In 2009, we learned that:

• Best Customers continue to respond to personalized treatment, especially when the treatment makes them more informed buyers. Targeted communications, offers and other value added programs resulted in increased spending for our clients’ Best Customers.
• Consumers are using the web more aggressively than ever before to level the playing field by sharing knowledge, in terms of pricing, discounts, experience and reviews. Companies that relied on consumers not knowing the prices across the marketplace suffered as internet transparency eliminated pricing disparities. By simplifying pricing and focusing on building customer relationships, our clients were able to successfully differentiate themselves (in their customers’ eyes) from the noise of their price-driven competitors.
• Service is more of a differentiator than ever before. While few of our clients were successful at staffing up as the economy grew tougher, the ones that did saw dramatic gains by targeting that extra labor towards improving the experience of their Best Customers.
• We also learned from our clients, that Best Customer marketing continued to gain acceptance, but faced challenges from budget cuts, reorganizations and rapidly changing strategies Difficulties in salesforce and in-store execution were exacerbated by poor sales results, reorganizations and labor cuts. Customer acquisition often ended up as a key metric, since new customers were an easy way to get short-term revenue.

Another lesson we learned and relearned in 2009 is that:

Change is hard.

Our clients all struggled with change – the change to a new way of thinking about marketing with a focus on enhancing relationships with Best Customers using customer data. The plan for sustaining change for our clients didn’t involve packing it in due to tight budgets, but instead keeping pilot initiatives aimed at targeting Best Customers alive. By staying the course and giving the pilot programs resources to succeed on a small scale, they thrived and results were strong.

Through these pilot programs, executives started to see a glimpse of what could be for 2010 and beyond. And make no mistake, change is about leadership. It is about creating a vision for the way things could be, and then helping others make that vision their own so you can figure out together how to make that change a reality.

As we end 2009, we are especially thankful for our team here at M Squared Group and for our clients, who allow us to become an extension of their world – coming together as a team of professionals and evolving into a team of good friends.

We wish the same for each of you in 2010 – great teams, great goals and great results.