpoint reflects its eco-friendly mission and supports customer objectives. Its website provides personalized product recommendations, packaging is fully sustainable, and customer support offers clear, consistent answers. These efforts create a seamless and satisfying experience that builds trust and loyalty.

Conclusion

The Experience sub-dimension is critical for ensuring your brand delivers consistent, meaningful, and sustainable interactions throughout the customer journey. By tailoring your responses to customer identity, supporting their goals, and maintaining clear and reliable messaging, you can enhance satisfaction and build stronger, lasting relationships with your audience.

Sources

1. Matt Watkinson, Book, The 10 Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences.

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Marketing Canvas by Laurent Bouty

Marketing Canvas - Moments

Last update: 4/12/2024

In a nutshell

The Moments sub-dimension in the Marketing Canvas focuses on identifying and understanding the critical points in the customer journey before, during, and after engaging with your value proposition. These moments capture customer actions, thoughts, and emotions, revealing their objectives and pain points. Understanding these moments helps businesses design experiences that resonate with customers, foster loyalty, and improve satisfaction.

For example, Green Clean might analyze moments such as researching eco-friendly cleaning products, comparing options, purchasing a product, and using it at home. By understanding what customers think, feel, and do at each stage, Green Clean can tailor its messaging, support, and product experience.

Introduction

The Moments sub-dimension in the Marketing Canvas is part of the Journey category, focusing on mapping the customer’s experience with your brand. Moments are the key touchpoints where customers interact with your value proposition and form impressions of your brand. By understanding these moments in detail, you can align your strategies to meet customer expectations and create memorable experiences.

Unlike other elements that focus on broad strategies, Moments zooms into the specific instances that shape customer perceptions, ensuring that your value proposition delivers value consistently.

What are moments?

Moments are the specific instances in the customer journey where they engage with your brand or value proposition. These can occur before, during, or after a purchase, encompassing everything from initial awareness to post-purchase advocacy.

For example:

• Before Purchase: Researching sustainable cleaning products online.

• During Purchase: Comparing Green Clean to competitors and making a buying decision.

• After Purchase: Using the product and deciding whether to repurchase or recommend it.

Moments are characterized by:

1. Customer Observations: Based on real customer behavior and feedback.

2. Actions, Thoughts, and Feelings: Capturing what customers do, think, and feel at each touchpoint.

3. Customer Objectives: Understanding the goals customers aim to achieve during each moment.

Moments: an in-depth perspective

Mapping moments requires detailed insights into customer behavior, focusing on:

1. Observations and Identity: Moments must reflect real customer behaviors and identities, gathered through interviews and observations.

2. Comprehensive Coverage: Identifying all relevant moments before, during, and after engaging with your value proposition.

3. Customer Emotions and Actions: Capturing the thoughts, feelings, and actions of customers at each stage.

4. Customer Objectives: Understanding what customers aim to achieve during each moment and aligning your strategy accordingly.

For example:

• Observations: Green Clean might discover that customers feel overwhelmed by the variety of “eco-friendly” claims during research.

• Emotions: Customers may feel relief when they find a transparent and trustworthy brand.

• Actions: Comparing labels or searching for certifications like “EcoCert.”

• Objectives: Finding a safe and sustainable cleaning solution for their family.

Mental Models - Moments in the Marketing Canvas

Translating moments into action

To enhance the customer experience, businesses must identify and refine the moments that matter most to their audience. This involves:

• Mapping the Journey: Defining moments across all stages of the customer journey.

• Aligning with Objectives: Ensuring each moment supports the customer’s goals and minimizes friction.

• Optimizing Touchpoints: Improving interactions to meet customer expectations and create positive experiences.

Questions to consider:

• Have you based your moments on real customer observations and interviews?

• Have you identified moments before, during, and after the purchase?

• Do you understand what your customers think, feel, and do at each moment?

• Have you clearly identified the objectives your customers aim to achieve during each moment?

