All posts by ACW

Marketing is simple

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Marketing is simple.

The reason I say this is not only because it is true but also because I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by what marketing is.  I know if you don’t know anything about marketing you might think well, yep, that’s easy for you to say! But just hear me out.

Yes, it has many facets or components, and they can all simultaneously be very important.  This can sometimes feel a bit complicated.  And it can be a time consuming process. But if you break things down in to bite size chunks, they are not difficult or complex.

Yes, there will be times when you have to make hard decisions, but I am a big believer in not overcomplicating things.  If you know who you are communicating with, what they need, what they want, what they desire, then your product or service should be all about satisfying those needs.

Know your customer intimately.  Understand them on many levels and then you can communicate with them in a meaningful way. Know your market, know your product, of course. But keep it simple when marketing to your customers.  Don’t over think things. Make decisions based mostly on knowledge of key drivers or triggers for your customer mixed with a little bit of intuition or gut feeling.  And as I have said before always be authentic when you are talking to them.

The main thing is to remain focused on why you are doing what you do, focus on your customer, and remain true to your brand values.  Once you start to lose focus on these things, your marketing efforts will become hard, and they will be confused.

The impact of your integrated marketing efforts is far greater when your approach is cohesive.  Where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, where 1 + 1 = 3.

When people ask me about what industry my marketing background is in I always think its really not that relevant.  Of course there are intricacies of every industry that are important to learn about I would never deny this, but when it comes to marketing the principles don’t change.  Keeping things simple is the key for me.

Of course, the advantage of marketing people like me existing is that you don’t have to stress yourself too much about it.  Just find someone you trust to look after this for you.  By writing about this I wanted to reassure you that marketing doesn’t have to be a massive hurdle in your business.  You may want to learn all about it and get a really good handle on it yourself, and that’s good too. But if you don’t want to, and you prefer to delegate your marketing to an expert, just don’t let anyone tell you its really hard!

I hope this goes some way to relieving your marketing stress.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Kate 🙂

My philosophy on marketing

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Marketing is honest, truthful, authentic and genuine.  Otherwise it is not worth your time and effort.

A marketing driven business places the customer at the centre of all that they do;  they understand their customer, their person, they exist because of that person.

When you talk to your person you need to be honest and authentic and have a genuine interest in them, not only driven by profits, but by really wanting to help them.

Businesses who believe in marketing do market research on any scale, and they make decisions knowing that they are filling a need.  In customer centric organisations, of any size or shape, products and services are not created based on top down decision making and then forced on to unsuspecting consumers!

Marketing is genuinely about building a relationship with your people, your tribe, your community.  A communicative, mutually beneficial and rewarding relationship.  It is not about force or manipulation. It is about genuinely striving to help your customers or clients to achieve what they want to.

From simply looking good in the right pair of jeans – honestly – to providing air conditioning systems that will give them the relief they need in the most cost effective way possible, to giving them the answers they need to get their business moving in the right direction.  ALL about legitimately helping them. A customer who goes home only to be told by their boyfriend that, um yes, your bum looks big in those jeans, is not going be a loyal customer are they?!

Actually, I think marketing has come full circle for a lot of people and businesses.  It was always a concept that placed the consumer at the start and the end of the process; identify a need, want, desire in your consumer and give them what they need to fill that perceived void.  I think for many marketing has been a bit misguided for a while though.

At the risk of sounding like a rapper(!), when it comes to your marketing you have to keep it real!

Thank you for taking the time to read this,

Kate

 

Defining your target market is not about excluding people

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Marketers are big on target market definitions, customer avatars, segmentation targeting – whatever you want to call it.  What I find when working with people trying to define the target market for their business, is that they are so often worried about excluding customers if they make the definition too narrow.

Don’t worry about it! Always remember that the purpose of defining your target market is to give you a clear idea of who you are talking to when you are developing products and marketing ideas.  BUT this is an internal document, its just for you, and for those trusted souls who work with you on your business.  It is so that all these people have a clear and succinct picture about who your business is for.

This is the thing about target market definitions that you need to remember, to alleviate any concerns you have of narrowing down a definition:

  1. It is only for you, it is an internal document and your potential customers don’t know about it and they don’t select themselves based on this criteria.
  2. A target market is supposed to be aspirational.

 

So, what I mean by this second point is that even if you define your target market as a person in the age group 25-35, you are not going exclude a 45 year old.  A brand is meant to be an aspirational thing.  If I see myself represented in the brand, and I am 10 years older than who they are targeting, it doesn’t matter, the brand appeal has reached me and touched me and so I am drawn to it, when the time is right.

Your target market definition might be a middle to upper socio economic group, but if I am in the real middle middle socio economic group, and I can relate to your brand, it is something that I aspire too and the fact that I don’t fit a certain criteria that is written in a fancy internal document of yours, is not going to stop me from going after what I want – your brand.

Why it is important to have a clear picture in your head of who your target market is:

  1. It is important that you have a clear vision of who is going to buy your product – that you understand who the market is, what motivates them, what they need, what they want, where they are, and whats important to them.  For two reasons.  Firstly, if you don’t know them how can you design a product or service for them and secondly, if you don’t know them you will not now where to find them, and if you cant find them you cant communicate with them
  2. By having a clear picture in your head of who your person is, you should be able to identify when you, your business, you team is going off on a tangent that is not relevant to your customer.  It provides you with a clear focus and vision to lead you through the maze that your business can sometimes become.

 

And don’t forget – your target market is an evolving thing – its not set in stone.  When the time is right you can and should reassess.  Is your product actually attracting this person, is so – great.  If not, do you need to reassess the product or the marketing communications, or perhaps you need to make a shift in the target market.  Just keep an open mind, things will always change, including this!

Some thoughts from me to help you define who your much loved customer is.

Kate

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