Integrated Customer Experience: An Essential Component Of Effective Marketing Strategy, Essay.

Competition and the Need for Consumer-Centric Marketing Strategy

Customer experience is the heart of marketing for every industry. You are required to review the current literature on the Integrated Customer Experience and write a literature review which could be suitable for publication in an academic marketing journal. Papers dealing with topics other than the specified unit will not be marked.

Due to rapidly changing global economy in the contemporary world, competition has dominated the business environment. Many firms offering the same products and services have rendered competition a common phenomenon (Chernev, 2018, pp. 108)). As a result, companies are striving to lay strong emphasis on the need to develop products and services that appeal to their consumers. Hence, the main motive of every company is to become a market leader commanding a large percentage of the market share. Providing an exceptional consumer experience has become a necessity for most companies in the effort to gain a competitive advantage (Hamdar, Gharios, Awad & El-Husseini, 2017, pp. 34). Marketing is thus a key component of any company whose central focus is on consumers. Building a consumer-centred marketing strategy is essential in winning the consumer's loyalty resulting to higher brand equity (McDonald & Wilson, 2016, pp. 23). To sustain the stiff competition, a company must be able to produce a product that offers value to the consumers and present such product in a unique and attractive way in order to sustain a profitable growth. Integrated customer experience is a concept that must be keenly observed before and after the product development, that is, during the production and presentation of the product in terms of adverting and marketing promotions. Post product development activities such as advertising and market promotions will help in creating a good customer experience which brings consumer loyalty towards the brand (Ibrahim, Alkhawlani & Al-shaghdari, 2017, pp. 36). Consequently, the sales will be boosted making a brand a market leader. Therefore, the literature review seeks to dig deep and understand the concept of integrated consumer experience as an integral part of any company’s marketing strategy. The literature review is done from a total number of seventeen (17) references that include fourteen (14) current peer and scholarly journal articles and three (3) academic books.

Customer experience is the heart of marketing for every industry. The statement places a strong emphasis on customer experience as the essential part that dictates success or failure of any marketing efforts by a company (Naghshband, Ombati & John, 2016, pp. 95). Consumer experience refers to the internal and individual responses that a customer may have towards a brand either in a direct or indirect way. Customer experience, therefore, covers the point of customers contact and involvement with the product at different levels. In the marketing process, customer experience can be created either directly through face-face sales or indirectly through news reports and advertising. Consumer experience is as a result of interaction between customers and the brand over a certain period of time leading to a mutual relationship between the two. The customer experience is based on how the consumer interacts with the product at various environments, the brand touch points that a consumer can interact with and also the period of interaction-how long the consumer has used the brand (Chernev, 2018, pp. 106). The consumer experience can be boosted by both the values of the consumers and those of the company. Before purchasing the product, a consumer must consider some unique memories help him/her remember the product. Moreover, after the purchase, the consumer will create some experience with the product based on how it satisfies his/her needs. Thus, the consumer experience with the product creates some memories about the product that consumer will never forget. Therefore, a company must try to ensure that a product creates a positive impact on the consumer which leads to a positive customer experience.

Understanding Consumer Experience

A company’s marketing department must have the ability to deliver a product is such a way that it creates an experience in the eyes of consumers which compels the buyer to spend more with the company and have the brand loyalty inspired (McDonald & Wilson, 2016, pp. 20). Loyalty can be driven by the level of interaction between the brand and the consumers and how well it delivers and satisfies the customer needs and wants. Therefore, to create a good and everlasting consumer loyalty, a company must understand the needs of its consumers and produce a product that offers consumers the best value possible. A consumer experience management has emerged to be the best strategy for most companies striving to counter the increased competition in the business environment (McDonald & Wilson, 2016, pp. 35). Offering innovative products at a lower price cannot stand by themselves in creating a positive consumer experience. Every contact with a consumer and their levels of interaction with the product dictates their level of experience. Such experiences are meant to stimulate the customer’s emotions compelling him/her to buy the product. Therefore, customer experience involves stimulating and controlling a person’s emotions which helps the company to create a desire consumer experience that will make the customer to always remember the product and buy it whenever he/she need that product.

