135: History as a Sales Point

Today we discuss claims of company longevity as a sales point and whether or not they still have a positive marketing impact on today’s consumers. Is company history still a viable sales point? We’ve all seen marketing copy that says things like “America’s favorite widget for 50 years!” or “Building whirligigs since 1942.” In generations past, these claims held a lot of water for consumers looking to do business with brands they can trust. But in today’s world, technology changes overnight and products and services we’ve never thought about are turning new brands into household names. And connected customers have too much power to assume you offer the experiences thy want simply because you’ve been around forever. They look for social proof of experiences that fit into their modern, digitized lives. Empowered consumers have turned innovative companies like Amazon and Netflix into giants in a relatively short time, leaving leading brands like Borders and Blockbuster with little more than their “impressive” histories to speak of. What about your company history? Maybe you’ve been around for 40 years, but Adam and Jeannie have their doubts about whether today’s generation would care. Does your company history make you sound like an expert, or a dinosaur? Perhaps the newness of your startup can actually give you an advantage with millennials… It’s all about your customers and what matters most to them. Related Content 360Connext® post, Why Claims of History Fail to Impress Today’s Customers Customers That Stick® post, 5 Millennial Traits to Improve Customer Service Episode 130: Chloë Thomas, Customer Manipulation Episode 040: Robert Rose and The New Era of Marketing Episode 012: Millennial Consumers, Anna Bell, and NFL Customer Experience Sponsor message: Give your team the customer service training they deserve Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com.   Take care of yourself and take care of your customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices