By Brendan Byrnes, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
In the following interview segment, Doug Levy, author and CEO of MEplusYOU, explains why companies need to let go of the need for instant gratification. The full interview with Doug Levy can be seen HERE, in which he discusses his new book, Can’t Buy Me Like. In the book, Levy tackles the changing marketing space, believing that companies must either adapt or continue to put blind faith in increasingly ineffective advertising. Levy also explains a new era that we’ve entered, dubbed the ‘relationship era’, and describes how this will change marketing for all companies, big and small.
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Brendan Byrnes: One of the things that we don’t like at The Motley Fool is we think a lot of companies are too short-term focused instead of long-term focused. Is that what you find when looking at marketing and the way marketers think? Are they too focused on getting people in the door right now, and not necessarily making them a customer for the long period?
Doug Levy: Without a doubt. The average tenure of a Chief Marketing Officer is around two years. The average CEO is thinking about this quarter, so no doubt marketers are putting a lot of attention toward the short term.
What they may not realize is that even in the short term, if they don’t have trust in the relationships with customers, they’re spending more money. They’re spending more money discounting and promoting — so making less revenue — because they’re having to discount, and therefore making less profit.
They’re also spending more money on paid media because they don’t have that group of loyal customers that are out there actively advocating for their brand. By increasing the level of trust among their customer base, they have an opportunity to spend less and to generate greater profit.
Brendan: It’s an excellent book, Can’t Buy Me Like. Thank you so much for your time.
Doug: I enjoyed the conversation, Brendan. Thank you.
The article This Is Why You Just Can’t Buy Customer Trust originally appeared on Fool.com.
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