We live in a world that usually evaluates success and growth on the basis of increasing output and improving productivity. This focus often leaves marketers and brands focusing on the output alone which is a rather short-term view, as it priorities quantity over quality, short-term productivity boosts and spiked profitability. In the long run this can adversely affect the brand’s reputation, loyalty and sustainable business growth. Driving outcomes on the other hand allows businesses a much larger and richer canvas as it help brands differentiate themselves, build customer loyalty, and design products that are not just effective but more customer centric. It allows for businesses to create better alignment across the organisation, and with the goals and aspirations of their customers.
The functions of Marketing and Sales are directly linked to the survival, growth and success of any organisation. These departments are responsibly for understanding customer wants, needs and desires, creating effective advertising and marketing strategies, communicating value propositions in an authentic and compelling manner, deciphering customer pinpoints that the brands can solve and therefore driving sales.
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“Nobody wants a quarter-inch drill bit, they want a quarter-inch hole”
- Steinmetz.
Knowing the outcomes that customers are looking for enables businesses to better tailor their messaging to focus on those specific benefits that their products or services deliver. This leads to higher engagement rates, better conversions and a greater likelihood that the customer will buy your solution vs. another.
Outcomes for a company can be classified into 4 categories:
Understand the different outcomes and their importance
Business outcomes are the results that a company aims to achieve via its operations, strategies, initiatives etc. These results can be either financial or non-financial in nature. It is through these results that a company evaluates its success, measures its performance, and determines if its efforts are delivering to the desired goals. They help the company stay focused, priorities activities and expenses, help investors and stakeholders evaluate performance, set KPIs, calculate market share, customer satisfaction and value, turnover, and brand awareness. They help companies identify areas of improvement or corrective action needed to drive the desired business outcome.
Product outcomes refer to the end results that companies want to achieve via their products. These could range across increasing sales, improving customer satisfaction, increasing profitability or even building brand recognition. Product outcomes provide companies with ways to measure success not just by tracking sales, by also if their products are meeting the desired objectives. They enable setting goals, prioritizing efforts, areas of improvement, impact on the environment, competitive advantages and customer loyalty.
Customer outcomes are the results that customers hope to achieve when using a company’s product or service. These outcomes include - improved quality of life, via entertainment or fitness or beauty solutions etc.; increased productivity via software or productivity tools etc.; better health solutions and outcomes via supplements, devices etc.; providing financial security via insurance or investment solutions. These types of outcomes are important as they improve customer satisfaction, word of mouth, competitive advantages and drive future innovation.
Desired outcomes differ from general business or customer outcomes because they are specific to the individual business or an individual customer. Every business and customer is unique; their wants, needs, desires, limitations, preferences, lifestyles, life stages are not shared or common to others. They require additional or more specific solutions. In the context of a business, desired outcomes include building brand loyalty, creating better content engagement, building a community etc. Desired outcome are important because they directly impact customer satisfaction, product differentiation, marketing strategies and campaigns and product development.
Examples of Business Outcomes vs. Product Outcomes vs. Customer Outcomes vs. Desired Outcomes
Business Outcomes:
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Increased revenue
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Improved profitability
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Increased market share
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Improved employee satisfaction and retention
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Improved brand reputation and awareness
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Increased operational efficiency
Product Outcomes:
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Improved product quality and reliability
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Increased product sales and market share
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Improved product design and features
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Improved product usability and user experience
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Increased product innovation and differentiation
Customer Outcomes:
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Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty
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Improved customer experience and engagement
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Increased customer retention and repeat business
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Improved customer perception of product or brand
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Increased customer referrals and advocacy
Desired Outcomes:
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Meeting or exceeding business goals and objectives
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Providing high-quality products or services that meet or exceed customer expectations
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Establishing a positive reputation and brand image in the marketplace
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Creating a sustainable and profitable business model
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Contributing to the greater good of society or the environment
Ways to Achieve Outcomes
Successful achievement of business outcomes requires companies to have a clear strategy, effective leadership, a culture of accountability and innovation, adaptability, employee training and development and consistent monitoring of external factors that could either hinder growth or provide more opportunities for growth. Internal factors like organizational structure, leadership, culture, resources, processes etc. can have a big impact on the business outcomes. Similarly external factors like socio-economic drivers, market trends, regulatory changes, and competition can just as quickly derail business outcomes.
Successful achievement of product outcomes requires building and maintaining a deep understanding of customer needs, market research, customer feedback forms or NPS surveys, product innovations and testing, features, pricing, positioning and marketing.
Successful achievement of customer outcomes requires understanding the needs and exceptions of customers, designing solutions that meet those needs, providing exceptional customer service and monitoring customer feedback. It is an ongoing process that requires customer centricity, continuous improvement and adaptation to ever-changing customer needs.
Successful achievement of desired outcomes additionally requires leveraging customer personas to better understand the goals and aspirations within each segment, so that solutions can be tailor-made to achieve the desired outcome.
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12 Key strategies towards driving outcomes from a brand marketing perspective
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Brand Identity. Developing a strong Brand Identity which includes visual identity, brand tone of voice, brand messaging etc. helps brands not only communicate better but also differentiates brands in a cluttered marketplace.
