The Fan Club - From "Customer" to a "Fan"...
Having grown up with bollywood as the background for a good part of my
life, I always had a different view of what and who the "fans"
were... but that has been changing in the recent past. We have witnessed a
never before seen "fan" following towards certain class of products -
like the ones from Apple. What Apple has demonstrated in the past few years,
has been totally phenomenal. Today there is a an aura in owning apple devices -
it makes you look "cool"! This is what's giving rise to the fan clubs
the "Macaholics" if you will. Though the concept of fans for a
product is not new, but it is the breadth for the new age products that has
taken the organizations by surprise, something unseen before.
I myself who (I think) takes a more practical approach towards
technology devices, couldn't spare myself from the apple temptation and ended
up owning a few of these (though I did not need them all that much). It is the
branding that apple has created around its products, that has worked wonders
for itself. That is the kind of interest and branding that needs to be created
around our products and solutions as an organization.
Why is this so important?
The big difference between customers and fans is that - a fan believes in you
and your products, he markets your products better than any of your own
marketing team can. Fans are loyal to their brands - iPhone5 is a great
reflection of that phenomenon. What's more, your fan's connects are happening
on the ground and probability of converting one of these connects into another
fan is much higher. This is because the information about these products is
coming from a known source (a friend.. a Colleague... a relative etc.). So one
of the important efforts of an organization should be - how to create this fan
club around its offerings.
That's one of the
interesting discussions that came up as part of this year's TUCON. How do we
create fans out of our customers? Think about it...