In the marketing process, every company strives to create a customer experience by adding value to the products by allowing consumer participation and connection through proper management of the product encounters with the client. To succeed in that, the company must ensure that it develops and modifies the product touch points to suit the consumers with an aim of enhancing the customer’s experience (Mirabi, Akbariyeh & Tahmasebifard, 2015, pp. 15). Creation of positive customer experience can lead to a higher and greater brand equity. According to brand management scholar David Aaker, brand equity influences consumer loyalty, perceived quality, brand recognition and improved customer association with the product (Oladepo & Abimbola, 2015, pp. 102). Once a product attains high levels of loyalty and recognition, then it easily becomes a market leader. A brand leading in the market commands a huge number of loyal customers thus increasing sales ahead of other competitors (Salamovska & Todorovska, 2016, pp. 40). Once that is achieved, the company can have a greater market share leading to a sustainable and profitable growth. Thus, any strategic marketing efforts are directed towards the creation of a good customer experience since it increases brand loyalty, recognition and sales.

Creating a Consumer Experience Management Strategy

Due to the fact that customer experience is the heart of every marketing process for any company, it is important for a company’s marketing unit to understand and effectively develop a positive consumer experience. This can be achieved through but not limited to good customer service and relationship, a conducive shopping environment and the ethicality of the brand. Engaging customers in some of your activities can be very effective in putting long lasting memories in a consumer’s mind. Shopping in a friendly and free environment encourages the consumer to be loyal and willing to continue buying products from a company (Piccinini, Gregory & Kolbe, 2015, pp. 1640). The ethical aspects of the company also dictate the levels positive consumer experiences. Hence, an engaging customer in the market can help them to remember active experiences more often and accurately than the passive activities and engagements. Moreover, the company can track and document all the customer interactions and relationships in order to build a product based on the consumer needs. Therefore, consumer interactions and relationships help in building a positive consumer experience with the product thus helping to boost sales and counter the competitive nature of the global market.

Most companies across the world are striving to offer great and positive customer experience aimed at satisfying the consumer needs and win his/her loyalty to the brand (Al-Bashir, Al-Attari & Bargash, 2016, 4525). A company striving to offer exceptional and effective customer experience must: identify its target consumers and design a relevant incentive within an enticing and conducive environment. Secondly, the company must mobilize and equip its entire marketing team with relevant skills to help in delivering the proposed customer experience. Finally, the company strives to develop by constantly laying emphasis on consistency aimed at executing their proposed customer experience activities. The company can, therefore, engage in research to establish the impact of undertaking consumer experience plan by listening to consumer responses that portray satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Wulf,  Mettler & Brenner, 2017, pp. 45). Therefore, developing a good consumer experience strategy with relevant activities can be important in gauging and improving the strategy in order for a company to succeed in its marketing process.

A number of techniques can be used to steer the process of developing and implementing a positive customer experience for the purpose of helping in popularizing and selling a brand. Such techniques include personal selling, public relations, advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing (Abbas, Afshan, ul Haq & Aslam, 2018, pp. 81). These aspects of building consumer experience are planned and executed by the marketing department. The techniques are aimed at driving consumer interaction with the brand in various levels and touch points. Therefore, the company must able to keenly identify such techniques and make proper use of them in order to create a great consumer experience that will be important in improving their position in the market.

Techniques for Developing a Positive Customer Experience

Customer experience is based on the emotional concept of the consumers. It can be established and measured through a number of styles. For instance, by analyzing and documenting your sales, a company can be able to establish the impact of using various techniques in promoting a great customer experience. Some aspects of the process are measurable while others are not. Hence, the measurable becomes the key element of gauging the company’s customer experience objectives such as increased sales and customer retention (Bhardwaj & Aggarwal, 2017, pp. 34). The company must map the customer interactions and needs in the process of interactive engagements and relationships. By mapping the customer needs, the company can easily understand the emotional wants of the consumer and thus create and proposed consumer experience based on the mapped need and wants. Once that is achieved, it is analyzed and documented to act as a point of reference in the whole process of creating the positive customer experience. Lastly, there should be a concept of learning through feedback from the customers. Such feedback can be helpful in improving the necessary areas that will help in boosting the customer experience even more. 

