The upcoming BIMA breakfast briefing – the future of  customer centric marketing – begs the question, what does it mean to be customer centric in the context of an interactive marketing campaign?

For me the crucial element is that we answer the customer’s question “What’s in it for me?” in a different way.

Traditional marketing campaigns will answer the question with an incentive – “a chance to win an Ipad”.

In a customer centric campaign the answer to “what’s in it for me” is “a better me”.

Take Kidrated and Glipho‘s Parent Blogger Club for example, in this campaign they are reaching out to mummy and daddy bloggers but instead of trying to get brand engagement by offering prizes, they are winning engagement by offering a service to help prospects become better bloggers.

Or you could take a look at NIke’s phenomenally successful Nike+ program with 32m prospects and customers using NIke+ tools to become a better runner. No additional incentive required!