Business Marketing mindset
By Christina Richardson
live? Where do they shop? What do they do? What do they read and watch? Who influences them? Capture a complete picture of them as one person.
You have to be ruthless here. Your consumer ‘James’ is not 28 to 45. Your customers might span 28 to 45 in age range, and you don’t want to alienate any of these men in how you talk to them but you have to choose one of them... the most valuable one... to target with your marketing. If you don’t, your marketing communications will be targeting no- one and will join the other 3000 messages that get ignored in an average day.
An expert example of consumer-centric business decision making is 5 year old start-up MOMA breakfasts – founded by Tom Mercer. Tom made the fundamental business decision of where to sell his healthy on-the-go breakfasts by getting in the mind of his target consumers. He was clear that his new product was all about solving the hunger pains of busy rushed commuters – so he refused to launch the brand until he got his first stall at the end of the platform concourse at Waterloo station – exactly where his hungry commuters were.
Be clear on your brand identity
Every successful business will get copied in one form or another. That is why creating a brand – not a product is fundamentally important to your business. If you create a brand that means something to people with values and an identity ... competitors will be deterred from copying you and consumers will have a reason to stay with you.
Innocent drinks have seen a multitude of competitors entering their market, including many lower priced supermarket versions. But they continue to grow. Fundamentally, this is down to that brand personality that lives on those little bottles and in everything they do which drives an emotional attraction in that 3 second decision at the chiller.
How strong is your brand?
A brand is so much more than a logo. The most powerful brands mean something to people; they have values and are emotionally attractive to their target audiences. This first starts by identifying what you want your brand to stand for, and what it should stand for to be compelling to your target consumers:
- Identify the assets of your business – what do you own? What is it that only you have?
- Get clear on your values – what do you believe in? What would you never do? How do your values present themselves in the way you do business?
- If your brand were a person – what are their personality traits?
These questions begin to force decisions about what you want to mean to your target audience. Once you are clear on what you want to mean – you can build a marketing plan to start saying it.
Next time... we’ll be looking at how strategic planning and objective-driven implementation drives marketing success on any budget.
31 entrepreneurcountry
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