Byline: RICHARD H. LEVEY
In the theater, the "fourth wall" is an invisible line at the end of the stage that separates the actors from the audience. Actors break the wall when they address the audience directly. Think Hamlet's soliloquies, or George Burns speaking to the camera in Burns and Allen reruns.
But to Bob DeSena, the fourth wall is the line that prevents communication between a company and its customers. DeSena should know: As director of relationship marketing at Masterfoods USA, he's responsible for breaking down the walls that separate the maker of Whiskas cat food, Uncle Ben's rice, Snickers candy bars, Pedigree dog food, and M&Ms from its customers.
DeSena quoted figures from McKinsey stating that by 2005, 49% of all media will be two-way, or interactive, up from its single-digit level today.
Masterfoods believes that any communication coming from a customer should be treated as if it came from the boss - which in a sense it is, he said.
DeSena already spearheaded one of the largest two-way marketing efforts ever hosted by a packaged goods firm: When Masterfoods let consumers vote on which color it would add to its M&Ms, the program reached 200 countries and was translated into 15 languages.
The campaign went hand in hand with the firm's Colorworks Web site (www.colorworks.com), which allows consumers to customize M&M mixes among 22 colors, including several not normally found in retail packages.
"There were requests for certain color combinations, such as school colors, company colors and favorite sports teams," DeSena said. "We took that as advice from the boss. The site increased our R&D department by several hundred thousand people."
One resulting innovation will launch this fall, when M&M rolls out a series of packages containing candies bearing the colors of their favorite National Football League teams. While this may not be a big change for followers of the Cleveland Browns, fans of the other teams should be very excited, DeSena noted.
Two-way communication goes beyond making sure customers are satisfied, he continued. The goal is to get customers involved with the brand, even if they're dissatisfied. Uninvolved satisfied consumers defect at a rate four times greater than those who are dissatisfied but feel that companies are reacting - and attempting to resolve - their discontent.
COPYRIGHT 2003 PRIMEDIA Business Magazines & Media Inc. All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
