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Article Title:
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Before You Spend a Cent on Marketing: Answer These Three Questions
Article Description:
====================
Every business needs good marketing in order to thrive. Still,
most businesses squander precious resources on promoting the
wrong products, in the wrong way, to the wrong people.
Additional Article Information:
===============================
1453 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line
Distribution Date and Time: 2006-06-15 10:36:00
Written By: Judy Murdoch
Copyright: 2006
Contact Email: mailto:judy@judymurdoch.com
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Before You Spend a Cent on Marketing: Answer These Three Questions
Copyright � 2006 Judy Murdoch
Highly Contagious Marketing
http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
Every business needs good marketing in order to thrive. Still,
most businesses squander precious resources on promoting the
wrong products, in the wrong way, to the wrong people.
Take a few minutes to consider the following three deceptively
simple questions. Let them expand your perspective on your
business. The answers will reveal your venture's essential and
unique value, as well as the surprisingly large group of people
who already want to buy from you (whether they know it or not).
1. What am I selling?
2. Who are my customers?
3. What benefits are my customers buying?
1. What am I selling?
This question sounds na�ve, but it's surprisingly deep. For
instance, if your company develops and sells a tangible product
such as software or fountain pens, it seems obvious that these
things are your products - right? ...Well, that's partly right.
Your true product or service goes far beyond software, fountain
pens, loan processing services, or chocolate chip cookies. In
fact, if such easily defined items were all had to offer, you
probably wouldn't be in business very long.
Your true product or service is: How you solve customers'
problems or expand their opportunities.
Long gone are the days when simply being a skilled craftsman
(such as a blacksmith, barrel-maker, or baker) was all you
needed to have a thriving business. In those days it didn't
matter if, in another village 50 miles away, someone else was
running exactly the same kind of business - maybe even doing it
better. Such competition posed no real threat because
communication moved slowly: by word of mouth, or in printed
materials that took considerable to produce and deliver. Back
then, if your local customers happened to learn that another
baker 50 miles away produced a superior loaf of bread, they
probably wouldn't jump on a horse and ride so far away just to
buy it.
Today, the competitive situation is radically different:
* Communication is global and virtually instant. In the same few
seconds a prospective customer can easily find and contact your
business as well as all your competitors. Also, Internet
communication makes comparison-shopping fairly effortless. That
means it's increasingly difficult to differentiate products and
services, which are described only by a list of features.
* Transportation allows fast delivery and globally dispersed
production. For many kinds of businesses, location now makes
little or no difference to customers.
Consequently, it's more important than ever to make your
offerings clearly unique. Avoid marketing, which implies that
you're selling a commodity. Customers can buy commodities from
any number of sources - so the only way to compete is by price.
Ultimately, the point of marketing is not to describe your
product or service. Mere descriptions apply to commodities, not
unique solutions.
A better approach is to focus your marketing messages on how you
solve customers' problems or grant their wishes. Compelling
marketing clarifies beyond the shadow of a doubt how well you
understand your customers - and that they can rely on you to
satisfy important needs or desires.
In marketing, everything you do - everything - must reflect and
resonate with your customers. Yes, making a profit is important.
However, there won't be any profit unless customers are certain
that they want your product, and that they can afford it and
purchase it easily. If you don't communicate those points,
you'll miss out on a large proportion of potential sales.
Envisioning your product or service as a true solution requires
that you broaden your perspective about what you're selling and
what business you're in. It's a bit like an optical illusion
that reveals entirely new picture when you focus on the
"negative space."
Until you make this shift, you may not be able to respond to
challenges and opportunities until it's too late.
For example: What does Fed Ex sell?
