The CMO Diary: On Seduction, Loyalty and the Art of Making Up
Nobody told me when I took my first CMO role that the job was essentially relationship management. Attracting new customers is seduction. Keeping existing ones is marriage. And handling a crisis—a product failure, a service breakdown, or a pricing miscalculation—is the argument that either ends the relationship or, handled well, makes it stronger than before.
I spent years watching Romanian businesses obsess over acquisition and neglect retention. Meanwhile, the customers they already had—the ones who had chosen them, trusted them, and given them money—were being quietly ignored. It is, if you think about it, the oldest mistake in romance.
On attracting new customers
Seduction requires attention. You have to understand what the other person actually wants, not what you want to tell them. You have to be interesting, credible, and consistent. You have to show up where they are, not where you are comfortable. And you have to give before you ask—value, insight, relevance—before you ever mention what you're selling.
Most acquisition marketing does the opposite. It leads with the product, not the person. It interrupts rather than engages. It mistakes visibility for desirability. Visibility gets you noticed. Desirability gets you chosen.
On keeping customers who already love you
Existing customers are the most undervalued asset in most Romanian businesses I have worked with. They already trust you. They have already overcome the hardest barrier — the decision to buy for the first time. And they are, statistically, significantly cheaper to retain than new customers are to acquire.
Yet the marketing budget goes almost entirely to acquisition. The people who already love you get a newsletter they didn't ask for and a loyalty card that doesn't work.
Marriage, like client retention, requires sustained attention. Not grand gestures — consistency. Remembering what matters to them. Noticing before they have to tell you something is wrong. Communicating like a partner, not a vendor.
On arguments—and why they matter
Here is the counterintuitive truth I learned late in my career: a complaint handled well is more powerful than a smooth transaction. When something goes wrong — and it will — the customer is watching to see who you really are. If you respond with speed, honesty, and genuine accountability, you do not just resolve the problem. You deepen the relationship.
The research on this is consistent. Customers who have experienced a well-handled complaint are often more loyal than those who have never had a problem. The argument, resolved with care, builds trust that the smooth relationship is never tested.
The brands that understand this invest in service recovery as seriously as they invest in acquisition. The ones that don't lose customers are not because something went wrong, but because nobody seemed to care that it did.
The lesson I wish someone had given me earlier
Treat your existing customers like the most important relationship in your business—because they are. Seduce new ones with genuine value and consistent presence. And when something goes wrong, handle it like someone who wants to still be in this relationship next year.
Because in Romania, as everywhere else, word of mouth travels faster than any campaign you will ever run. And the customers who love you are the most powerful marketing department you have — if you give them a reason to talk.
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About the Author
Steve Gardiner (exec MBA) is a senior marketing and commercial leader at Lighthouse PR, bringing global experience from Accenture, Electronic Arts, Virgin Media, Telekom, and Etisalat. Latterly, as VP Business at Etisalat, he was responsible for $1.8B in revenue.
Today, Steve applies his strategic, marketing, and growth expertise to support Lighthouse PR clients as part of the agency’s service offering.
About Lighthouse PR
Lighthouse PR is a leading PR agency in Romania that works with a select number of organisations across Central and Southeastern Europe, delivering media relations, reputation management, crisis communications, social media and an extensive range of business growth and business continuity services — always led by senior practitioners.
We hold exclusive membership for Romania and the Republic of Moldova in both the Eurocom worldwide PR network and the CCNE, Europe's leading crisis communications network.
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