Responsys Interact 2012

Last year, I wrote a blog post recapping my attendance of the Responsys Interact 2011 user conference.  This year, I'm lucky enough to find myself working for Responsys as a Customer Success Manager.  As such, I attended the event again this year - in San Francisco.

Acquisition vs. Relationships
Of the many great themes presented this year - one stood out violently to me: Are you an "Acquisition First" or "Relationship First" company? As marketers, this will be the question of our time I think. Companies that get this right will find themselves left standing.  These will be companies that reinvent customer experience and loyalty.

Acquisition First Companies:

• Obsessed with the first purchase (ever say or hear "...yeah, but we just need revenue.")
• You market the price/product (race to the bottom)
• You have to sell your product (this is a hungry beast)
• Use digital to drive traffic ("how many clicks did we get?")

Relationship First Companies:

• Obsessed with third/fourth purchase (building loyalty)
• You market the experience (how do your customers feel about their purchase?)
• Your customers sell it for you (your best sales reps don't actually work for you)
• Use digital to tie everything together (create one experience, digital and offline - together)

Tough questions that likely require transformational efforts to move from acquisition- to relationship-first. 

charity: water (donate)
Last year, Blake Mycoskie from TOMS Shoes showed up and gave an amazingly inspirational speech about his charity and his one-for-one model.  This year, Scott Harrison from charity: water matched Blake's enthusiasm for doing good. His charity works to provide clean water to communities in Africa.

After an extremely emotional presentation, I was inspired to donate my upcoming 31st birthday to charity: water. Please consider donating to this great cause and sharing this charity with your friends and family.



Earth, Wind, and Fire
Just like last year, this year's event entertainment was amazing. Six-time Grammy Award winning legends Earth, Wind, and Fire performed an amazing show open only to conference attendees. Here's a video I shot front row for the song Shining Star.

You can get a full recap on the event on the Responsys New School Marketing blog.