Increase share of heart, not wallet: Jagdish Sheth

Companies need to move from product- and segment-centric marketing to customer-centric marketing to remain relavant was the message from marketing consultant and professor Jagdish Sheth.

Adressing the National Marketing & Media Convention on strategic marketing organised by the Bombay Management Association, Sheth said it was important for companies to identify their most profitable customers and maximise relationships with them.

Using the example of Procter & Gamble in the USA, Sheth said the company identified Wal-Mart as its largest consumer, and set up a dedicated team to focus on the retailer. P&G has a 200-member team and Wal-Mart a 100-member unit to focus solely on their combined business goals. As a result, P&G's sales at Wal-Mart has gone up dramatically. "As modern retail evolves in India, FMCG companies will need to look at getting similar depth and width with a few select clients in order to maintain customer committment," Sheth said.

Challenging the notion of customer loyalty, Sheth said that it was important for marketers to look at increasing share of heart over share of wallet. "Even the most loyal customers defect," he said, and said how Kingfisher Airlines managed to tap in to the upper-end, frequent flyer customer base of other airlines.

The best way of gaining share of heart, according to Sheth, was to observe consumers when they used the product/service and not when they were buying it.