Customer Connection in the Attention Economy

💡 Do you know the names of your top customers?

I’ve started to view my career so far in two halves: pre-attention economy and post-attention economy.

The playbook has shifted of course, as it should, but in recent years, especially working with young start-ups and scale-ups, I’ve found it’s become rarer for genuine customer connection to be a real focus – something that defined my pre-AE career. I really miss that part of the work.

The photo below is of collateral from my Jaeger days. Loyalty cards, tactile editorial zines (directly mailed), high-value vouchers, personalised letters (almost seems Jurassic by today's fashion landscape). A hell of a lot of work – endless data matrices, customer cohorts, editorial proofs. Every season, we’d invite our most loyal customers into HQ. They’d sit with Sheila McKain and Liza Canneford, comb through the work-in-progress collection, mark their favourites, and give direct feedback. They knew me. I knew them. The CEO had a relationship with them. We had long chats at store events, I knew what they did for work or passion. These were genuine relationships we cared about – but they also sat within a clear strategy. Our commitment to focus on bottom-of-funnel retention delivered real results: significant revenue, higher AOV, stronger LTV.

Later, at Victoria Beckham, I led the VIC strategy. Again, I knew our top customers by name. I spent quality time with them at events I hosted for them. I can still tell you what they loved to buy and why. Some of us are still friends on Instagram! That’s how strong the connection was.

Since working with younger brands, I’ve observed a shift. Growth at all costs. Acquisition targets from VCs. The obsession with going viral. In the attention economy, more and more energy is being spent on social media optics, and direct customer marketing has slipped down the list. And with smaller teams and tighter resources, it’s even easier for it to be overlooked. Customers living in Shopify lists – not as real people. Is the customer really at the heart of your decisions if you, and your entire team, doesn't know who they really are?

The word ‘community’ is ubiquitous marketing language - but more often demonstrated in influencer and tastemaker activations, not customer relationships. Loyalty is left to algorithms.

It doesn’t have to be. HURR, a previous client, run a WhatsApp group for their top lenders, led by Victoria Prew 🔊 and Lauren Roberts themselves alongside the customer service and marketing teams. They hosted IRL events for the actual users of the platform. They commission them to create educational content. Simple, smart, and effective.

Yes, a physical presence makes this easier. But great direct customer marketing is still possible without one. It just needs to make the priority list.

If any of this sounds relatable to you, and you want to build real customer relationships that feel genuine (and drive measurable retention and revenue), reach out – I can help 👋