Tag Archives: positioning

Who are you?

Guess Who

Most marketers obsess with who they’re targeting. What demographic? Location? Income?

All good questions. However, we can’t afford to ignore our current customers.

In fact, a qualifier for looking for more sales should be an intimate understanding about who our existing customers are.

How do they think? Why did they stick around? How do they feel about us?

This helps us reach similar people and help spread the word in already existing communities.

There’s no point reaching a new segment if one exists, untapped, right before your eyes.

Generalising

See what I did there?

It’s true, though. Most of the time, most of the people will act the way we expect.

However most of the time we aren’t trying to get most of the people to do what we want. (to change their thinking, perceptions, behaviours)

We usually target very specific segments, commonly referred to as niche’s. They’re the kendo club, the amateur cartoonist or karaoke restaurant enthusiasts.

Most of the time, those people are weird. Different to the norm.

Generalisations are useful, but let’s keep in mind who we’re really trying to connect with.

I am not my target market.

It's All About Me

A big mistake many businesses make is that they focus on themselves.

What do I like? What would I pay? What do I believe? What do I buy?

It’s all about me.

When, in fact, the only similarity between us and our target market is that we are the same species. That’s it.

We try to get around it by generalising or profiling our customers and guessing what they like (while still basing it on our personal preferences).

Researching your target means there are no assumptions. Just ask them what they like. Show them your work and ask for their feedback.

You might be surprised how well your message cuts through when you show intimate knowledge of what they want to hear, see and do.