There is no one simple answer to how some of the world’s most successful brands and people found their way to the top. But there is one simple approach, or mindset, that does seem to be common among numerous industry leading pioneers such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Steven Spielberg. It is also a philosophy that any brand can follow if it hopes to increase customer engagement and find success in this new world of marketing.
Author, venture capitalist, and Business Insider “Rising Silicon Valley Star,” Alex Banayan brought this idea to IBM Amplify 2015 where he hosted a dynamic talk that touched on the future of customer engagement. Curated from experiences gathered throughout his five-year mission to interview and uncover the career secrets of the most successful superstars, Banayan’s advice to the marketers in attendance was very simple.
“Take the third door,” he said, before going on to explain further.
“If I have learned one thing, it is that these incredibly successful people all treat life and business like a night club,” Banayan continued. “There are always three ways in. There is the first door where 99% of people wait in line hoping to get in. Then there is the second door where the celebrities enter. And society makes you feel like those are the only two ways in, but there is always the third door. Even if you have to run down an alley to bang on a back door or slip through a window, there is always another way in.”
Banayan’s analogy served to stress creative thinking in a marketing landscape that has seen unparalleled levels of recent disruption. The old rules of marketing are dead. The classic marketing tool kit no longer offers a competitive edge or motivates effective customer engagement. In the stead of the four marketing “P’s” that once included Price, Product, Promotion, and Place, now stands the one “C,” which focuses solely on customer engagement.
“Customer engagement is now at the center of your business and you have two ways of responding to this new reality,” Banayan said. “You can wait in line with the rest of your peers, or you can find the third door. But when it comes to finding that third door for your business and customer engagement, the interesting thing is that there is not just one way in. There are hundreds.”
That is the good news. There is an unlimited number of possibilities. But, there are still no easy answers, no one sure path that equals success.
Today, brands must continually challenge themselves to remain vigilant in their pursuit to embrace new technologies, experiment with new ideas, and take bold risks.
Banayan makes it clear that it is up to the brands to decide whether they want to thrive, or simply survive.
About the Author: Mark Johnson
Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.