photo credit: Johan Larsson
In the third blog on the redefinition of customer concepts and experiences in media, it’s time to have a look at the members and sponsors. They key here is in the names, as they are chosen to reflect the consumers’ importance for the organization – members are to be seen as engaged users, while sponsors actually pay our salaries.
Earlier posts on news consumption:
The News Consumption Pyramid. Four levels of news consumers: (1) Observers, (2) Visitors, (3) Members, (4) Sponsors.
In the work to actually become a more customer centric organization, it is of outmost importance to look at how you talk about customers – be they potential, current or former. Because how we talk about our customers to each other, will ultimately decide how we talk to them in our customer service and other touchpoints.
Working for a local newspaper, it does not take long until you realise exactly how passionate your readers are, for better or worse. That is, as much as they love you when you do something good, as much will they hate you when you fail. Sure, that happens in other businesses too – but the difference is that all these emotions stem from the daily consumption of a journalistic product, where 200 journalists research, evaluate, write and have opinions about the everyday life of 500’000 people. There’s at least one personal flipside to each and everyone of those coins.
The newspaper is also not seen as a commercial entity by itself, but as the collective voice of the community’s residents. As a lover of all things PR, I embrace this professional situation as a dream come true. But in a complex organization such as ours, there are a lot of people who are used to working with advertsing, tele marketing etc for businesses with ‘normal’ services and customers. To fully grasp the situation and treat customers with the respect they look for, we need to ensure that our terminology are up to par in describing the relationship.
As we approach the end of the scale in this context, it is important to note that the primary goal of most established newspapers still is to attract readers of the paper itself as a core product. This has changed somewhat over the past few years, as digital versions of the paper has been introduced (incl PDF:s, iPad versions etc). We know that we have not reached the end of this process yet (or ever will?), and may see drastic changes in the years to come. In other words, this model will need further adoption as time goes by.
3. Member
Nature: Active consumption.
Keyword: Confirmation (of interest and relationship).
Communication: Direct, primarily through digital channels – personal through e-mail, and general through specific news channel and social media.
Engagement: Broaden the relationship between reader and journalists/editors, and encourage readers to co-create new designs and services/products.
Content: News that cater to customer expectations in specific channels, customizable channels (content, design, rate of updates etc), added value to free alternative through special services and news material etc.
Service functions: Self service online, telephone, e-mail, social media and chats.
Required investment: Time, personal information/space and/or small amounts money.
Examples: Paywall news sites/sections, e-newsletters, newsflash services and smartphone/tablet news apps.
Metrics: Member registries, financial incomes and web metrics.
Call to action: To confirm reading habits, engage consumer to seek in-depth news, and earn WTP (willingness to pay) (level 4).
4. Sponsor
Nature: Active consumption.
Keyword: Sponsorship.
Communication: Direct personal communication through mail and e-mail.
Engagement: Confirm the relationship between reader and journalists/editors, and encourage readers to co-create new designs and services/products.
Content: In-depth news, focus on unique material, investigative journalism and deepened discourse. A complete summary of what is happening glocally right now, and will be happening long term.
Service functions: Self service online, and prioritized lines in telephone, e-mail, social media and chats.
Required investment: Time, personal information, daily routines and larger amounts of money.
Examples: Newspaper subscriptions (traditional and digital).
Metrics: Financial incomes, circulation and scope.
Call to action: To encourage and confirm the core service’s position in everyday life, and confirm WTP.
Per usual, any feedback on these concepts would be greatly appreciated – here, on Twitter or through e-mail (markus.pettersson@gp.se). This is far from a finished model, but rather a first step in a new approach that needs to be developed and deepened to become applicable.
So, how about up- and down-sales, the customer experience, transparency and engaging readers to co-create content? More on that in upcoming posts.
