Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital<\/em>:<\/p>\n\u201cWhat we\u2019re missing as consumers is high touch. We\u2019re missing the satisfaction of real relationships and knowing that other people care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is especially pertinent to retailing. If I face a clerk who is indifferent to our presence or I eat at a restaurant where everything is mechanically delivered \u2014 even the smiles are mechanical \u2014 I don\u2019t feel very close to that organization. They\u2019re missing emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the old days, a brand used to be positioned as a perfect solution to a well-understood need. But by claiming that, we end up disappointing people. That\u2019s selling a fantasy. Our message was something like \u2018this car will make you so attractive to the opposite sex that you have to buy it.\u2019 Marketing has been about the over-promise. We believed that if we got it sold, then we shouldn\u2019t worry about how people feel about it afterward, and that\u2019s a mistake. In a hyper-connected world, you can\u2019t ignore that the consumer is your most important advocate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a hunger for real intimacy and experience.\u00a0Brands need to be more human and authentic. They should stop trying to be perfect. Human-centric brands should treat customers as friends, becoming an integral part of their lifestyle. Brands should be more like humans. Approachable. Likable. Vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hug heard round the world<\/h3>\n
Let\u2019s get back to that hug.<\/p>\n
Nearly every month I visit the Hyatt Hotel in New Brunswick, NJ. It\u2019s conveniently located to the Rutgers University campus where I teach. There\u2019s normally a lady with close-cropped silver hair and a big smile behind the front desk who greets me with a \u201cHello Mr. Schaefer!\u201d when I walk through the lobby door. Her name is Terry.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure I look like a wreck when I check in for a room. By that point, I\u2019ve been assaulted by airline delays, sloppy weather, the Newark Airport (America\u2019s biggest bus station), rude TSA employees (Newark is the\u00a0worst<\/em>), and smelly, crowded subway trains.<\/p>\nLast week Terry looked at my sad, post-travel state and said, \u201cI\u2019ll send a little something to your room.\u201d When I got back from my teaching assignment, I had a fruit and cheese plate waiting for me. And when I checked out of the hotel the next morning, Terry came out from behind the hotel desk and hugged me good-bye.<\/p>\n
I never hang out around the front desk long enough to get to know Terry, or for Terry to get to know me. But this little gesture had an amazing impact. The traveling life can be so incredibly grueling, especially in the winter. Damn, that hug made a difference. A hug from the Hyatt.<\/p>\n
And now you know about it, too. It\u2019s the hug heard \u2019round the world.\u00a0hugged by a brand<\/strong><\/p>\nLink: What it’s like to be hugged by a brand. Literally. – Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}<\/a> via www.businessesgrow.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week I was hugged by a brand. I\u2019m serious \u2014 a literal, physical hug. I\u2019ll tell you more about this unexpected embrace, but before I [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[346,403],"tags":[284,503,39],"class_list":["post-4541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-branding","category-news","tag-branding","tag-hugged-by-a-brand","tag-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtremefreelance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}