Marketing 101 Continued

If you recall last issue, we discussed the basic principles of marketing and highlighted 2 great advertising quotes:

Half of all the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is, I don’t know which half!”

John Wanamaker

When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”

David Ogilvy

This week we’ll explore one of the effective advertising principles: Know Your Market.

How long have you been in business? Five, 10 or 20 years? I’m sure you know your product pretty well, right? You know what makes it sell. Or do you? I’m sure you’ll agree, you're pretty close to your business, perhaps too close when it comes to creating effective campaigns or strategies.

In the business of marketing (which we discussed last issue, that’s what your business really is), you must be spot on with the exact reasons people buy your products or services, not why YOU think they buy. In my experience, the best way to find out is simply this: ask them! The answers they give you will point you straight at the main selling points you highlight in your advertisements. By the way, it doesn’t hurt to ask your competitors’ customers why they
chose that product over yours, either.

When businesses ask their customers, they often get surprising answers. In fact, you may find people might choose you over your competitors for reasons other than quality or its price. They might be impressed with your after-sales service, your extraordinary guarantee (your risk reversal on steroids we’ve talked about before) and a bunch of reasons other than what you might consider to be the obvious.

Enough of your customers agree and… bingo! You’ve got a compelling reason why people should buy your product or service because that’s the reason your existing customers told you they’d bought it.

Hang your advertisement on that compelling reason. Even if you already knew that from your own gut feel, now you can be confident that you’re right. You might also discover that if you make some changes, adjustments, variations, and improvements, people will be even more inclined to buy your product or service.

Now that you know what your customers really want, you have to go and find out who the prime prospects for your product or service really are. You need a PPP: a Prime Prospect Profile.

Again, don’t immediately assume that you already know. The people who buy a particular product aren’t necessarily the people who use it. Take men’s aftershave as an example, predominantly it’s bought by women for men. So, what sort of women buy men’s aftershave?

Who are they? These are the sorts of things you have to know. Heck you could be appealing to the wrong people, the wrong sector or the wrong age group!

Here’s the minimum you need to know to establish a PPP:

Their age range
Their sex
Where they live
Income
What they do for a living
If they’re in a relationship or single
If they have kids
Anything else that makes them stand out or that makes them unique.

To Your Business Success

Cheers

Yale Morgan
Better Business Wide Bay
www.betterbusinessgroup.com.au
Email yale@betterbusinessgroup.com.au
Ph 1300 711 743
Mob 0412 667 559

About Yale Morgan, SME Business development specialist

Yale heads up the Better Business Group (BBG), which, as a company has proven business development products and systems, that range from "Do It Yourself" products to fully systemised Business Coaching Programs.

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