Statements for self-assessment

For a comprehensive evaluation of your understanding and application of the Moments concept, rate your agreement with the following statements on a scale from -3 (completely disagree) to +3 (completely agree):

1. Your moments have been defined based on customer observations and interviews. It reflects his/her identity.

2. You have identified all moments before, during, and after buying your value proposition.

3. For each moment, you have clearly identified what your customers think, feel, and do.

4. For each moment, you have clearly identified what are the customer objectives.

View fullsize

Marketing Canvas Method - Journey - Moments

Interpretation of the scores

• Negative scores (-1 to -3): Negative scores indicate a lack of understanding or incomplete mapping of customer moments. This may result in missed opportunities to address customer needs, leading to friction in the journey and reduced satisfaction. Immediate action is needed to observe, analyze, and map customer behaviors more effectively.

• A score of zero (0): A neutral score reflects partial insights or an incomplete understanding of customer moments. While you may have identified some key touchpoints, gaps remain in addressing customer thoughts, feelings, or objectives. Further research and refinement are required to create a comprehensive journey map.

• Positive scores (+1 to +3): Positive scores suggest that you have a thorough understanding of customer moments and have effectively mapped their actions, thoughts, feelings, and objectives. This deep insight allows you to create seamless, satisfying experiences that align with customer expectations and foster loyalty.

Case study: Green Clean’s moments

• Misaligned Understanding (-3, -2, -1): Green Clean fails to map critical customer moments, focusing only on the purchase stage. The brand overlooks key interactions, such as research or post-purchase usage, resulting in a disconnected customer experience that fails to meet expectations.

• Surface Understanding (0): Green Clean identifies some customer moments but does not fully capture customer thoughts, feelings, or objectives. For example, while the brand recognizes that customers compare products, it does not address the emotional stress of choosing among eco-friendly options.

• Deep Understanding (+1, +2, +3): Green Clean comprehensively maps customer moments, from initial awareness to post-purchase advocacy. By identifying what customers think, feel, and do at each stage, the brand tailors its messaging, simplifies decision-making, and provides ongoing support. For instance, Green Clean offers an online guide to decoding eco-labels, addressing customer stress during the research phase and aligning with their objective of making informed choices.

Conclusion

The Moments sub-dimension is essential for understanding the key touchpoints that shape the customer journey. By observing real customer behavior, identifying actions, emotions, and objectives, and refining interactions, businesses can create seamless and satisfying experiences. A well-mapped journey fosters loyalty, trust, and advocacy, ensuring your value proposition resonates with customers at every stage.

Sources

1. Mental Models, Wikipedia, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_model

2. Google, Micro-Moments, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/micro-moments/micro-moments-understand-new-consumer-behavior/

More on the Marketing Canvas

Resources for Course on Customer Experience

In this post, you will find a collection of resources that I am using and maintaining for my different classes and workshops on this topic. Unfortunately I couldn't list everything that I am reading or watching and I have only selected some vital fews that mights inspired you. It is also a good start if you are interested by this topic. The list contains websites, books, articles and videos.

Cheers

Laurent 

Recommended WebSites

• Adaptive Path: Adaptive Map, Discover the four steps of experience mapping
• Mental Models: Why are mental models important?
• Service Design: Customer Journey Map Tool
• Brian Solis: The Futur of Customer Experience
• Think With Google: Experience & Design
• Strategy-Business: Customer Strategy
• Deloitte Insights: Articles and Multimedia on Customer Experience

Recommended Books

Easy to read and a good start if you are curious about Customer Experience from a Marketing Perspective. A lot of good tools and and a powerful process.

Customers are powerful. They have a loud voice, a wealth of choice and their expectations are higher than ever.

This book covers ten principles you can use to make real world improvements to your customers’ experiences, whatever your business does and whoever you are. 

One step further on this subject with the notion of Moments of Truth. Brian Solis is a though leader on Digital Transformation.

In his new book X: The Experience When Business Meets Design bestselling author Brian Solis shares why great products are no longer good enough to win with customers and why creative marketing and delightful customer service too are not enough to succeed. In X, he shares why the future of business is experiential and how to create and cultivate meaningful experiences.

