Gregor Daschmann’s research while affiliated with Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and other places

FANOMICS is designed to turn customers into fans and thus enable companies to achieve sustainable success. However, the possible applications go far beyond this, as we will explain to you in more detail in this chapter: (1) The assignment of customers in the Fan Portfolio creates the basis for customer value-based segmentation. It enables companies to address and serve their customers effectively and efficiently according to customer value. One important facet of this is fan marketing, whose task is to turn fans into even more profitable customers. (2) Potential customers can also be fans of a company. Identifying them and understanding why they have so far been non-customers creates the basis for efficient concepts for acquiring new customers. (3) With the Net Promotor Score (hereafter NPS), a new control parameter of customer relationship quality has become established in companies. Combining the NPS with the basic ideas of FANOMICS results in a control system that not only measures but also uses the logic of the Fan Principle for improvements.

In this chapter we explain, based on the relevant social science literature, who or what a fan is in the first place and which characteristics and behaviors are typical of fans. We determine why every fan relationship is based on identification and is experienced as unique by the fan. We show that every company can have fans and develop a lean measurement tool that identifies such Fan Customers. Fan Customers, we prove, are highly satisfied and emotionally loyal customers, and we show that our Fan Portfolio makes it possible to segment the universe of customers into five groups ranging from Fans to Opponents. We prove that the Fan Rate, i.e., the percentage of fans among all customers of a company, is the much more valid metric for managing a company than customer satisfaction. At the end, we look at the Fan Rates of different industries in different countries.

In this chapter, we show why focusing on Fan Customers has been proven to bring economic success: Fan customers spend more money, are less price-sensitive, increase revenues through cross-buying and are also very loyal, i.e. they have the highest customer lifetime value. Fans also indirectly increase sales and revenue because they support their company in numerous areas. Fans are more forgiving of poor performance and resistant to poaching and negative recommendations. Fans also actively recommend their company to others and thus support the acquisition of new customers. Fans contribute ideas and, due to their high level of involvement, form an excellent basis for crowdsourcing, which reduces internal development costs. Fans are therefore the best support for any growth strategy. This is why companies with higher fan rates have more economic success.

The previous explanations served to develop FANOMICS based on the Fan Principle, to explain the core idea and to prove the positive effects on corporate success. This chapter is now concerned with explaining the implementation of FANOMICS based on four fields of action. The focus is on (1) deriving the positioning. This is because positioning brings together the key success factors of FANOMICS—focusing on core customer needs, creating identification, and generating a sense of uniqueness—and thus creates the strategic foundation for the implementation process. We start by explaining why sound information is essential for positioning, both from the customer’s and the company’s point of view. And we show which criteria can be used to evaluate different positioning options to bring about a sustainably effective decision. (2) Then we address the question of how positioning can be successfully implemented through Orchestration (2a) touchpoint-wide and (2b) touchpoint-specific. Also, of great importance to the success of the implementation process is (3) the interface between customer and employee relationships: Therefore, we will address the conditions that must be met in order for employees to become Fan Makers of customers. Finally, we will show (4) how, based on the personalized assignment of customers in the Fan Portfolio, target group-specific measures can be initiated to increase the Fan Rate.

Companies can be even more successful and grow sustainably by transferring the Fan Principle, i.e. the mechanisms of fan relationships from sports, music or art, to their relationships with their customers. We describe exactly how it works when companies turn their highly satisfied customers into fans with FANOMICS—the Economics of the Fan Principle. In this chapter, we develop FANOMICS step by step and use concise examples from international companies to explain how to apply it correctly—but also what you can do wrong. We combine the various strands of explanation into an overall definition of FANOMICS and illustrate the concrete implementation using two prominent examples of globally active German companies—the discount grocer Aldi and the household appliance manufacturer, Miele. In this way, we create the basis for deriving concrete areas of implementation.

In this concluding chapter, we would like to address three fundamental success factors of FANOMICS: (1) For many companies, consistent alignment with core customer needs and the accompanying Orchestration is associated with a change process that affects the entire workforce and must be exemplified by top management. Systematic awareness and acceptance building is therefore an important success factor. (2) For the cost-benefit calculation of the implementation, it is very helpful if the increase in customer value is measured transparently and validly for everyone. (3) Finally, the focus on customer value as a central KPI of corporate success will only receive the necessary attention alongside the established business indicators if its central control variables, the Fan Indicator, Fan Rate and contact satisfaction, are continuously measured and targets are derived for management. These three success factors are presented in more detail in this chapter.