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May 2016 | 

Beyond Advertising: Creating Value Through All Customer Touchpoints

Beyond Advertising: Creating Value Through all Customer Touchpoints

“If you need to convince others that it is time for a fresh look at the role marketing should play in your company, hand out this book.” — David Edelman, Global Co-Leader, McKinsey Digital, Marketing & Sales

Most ideas we have about advertising come from the Mad Men era — Don Draper-esque executives creating one-way communications designed to prod and persuade an undifferentiated mass of potential customers. Their goal was simple: make the sale. Today, with an ever-accelerating pace of change in both consumer behavior and in the technologies and channels available to reach those consumers, that approach is no longer enough. This new environment demands more.

In their new book, Yoram (Jerry) Wind and Catharine Findiesen Hays, along with The Wharton Future of Advertising Innovation Network, offer a roadmap for meeting that demand. Beyond Advertising: Creating Value Through All Customer Touchpoints (Wiley, 2016) is, first, a call to action. It addresses the majority of C-suite executives who, in a number of studies, said their organizations were not prepared in regard to all key marketing success factors. Even in the face of the speed and magnitude of change, most are still clinging to old mental models of marketing and advertising. Wind and Hays provide the method and motivation for challenging old models.

Grounded in insights from over 200 global executives from across disciplines, the book provides actionable frameworks that are applicable to the entire organization (siloed organizations should be a thing of the past, according to its authors). It effectively argues that “everyone — from product development, sales, customer service, and HR, to the CIO, CFO, CEO, and presidents of business units — must buy in, challenge the entrenched mindsets of what’s possible, and start experimenting with new approaches.”

One new approach is the R.A.V.E.S. model of content standards. It specifies that “beyond advertising” must earn people’s attention by being Relevant and Respectful, Actionable, Valuable and Value-Generating (both emotional and cognitive), and by offering Exceptional Experiences and Shareworthy Stories. The model is explained through the experiences and insights of some of today’s top marketers.

For everyone who wants to stop reacting to revolutionary advances and get a step (or more) ahead, this new book points the way. The tools it offers can help you begin to create relationships with your customers immediately, leveraging the forces of change instead of trying to catch up. If you’re ready to “suspend your current thinking, your mindsets, and those mental models that in all likelihood have worked well for you for so many years,” this book will show you how to take your organization beyond advertising.

Professor Yoram (Jerry) Wind is academic director of Wharton Executive Education’s Fellows Program.