Customer-Centric Principles for Acquiring New Customers in the Multi-Polar World

These new sources of consumer spending may help businesses counteract sagging demand in Western economies and build a base of new consumers for the upturn. However, many traditional approaches to identifying, reaching and satisfying buyers will need to be refreshed or even retooled for these emerging consumer segments.

Being customer-centric is undeniably more difficult today. The long-term effects on consumer psychology of hard-to-quantify factors such as diminished spending power, government intervention and increased competition for share of wallet are still unknown.

What is clear, however, is that there is no stepping back from globalization and the ongoing diffusion of economic power across multiple geographic markets. Engaging purposefully with the multi-polar world should be a key element of a consumer enterprise’s strategic response to the downturn, part of positioning for long-term benefit.

Emerging markets such as in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe—with their young, economically active, increasingly well-educated and upwardly mobile populations—are increasingly attractive markets for companies in other parts of the world. Although slowed by the current economic context, many of these emerging markets have continued to enjoy growth in consumer spending, bolstered by long-term fundamentals such as population growth, an emerging middle class of aspirational consumers, rising per capita incomes and broader-based credit availability.

However, these markets also represent challenges when it comes to knowing and reaching these consumers. As more companies seek growth from emerging markets, many are finding that typical methods of interacting with customers can fail to resonate in these new markets.

Marketing strategies and operating models developed for mature markets will not readily “travel” to new markets, where consumers present cultural, economic and demographic facets that are markedly different from consumers in mature markets, including: 

• A large, fragmented base of new consumers with low purchasing power and highly localized needs. 
  
  
• Large populations spread over a vast geographic area characterized by cultural barriers and marked differences in lifestyle and language.
  
  
• Explosive and uneven demand, requiring relationship-driven operating models, multiple marketing, sales and service channels, and constant focus on operational efficiency.
  
  
• Typically, a less mature business environment, with limited third-party capabilities and distribution infrastructure and long payment cycles.

In a multi-polar world, where consumer needs and preferences can differ significantly market to market, a customer-centric approach to acquiring and keeping new customers is essential. Accenture believes that customer centricity is founded in mastery of three key elements: knowing the customer, reaching the customer and delivering an experience differentiated according to consumer needs and preferences.

To illustrate a more “customer-centric” approach to knowing the customer—one that presents an integrated, multi-dimensional view of demographics, behavior, attitudes and needs—Accenture has developed a model depicting several cross-regional consumer segments representing strategic growth opportunities over the next decade.

From these segments, we have identified nine segments concentrated in emerging markets across geographic regions which will drive future growth.

Understanding and satisfying the expectations and preferences of any target segment requires an in-depth analysis of that segment—as this paper has outlined, a “one-size-fits-all” experience cannot be successful, particularly one designed to serve an altogether different segment.

However, we have found that the nine segments profiled in this paper do share certain “themes.” Understanding these common characteristics can help companies interested in building new relationships with these customers begin thinking about experiences that reflect their distinct needs, preferences and sensibilities.

In addition, Accenture Institute for High Performance studied the geographic strategies being followed by high-performance businesses—as distinct from lower performers—across a range of countries and industries. From a combination of primary and secondary research, including a survey of business leaders from 375 companies, representing nearly all industries and 53 developed and emerging markets, our research found that high-performance businesses are guided by three central maxims when harnessing the multi-polar world:

• Create geographic options
• Be authentically local
• Network the organization
  
  

In an era of rapid globalization, extreme volatility and heightened risk, maintaining a strong customer focus is essential to achieving high performance: to withstand short-term pressures while laying the groundwork for growth in the upturn.

The organizations likely to achieve high performance during this current period of extreme change and volatility will be those that invest now in understanding the changing global customer base; that are willing to experiment with and master new routes to reaching new customers; and that focus going forward on fostering trust-based relationships to the same degree they have focused, historically, on managing customer transactions efficiently.