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Market Research. Conducting targeted market research to better understand who your customer is, what are their deepest pain-points, needs and aspirations, helps develop customer insights, socio-economic drivers, data collection and analytics that aid in developing stronger marketing strategies, creating brand messaging that resonates with customer and therefore campaigns that drive the desired outcomes.
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Personalisation. Personalised Marketing involves creating marketing strategies that are tailor-made to customer segments or pain-point segments or value segments, with communication that informs, involves, motivates and sells. Personalisation helps increase customer engagement and loyalty, that results in an increase in revenue, share of mind and share of wallet.
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Data. Data capture and analytics is a critical aspect towards driving outcomes. Evaluating customer behaviours, biases, measuring the effectiveness of marketing strategies and campaigns, and optimizing them for better performance goes a long way in bettering outcomes.
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Value Propositions. Developing a strong value proposition is critical towards driving not just business outcomes but product outcomes. It helps brands differentiate themselves and communicate their unique selling proposition or unique selling benefits that their product has to their target audience.
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Design & Packaging. A well-designed product in an eye-catching packaging not only differentiates itself from the competition but also draws customer attention, interest and desire for the product and the brand. Packing that is visually appealing and easy to use, that meets customer needs and exceeds customer expectations, goes a long way towards driving outcomes.
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Effectiveness of Advertising & Marketing. Creating effective Advertising and Marketing strategies requires that the strategies and campaigns be tailored to targeted specific customer segments; communicating their unique benefits in an authentic manner not only improves customer interest and desire but also improves marketing effectiveness by reducing wastage of marketing spends.
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Product Quality and Reliability. Brands that invest time and effort towards ensuring the highest quality and reliability of their products, build customer trust and loyalty. Any form of compromise by the brand when it comes to product quality and reliability will only result in diminished brand equity with current and future prospects.
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Customer Service. Brands that invest in customer service help drive customer outcomes. By being prompt and responsive to customer feedback, needs and concerns, brands build trust and loyalty.
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Customer Feedback. Customer feedback helps brands make informed decisions about a current product or service, and develop new and improved solutions that deliver to customer exceptions and future needs.
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Marketing Mix. Customer acquisition is not only a digital game. Having a balanced channel mix ensures that brands are able to engage with new and old customers across the marketing and sales funnel, irrespective of the stage in the value journey - to leverage the most effective marketing tool (be it email, social media, SEM, or offline) to better communicate and engage with their customers.
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Performance tracking and analysis. Data provides brands the opportunity to measure the success of their various marking initiatives, to adjust strategies and to optimise tactics so that they can drive the necessary outcomes they need for continued growth and success.
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Communication examples of brands that drive incredible outcomes
The Apple brand has achieved significant success worldwide with its product outcomes. It is not uncommon for new product lines to garner high anticipation from new and old customers in spite of their high price point. Apple’s success can be attributed to its design and innovation, strong value proposition, effective advertising and marketing strategies and strong customer loyalty. These attributes contribute individually and collectively to the brand’s overall revenue and profits, market share and brand reputation.
The Zappos brand has been built through its success at customer outcomes. Its high focus on customer service, high product quality and reliability, and reliance on customer feedback to drive product improvements, have made customers equate the brand with having a fantastic customer service that inevitably keeps the brand ahead of the competition.
Nike’s “Just Do it” campaign is considered by many to be one of the most iconic and successful marketing campaigns of all time. The campaign positioned the brand as a leader in the athletic apparel industry that to this day drives desired outcomes, sales and brand loyalty the world over.
Coca Cola marketing campaigns helped established the brand as a global icon. From its “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” campaign in the 1970s to its more recent “Share a Coke” campaign, Coca Cola has driven desired outcomes for the brand with increased sales and social media engagement.
Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign helped position the brand as the champion of diversity and inclusion that further increased brand reputation and loyalty.
Conclusion
Driving outcomes involves understanding the desired results or goals that customers are trying to achieve, and then designing products or services that help them achieve those outcomes. It requires a customer-centric approach that prioritizes understanding customer needs and delivering value to customers. In contrast, driving output focuses on maximizing the amount of work done or products produced, regardless of whether they actually deliver value to customers or meet their needs.
From a brand marketing perspective, driving outcomes and driving output are two distinct approaches that can have a significant impact on a brand's success and reputation. Driving output involves a focus on maximizing productivity and efficiency in the production and distribution of products or services. This approach is often focused on short-term gains in revenue and profitability, and may prioritize quantity over quality or customer satisfaction. While this approach can yield short-term gains, it can also damage a brand's reputation and erode customer loyalty over time.
In advertising, a focus on driving outcomes can lead to more effective ad campaigns that not only resonate with customers but deliver sustainable growth. By designing ads that highlight the outcomes that customers are looking to achieve, companies can create a more emotional connection with their target audience and increase the likelihood that they will take action. This can lead to higher click-through rates, increased website traffic, and ultimately, more sales.
In sales, a focus on driving outcomes can help sales teams better understand the needs and goals of their customers and tailor their sales pitches accordingly. By focusing on the outcomes that customers are looking to achieve, salespeople can demonstrate how their products or services can help customers achieve those outcomes, which can increase the perceived value of the product or service and lead to more sales.
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