The concept of the marketing mix is also important in the process of creating a great and effective consumer experience (Abbas, Afshan, ul Haq & Aslam, 2018, pp. 82). It involves four levels of making a market decision, that is, product, price, promotion and place. A well-designed marketing mix will play a key role in the marketing process since it will act as a backbone in the creation and establishment of a great consumer experience. The product aspect refers to the product offered by the company to satisfy the consumer needs. The product should be of high quality than the competing products in order to fulfil the customer wants and create a good experience with the brand. The pricing aspect should involve discounts and reflect value. Consumers want to spend on a product whose quality matches their money. The prices should be set to attract the customers to buy the product. The place should be where the product is being sold. The company should offer some transport benefits, conducive and friendly environment where the buyers will engage in some activities that put strong memories in their mind (MacInnis, 2016, pp. 7). The company should ensure that the place where the consumers will buy the product is strategically located in an accessible area. The promotion aspect will involve using the right media and messages that will connect with the target audience and give them value for the product. The messages should be repeated frequently to ensure that the messages are well understood to create emotional impression prompting the target consumers to buy the product (Akopova, Przhedetskaya, Taranov & Roshchina, 2017, pp. 192). The concept of the marketing mix is customer-centred thus playing a key role in helping the marketers to build a product impression that will connect with the consumers and create a positive experience with the brand (Ibrahim, Alkhawlani & Al-shaghdari, 2017, pp. 35).

Measuring and Mapping Customer Interactions and Needs

A good positive consumer experience has a lot of benefits to the company in terms of performance, growth and productivity (Wulf, Mettler & Brenner, 2017, pp. 45). A positive consumer experience makes a customer view the company as the only solution available to offer a product and fulfils their needs and desires thus increasing sales. A good consumer experience also helps the target customers in recognizing a company’s product from a set of products in the same category helping the firm stay ahead of the competition (Salamovska & Todorovska, 2016, pp. 41). A good consumer experience helps in shaping the perceived quality of a product where the customers believe that the company’s product is of high quality. A great customer experience also will help the company to have a greater bargaining power, enjoying a competitive advantage and help in countering the threat of new competing product (Hamdar, Gharios, Awad & El-Husseini, 2017, pp. 90). Therefore, developing and managing an overall consumer experience is important in helping the brand loyalty, recognition and profit increase which in turn offers a room for the organization’s sustainable growth and development.

In conclusion, marketing is an integral part of any company across the globe. With the increased competition in the global economy, the aspect of investing heavily in marketing the product is becoming a necessity. Most companies are offering the same products and services thus rendering the business environment a competitive one. Hence, a company should be keen to present its product in a unique way that attracts customer emotions prompting them to buy. For a product to gain recognition and loyalty, the marketing department must strive to create and maintain a greater consumer experience. It is through positive consumer experience that the customer will be compelled to buy from a company and maintain their loyalty to the brand. A company must establish procedures and techniques used to create good consumer experience. Such techniques include personal selling, public relations, advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing. Consumer experience remains the core aspect that drives the whole process of marketing. In order to achieve the best results of increased and improved sales, the marketers should create a good relationship with customers based on frequent interaction and engagements. Consumer experience is beneficial to the whole organization as it dictates the success of any marketing plan. Therefore, an organization striving to achieve the best results must put the issue of consumer experience at heart of any marketing plan to increase sales and sustain a profitable growth.

References

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Bhardwaj, M., & Aggarwal, R. (2017). An Empirical Study on Effect of Experience on Consumer Adoption Intention towards Internet Banking. PACIFIC BUSINESS REVIEW INTERNATIONAL, 10(4), 31-38.

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