I am often critical of ads or just foisting my opinion about them on unsuspecting folks who don't realize they asked. I recognize that this can come across as a somewhat pessimistic attitude towards marketing sometimes. With all the rest of the pessimistic economic news these days, I thought I'd put together a positive message with some useful information for you.
With all the bad news that we're being bombarded with these days, its easy to forget that now is a perfect time for nimble companies with well defined products for well defined customers.
That's a big concept so lets break it down a little:
Nimble companies - Many entrepreneurs that I talk to are encouraged by the economic news right now. Why? Because as the big corporate competitors are cutting on products and marketing, that's opening up an opportunity for entrepreneurs who can fill the niche left behind. But the key word here is "nimble". The risk in the market is still there, and you have to be ready to react (or better yet preempt). For example, a coffee shop that I've worked with in the past serves clientele who are professional, high-income, and are willing to pay for a high-quality product. However, the shop found that as Starbucks and another independent coffee shop closed, he was starting to see a different clientele - younger, not as affluent, more interested in quick foods to go with their coffee. Within the week of recognizing this trend, the shop partnered with a deli to offer cold sandwiches at the shop and introduced a new blend of coffee for 99 cents. However, he didn't change the current offerings and actually upgraded his chairs in order to keep his appeal to his current more affluent customers.
Well-defined customers - Most entrepreneurs that I know come to me and say something similar to "I've invented this new widget and it does X, Y, and Z" or "I've noticed there are not any widget stores in Cityville" and then they go on to talk about their product and how it will be successful. In my years in the research world, I've always found this to be the backwards way to approach the problem. Start with describing your customers. I always work to guide the conversation towards, "I've invented this new widget, and the reason it will be successful is because it solves X demographic's problems with X, Y, and Z." What this does is change the way you look at things. Seth Godin, a writer on marketing, said just yesterday on a webcast from bnet that the key to success is to seek products for your customers, not customers for your products. It takes a little creativity and a lot of hard work, but I couldn't agree with this theory more completely.
Well-defined products - As a marketing consultant, I am constantly attempting to explain to my friends what it is exactly that I do. It's an interesting challenge for those who are not in the business world (but that's ok, they don't need to know what I do). However, my potential clients do need to know. So, I've spent the last three weeks developing a very long list first of everything I offer, then I've narrowed it down into a more focused list based on the customers who I have identified as my targets. So, while I can design logos and do copywriting, my ideal clients do not care. They do care that I create marketing plans, identify targets, and develop tactics and advertising creative briefs to provide direction.
I can hear the folks getting ready to tell me now, "but if you are nimble, shouldn't that mean offering a wider variety of products to a wider audience?" I say not exactly... The target customer may be of a wider variety, but I still have to know who they are and what they are looking for in order to offer a product that caters to them. The coffee shop widened its product offering, but only after identifying what the customers wanted. If you can't identify a customer for the product, ask yourself, why would they choose me? The coffee shop didn't see that Starbucks had offered sandwiches and jumping to the conclusion that he probably needs to in order to pick up those customers. He identified what the customers wanted.
If you focus on those three things, you'll have an excellent start to an outstanding marketing plan.
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