* Typical answer: Shipping or delivery services. Or perhaps
something more abstract, such as transportation services. All of
these answers are superficially correct. However, they don't
reveal the true benefits and opportunities Fed Ex offers
* Expansive answer: Fed Ex creates time for its customers. This
compelling, magical-sounding benefit has literally changed the
way business is done around the globe. Today, no delivery is more
than 24 hours away. Leveraging this benefit gives Fed Ex
customers a competitive edge, as well as flexibility. It can
relieve pressure on their internal workflow, or help them
respond to sudden changes.
Your business and the market in which you compete are probably
far larger than you currently imagine. If you don't think big
enough, you could be outfoxed by a competitor who does - and thus
steals half your customer base.
2. Who are my customers?
Here again, finding the most useful answer requires some
consideration. Fortunately, this effort pays for itself many
times over by ensuring that your marketing dollars are well
spent.
A typical, superficial way to answer this question is to list
characteristics that describe a demographic group. For instance:
Males aged 21 to 35 who live in the Chicago metropolitan area,
are single, and who drink 6+ beers per week.
There's a far better way to develop a truly effective customer
profile: Focus on wants or needs.
First of all, which problems does your business solve? Break each
of these problems down to its most basic level: a need or
desire.
For instance, who are Porsche customers?
Typical answer: Upper-income professionals aged 30-50 who live or
work within 100 miles of a major city, own a luxury home or
condo, and purchase other luxuries such as fine jewelry or
interior design services.
Expansive answer: Image-conscious, wealthy people who enjoy
displaying their money, taste, intelligence, and skill. They
don't simply need to get around, they love the experience of
driving - and they must look great doing it. They value quality
and design over economy and practicality. Nobody "needs"an
extravagant sports car. However, people can desire an upscale
personal image so strongly that it feels like a need.
The key to developing a truly useful customer profile is to shift
your perspective. Once you start focusing on needs and wants,
your market will probably appear larger and more opportunity-rich
than ever before. Characteristics and labels tend to limit
market possibilities; needs and desires reveal them.
Once you've envisioned the basic needs and wants that define
your customers, research will fill in the details of that
picture. The more you know about your customers, the better you
can anticipate their needs and meet their expectations.
Market research doesn't have to be complex or expensive. You can
achieve a good ROI by balancing the cost of research and the
cost of inaccuracy - and still have enough money left to put your
plan into action. There are many simple, clever, inexpensive
ways to learn about customers that also build or strengthen
relationships.
3. What benefits are my customers buying?
People don't actually buy products or services. They buy
pleasure or relief from pain - whether immediate or anticipated.
In order to persuade people to give you some of their
hard-earned money, you must clarify your value. Don't leave
customers guessing - they often guess wrong. This leads to
inaccurate expectations, which undermine the strong, sustainable,
and profitable business relationship you wish to foster.
People don't hate spending money. They actually love to buy -
it's just a matter of persuading them that you are selling what
they really want. At the most basic level, people generally want
their lives and work to be smoother, more pleasurable, more
meaningful, and more gratifying.
If you're offering immediate relief from pain or immediate
pleasure, sales will probably be easy. Otherwise, you must supply
a compelling reason to buy. This reason becomes crucial if your
product or service is relatively abstract, or if there's a
significant gap between when people buy and when they experience
your benefit.
For example, an accountant will always get emergency business
from people who are preparing last-minute tax returns, or who
are being audited. These clients are in major pain, and the
accountant provides rapid relief. That's an easy sale. However,
that same accountant must work harder to sell preventative or
planning services such as estate planning or tax planning.
Generally, those matters can be postponed indefinitely.
So what does an accountant sell?
Typical answer: Tax and financial advice, and expertise in
processing the relevant paperwork.
Expansive answer: A sense of security and safety. Freedom from
stress and fear about money or taxes.
Similar to learning about your customers wants and needs,
understanding the benefits that will move you customers to action
is as simple as asking them. There are many straight-forward,
inexpensive techniques available to discover the benefits your
customers really want (as opposed to what you think they want).
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Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost,
effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals,
guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic
alliances.
To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt?
Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers
Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com
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