“You Serve At The Pleasure Of Your Audience.”

As a longtime proponent of customer-centric marketing ― rather than a product -or- service-centric philosophy ― I’m always pleased to see how the concept permeates our world, from business to entertainment.

I love the latest example I found in a Newsweek article by comedian Bill Maher about Johnny Carson, the one-time king of late night TV.  In explaining Carson’s 30-year longevity, Maher pointed out that Johnny did his show “for the audience.”  Maher wrote:

“You know that you serve at the pleasure of the audience:  they don’t really love you; they love what you do for them.  And if you stop doing it, they’ll find someone else to love, as they should.  As they have every right to.”

How similar that concept is to the ideas of my business hero, the late Peter Drucker, known as the father of modern management, who said, “It is the customer who determines what a business is.  For it is the customer, and he alone, who through being willing to pay for a good or for a service, converts economic resources into wealth, things into goods.”

I’m amazed how many marketers miss this point:  It is the customer who decides what he or she will buy, join, donate to, or pay to see or hear.  And the customer can easily decide to get it somewhere else rather than from you.

Yet, from personal experience, I know that the customer often remains an afterthought.  I can’t tell you how may organization leaders have come to my agency, Crosby Marketing, asking for help in marketing but, when we probe, they have a difficult time defining who their customer is and what that customer values and needs.

This product orientation persists even at the highest organization levels.  As recently as 2010, a Harvard Business Review article on “Reinventing Marketing” reported that “boards and C-suites still mostly pay lip service to customer relationships, while focusing on selling goods and services.”

So, no matter what your calling, be it comedy or a cause, remember my main mantra when it comes to marketing:

“It’s The Customer, Stupid!”

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