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Recommended Articles

1998 - Harvard Business Review - Welcome to the Experience Economy

First there was agriculture, then manufactured goods, and eventually services. Each change represented a step up in economic value--a way for producers to distinguish their products from increasingly undifferentiated competitive offerings. Now, as services are in their turn becoming commoditized, companies are looking for the next higher value in an economic offering. Leading-edge companies are finding that it lies in staging experiences. To reach this higher level of competition, companies will have to learn how to design, sell, and deliver experiences that customers will readily pay for. An experience occurs when a company uses services as the stage--and goods as props--for engaging individuals in a way that creates a memorable event. And while experiences have always been at the heart of the entertainment business, any company stages an experience when it engages customers in a personal, memorable way. The lessons of pioneering experience providers, including the Walt Disney Company, can help companies learn how to compete in the experience economy. The authors offer five design principles that drive the creation of memorable experiences. First, create a consistent theme, one that resonates throughout the entire experience. Second, layer the theme with positive cues--for example, easy-to-follow signs. Third, eliminate negative cues, those visual or aural messages that distract or contradict the theme. Fourth, offer memorabilia that commemorate the experience for the user. Finally, engage all five senses--through sights, sounds, and so on--to heighten the experience and thus make it more memorable. 

Read on HBR here

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2002 - Harvard Business Review - The One Number You Need to Grow

Companies spend lots of time and money on complex tools to assess customer satisfaction. But they're measuring the wrong thing. The best predictor of top-line growth can usually be captured in a single survey question: Would you recommend this company to a friend? This finding is based on two years of research in which a variety of survey questions were tested by linking the responses with actual customer behavior--purchasing patterns and referrals--and ultimately with company growth. Surprisingly, the most effective question wasn't about customer satisfaction or even loyalty per se. In most of the industries studied, the percentage of customers enthusiastic enough about a company to refer it to a friend or colleague directly correlated with growth rates among competitors. Willingness to talk up a company or product to friends, family, and colleagues is one of the best indicators of loyalty because of the customer's sacrifice in making the recommendation. When customers act as references, they do more than indicate they've received good economic value from a company; they put their own reputations on the line. And they will risk their reputations only if they feel intense loyalty. The findings point to a new, simpler approach to customer research, one directly linked to a company's results. By substituting a single question--blunt tool though it may appear to be--for the complex black box of the customer satisfaction survey, companies can actually put consumer survey results to use and focus employees on the task of stimulating growth. 

Read on HBR here

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2007 - Harvard Business Review - Understanding Customer Experience

The article discusses the importance of monitoring customer experience. Several examples are presented demonstrating customer dissatisfaction in a variety of situations. Customer experience is defined, and several methods for measuring it are discussed. The results of a recent Bain & Company survey of customers of 362 companies is presented. Methods of collecting customer data at "touch points," instances of direct contact either with the product or service itself or with representations of it, are detailed.

Read on HBR here

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2016 - McKinsey - Customer Experiences

Collection of ideas, articles, thoughts and interviews about Customer Experience. Currently 2 entire collections examining how companies can create competitive advantage by putting customers first and managing their journeys.

Read on McKinsey here

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2016 - PWC - 10 Principles of Customer Strategy

It’s no longer enough to target your chosen customers. To stay ahead, you need to create distinctive value and experiences for them.

Read on Strategy-Business here

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2017 - Altimeter - The Customer Experience of AI

This report explores the impact of AI on the customer experience, lays out a set of operating principles, and includes insight from technology users, developers, academics, designers, and other experts on how to design customer-centric experiences in the age of AI. More than anything, business leaders today should begin to treat AI as fundamental to the customer experience. This means thinking about the values it perpetuates as an essential and eventually indistinguishable expression of product, services and the brand experience.

Read on Altimeter here

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Recommended Videos

Joe Pine introduces the Progression of Economic Value, the foundational model for understanding the role of Experiences in the history of economics.

