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What are 5 examples of companies who have established customer primacy in their industry?
Hello! Thanks for your question on companies who have established customer primacy in their industry. The short version is that companies who create customer primacy do so because they are usually the first company to market a product or service which develops a strong presence in an industry, whether that be through customer engagement, differentiation or unique offering.
Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
To answer your question I researched extensively academic databases, corporate websites and trusted media sites. I identified several case studies for you as well as looking into the reasons why customer primacy happens.
Some articles discussed the psychology of the process known as “primacy and recency effect”. This is something that is commonly looked at in terms of social interactions but can be extrapolated to the interaction between a company and a customer. Where a positive relationship exists from the first contact, the customer is more likely to place greater emphasis on that association the company and product or service.
A Journal of Business Research article discusses the “Process of brand and stakeholder identity co-construction.” It looks at the complex associations between brands, stakeholders, employees and consumers particularly nowadays where social connectivity is global and powerful. Stakeholders can be within the company itself or a third party acting in the role of brand champion. Where a champion’s values more closely align with that of the company, they can be a powerful draw card for consumers who see within themselves similar values. These associations can empower a company to reach consumer primacy or to destroy primacy if the company, product or service or its brand champion fails to maintain the same values that drew the consumer to them in the first instance.
The current financial industry climate is one where traditional or established companies have fallen out of favor due to the global financial crisis. This has allowed for new entrants into the industry to be able to create a niche for a compelling product or service that evokes positive responses from consumers; one that disrupts or is particularly innovative and has the capacity to handle growth with a sound business model.
Customer primacy of a product, service or company creates a link between a “specific source” and products or services that have a general association with that specific source. In essence, the brand has become a verb or is used as a noun. There is scope in the current financial industry to take advantage of change and establish customer primacy.
THERMOS
In “Trademark Hybridity and Brand Protection”, Timothy Greene looks at how a trademark or brand name becomes ambiguous and develops related meanings when used. One of the examples he provides is that of the Thermos which a vacuum flask used to keep its contents hot. Created by and trademarked by Thermos LLC, the name “thermos” has become a generalized term and is used by a number of other manufacturers.
Thermos is a trusted and well-made product and has been in production for over 100 years. It was the first vacuum flask created and continues to maintain its popularity by focusing on “dependability and maximum performance”. Whilst other companies have been producing thermos style vacuum flasks, they have not seen their products’ name come into generic usage. The combination of first to market and quality product has resulted in Thermos being a generically used term to describe a vacuum flask for keeping things hot.
CASHPOINT
In 1972, Lloyds Bank coined the term “cashpoint” to describe an automatic cash or teller machine (ATM). Cash is the term more commonly used in the United Kingdom (UK) whilst teller is more common in the United States, Australia and Canada. In 1986, Lloyds Bank registered the term as a trademark.
The first manual cash machines were first introduced in the UK in by Barclay’s Bank in 1967. Lloyds Bank’s Cashpoint was the first computerized ATM.
Cashpoint can be found in the Cambridge Dictionary and is defined as a cash machine or automatic teller machine. Though this is a UK based example, it demonstrates how a financial or banking product became such a generically used term that it ended up being included in the dictionary.
LAUNDROMAT
In 1940, Westinghouse Electric brought to market an automatic washing machine product known as Laundromat that could be mounted to the wall. It was the first of its type with the trademark for this product expiring in 1952.
Since the 1930s self-serve laundries have been available when the first “Wash-a-teria” opened in Fort Worth, Texas, and whilst they became popular to use it wasn’t until the 1950s that they really came into common use as families couldn’t always afford their own machines. The invention of a washing machine that could be wall mounted made the self-service laundry concept more affordable to operate as it was a space-saving device.
PHOTOSHOP
Whilst some companies have established customer primacy they may not be happy for their product, service or brand to be used as a generic term. Adobe is one such company with its photo editing program, Photoshop. Adobe has guidelines for use of its products and that includes not using the name in conjunction with content that it considers to be obscene or defamatory. Some people use this program or programs like it, to create images which may be offensive, inappropriate or poorly done and, as a result, the term photoshop can be a negative reference when used to describe a photo that has been edited.
Adobe’s software program is an industry leader in the graphics marketplace and this is how the term has come into popular use. The Miriam-Webster dictionary describes photoshop as a transitive verb, to alter digital images with the Adobe program or other image-editing software.
ROLLS ROYCE, BAND-AID AND GOOGLE
When a product or company does its job effectively and is also an item that is used or known about in a broad sense, the name itself starts to be used to describe a type of ideal, situation or solution. Rolls Royce, Band-Aid and Google are three such generically used terms that respectively mean a product or service that is of an exceptional quality, a temporary fix for a problem and to search for information on the internet. The companies were able to market themselves into a position of strength and differentiation from rival companies and this allowed them all to establish customer primacy in their industry and for those brand names to be used as general terms.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, customer primacy can be established where there is an opportunity for an innovative product or new service that captures the consumers’ attention, however, it is important that the company has a sound business model attached together with a focus on positive customer interaction.
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