Are you a Marketer?

This article was contributed by Geoff Clynes. Geoff is a partner is Business Line, a Warragul-based marketing group offering help and advice on business development issues.  This article is the first in a series of eight.

These days, everybody in business knows a fair bit about marketing. Trouble is, people often understand the content differently. That really does spell trouble, because having a good product is not enough anymore, in our world, in Victoria, even surrounded by friends in our neighbourhood. You need more than that.

Trade barriers have come crashing down everywhere this last twenty years and more, so every trader has to fight a bit harder (or smarter) to sell, to compete, even to be noticed. Worse still, we’ve seen too many poor marketers – shoddy businesses – come undone over that time - often because of poor marketing.

One result was that most business managers took on their own marketing, rather than (apparently) waste money on snake-oil salesman. The specialist skill of marketing has been widely discredited, along with sales, entrepreneurs, letterboxing and a host of other communications.

So what’s my explanation of marketing? About the best I’ve heard is: matching a company (or organization) up with the best customers. It’s not sales, advertising, research, packaging or pricing: it’s all of those, but a lot more. One of the key discoveries is you have to do things in the right order to change people’s habits - to cause strangers to feel comfortable about buying from us, instead of where they usually do.

And the ideal "right order" seems to be –

1. Choose a market (a group of similar buyers, buyers of whatever)

2. Design the perfect offer for them.

3. Tell ’em about it.

You start by getting to know the buying process and language and needs of a particular group – getting to know them Very Well!

Then you study what would "make their day", hunt around for the perfect source, build the perfect solution for that group, and package it ever so attractively.

And finally, knowing where they shop, how they buy and pay, when they stop to think about changing brands, you offer the perfect buy to exactly the right buyers, just when they’re open to good news.

In that ideal sequence, you’ll recognize all the activities we mentioned earlier: research, advertising, selling and so on. The difference is they all get easier and less expensive when we do them in the "right order".

Things normally don’t happen in that lovely tidy 1-2-3 order, though.

A new business usually starts with a product and goes hunting for a market. Mostly the business starts with an imperfect offer – too cheap, no distribution, service holes, quality hiccups, standard early production stuffups – but the high achievers swear by that good old 1-2-3 sequence after they’ve settled down. And that’s big and small providers, consumer and B2B marketers, all industries, all countries.

Try this:

You’re in business now: describe your favourite kind of customer – bit late to choose a market, but perhaps choose one of your existing customer groups: the rich ones, teen girls, handymen, whoever you’d like to see many more of.

Get to know that group – as well as you can. Talk, ask, listen, and learn.

What do they buy? Why? How did they find out about your business?

- And don’t just assume; assuming can make an ASS out of U and ME!

So, pooling all this knowledge, put together a detailed description of that ideal customer, characteristics, preferences, wants and needs.

Then put it to use:

In our time-poor society, there are lots of folk fitting that description who simply don’t know about your great offer. Boil your advantages down to a couple of key benefits, the 10-to-20-word offer that sets you apart!

What’s the best way to get your offer just to that ideal group? Do they generally read something, shop in a specific area, take notice of an adviser of some kind, typically go hunting for certain things,.. ?

 

You don’t know? More research – it’s important! Invite some of those special people to enjoy a great experience. Then use their reactions to improve your offer.

 

Next Topic - Target Markets

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