In chapter #2 of our series - “Top 10 Lessons From 100+ CMOs”, we’re going to break down what it means to have a ‘relentless focus on the customer’ (If you’re looking for the first chapter - “Framework for Innovation”, click here).
Having a relentless focus on the customer is not just a nice-to-have, but a fundamental necessity for any brand looking to drive sustainable growth and marketing success. One of the most unanimous pieces of advice we heard from our CMO interviews was the importance of truly understanding your audience at a profound level and allowing that insight to guide every decision, strategy, and execution.
In this chapter, we’ll explore some frameworks for actually developing this focus on your customer from the likes of Activision, Mastercard, and challengers like Smile Direct Club.
Going Beyond Surface-Level "Customer-Centricity"
It's easy for organizations to pay lip service to the concept of being "customer-centric," but living up to it is another matter entirely.
When we interviewed John Sheldon last year, he was the CMO of Smile Direct Club and a true advocate for building “customer Centricity”. In the conversation, John emphasized that there is a pressing need for all marketers to intimately understand their customers' core needs, beliefs, behaviors, and the challenges they face. He shared examples of immersing himself truly in their world when he worked as the SVP of Innovation Portfolios at Mastercard. Back then, he interviewed refugees at camps near Nairobi and observed women in rural Kenyan villages, literally burying boxes in the ground to store their finances every few weeks in order to gain insights as to where Mastercard could help build innovative products to make everyday transactions better for customers.
We’re not saying that you always need to literally ‘go where your customers are’, but this level of hands-on research allows you to uncover innovative solutions and opportunities that wouldn't be apparent from behind a desk. For example, in SmileDirectClub's direct-to-consumer clear aligner treatment packages, customers found it hard to get started with their kits. When John’s team intently listened to customer conversations (sales, customer service, etc.), they learned that many customers found the entire at-home kit overwhelming when received all at once upfront (the kit has components that need to be used throughout the treatment, and SimeDirectClub shipped it all at once). This valuable insight prompted the simple but effective solution of introducing a 10-minute orientation call to walk customers through the contents of the kit, and process step-by-step.
A seemingly minor tweak, but one that led to higher treatment plan adherence and completion rates.
"It just comes from listening to and watching the behavior of your customers really, really closely," John emphasizes.
The "Jobs to be Done" Mindset
At the core, all true growth and innovation stems from solving a fundamental customer need in a new and differentiated way.
This aligns with the "Jobs to be Done" theory pioneered by Clayton Christensen – that people don't simply buy products and services, but rather "hire" them to fulfill a specific need or desire in their lives. The traditional marketing funnel fails to account for this reality. Understanding the true job your customers are hiring your product for is a core rule in marketing, yet it is still overlooked by many brands (challengers & incumbents), who get caught up in their internal perspectives and agendas.
"People don't want a six-inch drill; they want a six-inch hole in the wall."
Applying Customer Obsession at Scale
You'd be forgiven for thinking that massive companies with established brands and billions in revenue might be able to ease off the throttle when it comes to customer focus. But the reality is, that even powerhouse players like Activision must maintain a relentless "audience-first approach," according to our conversation with Matt Webster, the CMO of Activision.
"It's all too easy, I think, once you start to see success, to start to pivot away from that. The best companies are the ones that have retained that “customer focus” consistently throughout," he said.
For the Call of Duty global franchise, Matt cites the importance of viewing their offerings through a "multi-sided marketplace" lens. Aligning the interests of players, streamers, sponsors, and various other stakeholders in a flywheel-like cycle is critical for exponential success.
"Finding ways that you can retain that player centricity for other industries, but consistently try and galvanize those different stakeholders within that flywheel, to be able to drive success," Matt advises.
The Indispensable Role of Empathy
Martin Lindstrom, renowned for his best-selling books on brand strategy, is a radical thought leader when it comes to driving emotional connections and customer empathy within large organizations.
We interviewed Martin in September 2023, and it was one of the most insightful conversations that we’ve had on Scratch. Martin told us about a medical device company (which focussed on respiratory diseases) he worked with, that had shockingly never spoken to its patients in a 100-year history. Martin was hired to rebuild the brand of the company. When he asked them why they hadn’t spoken to their customers, they stated that ‘compliance’ was the reason, which was untrue. So, Martin set out to visit patients across the world to understand the humans behind the customers.
When he ended up in the home of a 28-year-old woman, he learned how she’d been bullied by her school for having asthma as a child, being told stuff like “You are a disgrace to mankind”.
Suddenly, she pulled out her “Magic straw” from her handbag, and said that whenever she meets new people, colleagues, or friends, she now hands them the straw, and asks them to take it to their mouths, block their noses, and breathe through it for a minute. Once they’re done, she tells them “This is how it feels to have Asthma” to make them relate to her struggle, and empathize with her.
Martin was inspired by this story. To reshape the company's mindset, Lindstrom bought new straws and made the board members breathe through them for 60 seconds to experience the struggle of being an asthma patient. He said to them “This is how your customers live every minute of their entire life. This is how they feel. And they're paying your salary”.Martin recalls the visceral reaction from one board member who quickly understood the human reality their products aimed to improve.
From mandating that all new employee welcome kits include a straw, to aligned R&D efforts experiencing the customer's perspective, Lindstrom's simple yet innovative changes drove true empathy throughout the organization and enabled a conversation around the brand redevelopment which was much more aligned with how the customers viewed the business
"If you are able to, through marketing, infuse a sense of empathy through the organization, people will mostly start to install common sense, because suddenly we have one thing in common: that's the customer," he states.
This empathy is the antidote to organizations becoming disconnected from reality – getting consumed by internal KPIs, politics, and self-serving motives that lead them astray from delivering true value to the people that matter most.
Think about what the “straw” moment is for your customers.
Lessons for Marketers to Apply
At the end of the day, all real growth stems from having a differentiated understanding of your customers and developing solutions that resonate with their latent needs and desires in ways your competitors are not.
It's a profoundly customer-obsessed perspective that may seem contradictory to examples of visionary leaders like Henry Ford ("Faster horses") and Steve Jobs (Reinventing product categories). However, even those transformative innovations were borne from a deep understanding of the customer's world and unmet aspirations.
The tangible lessons for marketers are clear:
- Become An Anthropologist: Dedicate serious time and resources to truly knowing your customers – their behaviors, beliefs, pain points, and aspirations. Don't rely solely on data and surveys; immerse yourself in their daily lives and experiences.
- Activate Empathy: Challenge yourself and your team to build real emotional empathy and connection with your target audience. Walk in their shoes, and find innovative ways to viscerally experience their reality.
- Validate Relentlessly: Your perception of customer needs is just that – a perception. Consistently validate your assumptions through research, feedback loops, and genuine interaction. Bringing the customer's voice into your processes is non-negotiable.
- Align All Efforts: From product development to marketing creative, every initiative must be fundamentally aligned with delivering against your audience's core needs and drivers.
Only by relentlessly focusing on your customer can you develop solutions that create differentiated value and breakthroughs in meaningful ways. If you’d like to view the entire episode that we recorded on the 10 biggest marketing lessons from 100 CMOs, you can watch it from the links below.
YouTube - The 10 Biggest Marketing Lessons From 100+ Leading CMOs | Scratch by Rival
Apple Podcasts - The 10 Biggest Marketing Lessons From 100+ Leading CMOs | Scratch by Rival
Spotify -The 10 Biggest Marketing Lessons From 100+ Leading CMOs | Scratch by Rival
