Neither Pushed nor Pulled, Shoppers Now Pick What They Please

(MoneyWatch)  I always find something worthwhile to read in Advertising Age's "CMO Strategy" section. In the Sept. 15 issue, Thinktopia CEO Patrick Hanlon exhorts product designers and marketers to move beyond yesterday's store-centric "push" and media-driven "pull" strategies. Instead, he advises companies to embrace the "pick" economy, where shoppers craft their own Starbucks beverage, build their own Google news feed, and select the star of each week's episode of "American Idol."

"We have microtrends, micromarkets and micromeals," Hanlon writes. "To push is dangerous. To pull is difficult ... today, the customer picks."

Online commerce, which strips away emotional and sensory input on a product, places products next to their most feared competition. "Such naked comparison, while seemingly always the case on store shelves, becomes startlingly brazen online and never serves middle-of-the-road designs well." In other words, Hanlon advises, understand the market, make bold choices and stick to them.

Hanlon, the author of "Primal Branding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company and Your Future," advises companies to tap into trends that emphasize customers' need to customize, simplify, and multi-task -- from the iPhone, whose bells and whistles are so easy to find and learn that people actually use them, to a Robert Stadler-designed mirror that doubles as an SMS receiver, so you can read text messages while you primp.

What retail brands embody the "pick" strategy? Ikea came immediately to mind, along with H&M, Trader Joe's, and the Apple Store. Who else does a great job of engaging and interacting with customers, inspiring crazy loyalty along the way? Hit the comment button and interact with me.