JohnM wrote:
I work in the advertising industry.
I work with many of Australia's best marketers.
Every day, we work at modifying the behaviours and purchasing habits of Australia's consumers.
And I can tell you it is both a science, and an art.
It works.
So it scares the shit out of me to hear a board member admit that they're mystified as to why they can't get more Carlton supporters to sign up as members. Actually that's not the way they frame it: they seem to think that the onus is on the Carlton supporter, and they're mystified as to why more don't become members.
The board should be mystified as to why the club's executive isn't competent enough to entice Carlton supporters to sign up. Stephen and Board: you're looking in the wrong place. The answer is much closer to home.
The club is as far removed from being the kind of customer-centric organisation that attracts consumer dollars, as it could possibly be. You are nowhere near it.
It's not the supporters. We're no more or less apathetic than Hawthorn or Collingwood supporters. It's just that those clubs try to put the supporter at the centre of things. Carlton keeps its supporters at arm's length, as an afterthought to your operations.
Businesses that do this, and rely on consumer sentiment for growth, are doomed.
Can you PLEASE find a serious marketing professional... and a CEO of a business that relies on consumer sentiment for its growth (ie, not bankers and lawyers) and get them on the board please? Think CMO's of FMCG's... not owners of family businesses, etc.
This is embarrassing.
This is absolutely spot on!!! It's called market segmentation - part of a Customer Value Proposition which delivers on an organisations' customer promise.