Brian Solis, award-winning author, prominent blogger/writer and principal analyst at Altimeter Group, helps people understand and define the role we play in the evolution of technology and its impact. In this first talk of the session The Wild Promises of the Digital Customer Experience at Lift16, Brian Solis shows us how brands are focusing their designs on customer experience and why it matters, especially in the digital world.

This is a full keynote based on the story of my latest book 'when digital becomes human'. Presented this on the biggest retail conference in Istanbul. Enjoy! More about Steven Steven is an expert in customer focus in a digital world.

A New Whole Brain Customer Experience

Reposted from https://www.spencerstuart.com/research-and-insight/whole-brain-marketing

Sid McGrath, Chief Strategy Officer, Karmarama

A consequence experience

The customer experience for brands is driven by consequence: when customers have a good experience they continue to engage with the brand; if the experience is bad they disengage, often telling others about their disappointment and spreading a message of general discontent.

This makes for some pretty precarious brand relationships. However, the issue that so far no-one seems to be addressing is that the very notion of the customer experience is fundamentally flawed.

A disconnected, transactional experience

Marketing leaders see customer experience as their number one priority, but they are rarely in control of all of it, or even enough of it to make a difference. Recent focus on using digital technology to influence customer purchasing decisions is causing some companies to concentrate too narrowly on the customer’s interaction with a brand at the moment of sale. These ‘experiences’ can be relentlessly sales-focused and annoyingly interruptive. Organisations calling themselves customer experience experts encourage companies to increase the number of transactional messages, but is this really leading to better, worthwhile and relevant experiences for the customer? The fact is that global use of adblockers is rising while trust in brands is rapidly declining.

Reducing a person’s relationship to a brand solely to that of a ‘customer’ demonstrates a lack of understanding about the role that brands actually play in our lives. A transactional focus also shows a brand’s hand: their audience is perceived as a wallet ready to be picked or a purse ready to be opened, rather than a person to be understood, respected and served.

A human experience

What then is the answer? To start with, people must be respected as human beings with fairly low thresholds for unwanted buying messaging. This doesn’t mean no messaging; it means messaging that is empathetic to the individual and to the context. With this in mind the customer experience can then be reimagined as the human experience, from CX to HX, where a brand’s pathway into people’s lives is fully understood and delivered with relevance rather than persistence.

The transactional experience previously locked into consumption and category gives way to one that connects with culture and allows for meaningful, useful and relevant communication, with the selling left to the right place and the right time.

A fully-connected experience

If the human experience is the answer, how do we get there? Again, it’s about understanding how humans, and more specifically, how our brains, work.

The brain is an astonishingly connected piece of hardware. As much as we may try and separate it into left and right hemisphere, or occipital and frontal lobes, or neocortex and limbic system, every part of the human brain is connected to another part to improve its understanding and response towards any situation. This connection ensures an integrated response, a mix of logical and emotional consideration, instinct and intelligence.

The interconnectedness of the brain serves as a model for understanding how to create better, balanced and truly human experiences for brands. Approaching any experience with a whole-brain mentality means finding a way to connect everything with everything, from consumption to category to culture. This is how humans see their world — fully connected — so it stands to reason that it’s also how they should engage with their brands and how brands should engage with them.

Now consider once again the classic customer experience — an experience that ushers customers through the consumption and category phases of their relationship with a brand, but stops short of connecting to the culture of the wider life they lead.

Without the insight and intelligence required to understand the implications — the consequences — of the brand experience, the experience itself breaks or, worse, is biased towards buying rather than being. This is the fundamental reason why customer experiences are disconnected.

A meaningful experience

Once a brand is able to connect to a person’s wider life, understand and respect them as a human rather than a data point or part of an algorithm, and can connect that back to the category and consumption phase of the relationship, there emerges a new type of powerful, meaningful, connected human experience — one that people will actually want rather than one that will frustrate them.

So, paradoxically, we don’t live in the age of the customer; they are not “king”, “queen” or “the answer”. We need to move to the age of human, to human-centricity where what the human wants and needs can be fully, relevantly connected to the relationship that brands want to have.