siliconindia | | October 20209comes a part of our emotional fabric, we are more likely to come back to it. This behavioural quirk is why people tend to stick to the same brand while upgrading their car or mobile phones; unless something drastic happens, an Apple customer typically remains a loyalist.When a strong emotional bond is formed, consumers are even often willing to forgive minor shortcom-ings. This is best exemplified by the reception received by HBO's Game of Thrones saga. Despite being uni-versally panned for being not as good as it was before, the show still man-aged to attract decent viewership in its final few seasons. Why? Because it already had a strong fanbase which had made an emotional investment in the plot and the arcs of various ma-jor and minor characters. Spoilt for choices, viewers could have aban-doned Game of Thrones in favour of another show with better pacing and tighter plot; but yet chose to come back to the show that they had once loved.While value remains integral to the final offering, it can be argued that modern consumers look for some-thing that extends beyond mere util-ity. Therefore, they seem to engage best with content that treats them not as consumers, but as part of a larger whole. It is no longer about telling consumers about what a brand, prod-uct, or service can do for them; rath-er, marketing and customer retention strategies are now revolving around engaging with the customers around their `longings' ­ their various stat-ed and unstated needs ­ in an organic manner. Brand communication that can do so in a relevant and authen-tic manner while propagating a sense of community has been consistently shown to deliver the best results. Design Thinking to Drive Emotional Quotient This inevitably brings us to the other burning question ­ how do enterpris-es integrate emotional intelligence into customer retention to drive such stupendous growth? The trick, of course, is to apply design thinking to their marketing strategy. By applying the core principles of design think-ing to customer-oriented outreach, enterprises can decode their users' stated and unstated needs to deliver the right message, at the right time, through the right channel.The robust feedback loops thus created unlock effortless synergies between the brand and its consumers that benefit all parties involved. They help in generating actionable insights about not just what their customers want, but also why they want it and how they want to consume it. Fea-tures practices that negatively impact consumer engagement can be swift-ly identified and remedied to facili-tate a smoother flow of information and improve the overall experience. Targeted information, customised to the needs of the individual consumer, can be plugged-in at the point of need to drive favourable decision-mak-ing and to create strong emotional resonance. Creating a sustainable customer retention strategy in our hyper-connected world means return-ing to the basics and restructuring the digitally native foundation on which the brands are built. Targeted information, customised to the needs of the individual consumer, can be plugged-in at the point of need to drive favourable decision-making and to create strong emotional resonance
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