Who do you think you’re talking to?
When it comes to brand and marketing, there’s one factor that many businesses, business owners and entrepreneurs are at best guilty of taking for granted and at worst completely ignoring. Yet this one crucial factor in the business model is something that we’re all guilty of glossing over or answering with superficial references, projected assumptions based on fallacies, learned prejudices or presumptions from outdated sources and data surveys from years past that are now devoid of any relevant substance, content, data or strategic insight. (Yes, sometimes the data is even non-existent).
Its both surprising and frightening how many entrepreneurs and businesses, large and small, when asked the question, ‘who is your business talking to or focusing on?’ simply don’t know or have a vague reference as to who their ‘ideal’ customer really is. Many say ‘any customer’ will do, which while admirable for a lack of discrimination, won’t actually serve your business well. And ‘everyone is my customer’ is certainly not the answer either (that’s another blog). Neither have many businesses explored in any great depth why their customers really buy their respective products or services or the motivations behind their customers’ choice. These insights are gold if you want to brand and market yourself more effectively.
Sales expert Lindsay Wilson asserts, ‘50% of the reason why people buy from you is something you probably don’t know.’ What if we were to find that ‘something’ out? Would we know what to do with that knowledge? Would we be brave and choose to reveal significant insights or would we feel the fear of honest feedback and continue with ‘business as usual’? What impact would customer insights have on your businesses, your lives, your families and the wider business and local communities?
So bringing it back around and putting it out there, do we really know who we’re talking to when it comes to our customer or do we really just ‘think’ we know? You might be surprised – the answer and the truth can be revealing. Knowledge plus understanding brings great power after all. We’ve all heard those wise words before – ‘make your ‘ideal’ customer the focus of your brand and marketing activities’ and ‘make the customer the hero of the story’. While this strategy does lead to better brand engagement and smarter (read more cost-effective) marketing results, we can only do this by ‘knowing’ the customer better than they know themselves. It’s time to work smarter.
Thanks for reading my insights. I hope you learned something new as I always aim to add value.
As The Brand Entrepreneur, I help entrepreneurs and business owners deeply define their ‘ideal’ customer in 60 minutes through The ‘Avatar’ Workshop. I’m passionate and focused on helping others identify where their ‘ideal’ customers ‘hang out’ and I then build brands & design assets in those relevant channels to help get brands ‘in sync’ and connected to ‘customers they care’ about.