When you develop a plan for marketing in Joplin, MO, or anywhere else in the world for that matter, you’re probably ready to do a few things. You’ll define a budget, choose the right channels to advertise on, select a schedule, and lay out what you want the creative to be. You’re just forgetting one thing — how the customer sees things. That’s not necessarily the same thing as identifying your target audience, which you need to do before you select where you’re going to advertise or how to build your message.
You have an inside view of your company, including things you think should be valued in your products and services. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your customers see things the way you do, like the same things you do, or even value the same things you do. In order for your business to succeed, you need to see things the way customers do in order to truly understand how your business fits into their lives.
The Customer’s Perspective
Remember, your customers don’t make their decisions based simply on logic and data; they also make their purchase decisions based on the way they feel about a store, product, or service. That is to say, they make decisions based off of their customer experience, and if they don’t have direct experience yet, they’ll find someone else who does. So what are the things they notice?
In my book BrandsFormation, I provide a scorecard for grading core experiences on a scale of one to five (poor to great). Some things are basic, like having the right location, good parking, and reasonable hours. Other things are more intangible, like their perception of your business’ vitality, customer service, WOW factor, and whether you do what you say you do. Bear in mind that their opinions on these are entirely subjective — what one customer considers to be terrible hours might be perfect for the next person in line.
But subjective customer perspectives have a very objective impact on your business. Each of the items on my list come together in the customer’s mind to form an overall opinion about your business and whether or not they shop there. Is a great location enough to overcome terrible hours? Is the WOW service enough to make them put up with minimal or awkward parking?
The Customer’s Values
Your customer will also base their decisions on something more than the literal experience — their values. I’m not talking about their beliefs, although those can definitely impact a purchase decision. Instead, I’m talking about what it is they get out of their shopping experience. Why are they shopping in the first place? What are they taking home?
An example I always come back to is this: Does your customer want a mattress, or do they want a good night’s sleep?
That takes customer experience and how they perceive your company to a whole new level. If what they’re really looking for is a good night’s sleep, then trying to pitch anything else is going to strike out, even if what you’re selling is a mattress. Customers want to feel good about their purchases, to feel like they made the best purchase decision. If you sell them a good night’s sleep, then you’re adding value to their experience by helping to meet their underlying needs. Michelin provides a great example with their tag line, “So much is riding on your tires.” It’s not selling its tires based on their specs, the visual appeal they offer a car, or even the typical driving experience. Instead, it touches on a deep concern, especially for parents — safety on the road.
The Customer’s Behavior
A customer’s perspective and values come together to influence the way they see your business on the whole. They’ll do the same with your competitors as well, and how they see things drives their ultimate choice of where to shop and what to buy. For instance, if the value a business provides them is spot on, they may be willing to put up with inconvenient hours or slow checkout lines because that company meets their underlying needs, even if the competitor has better hours and faster checkout.
On the other hand, if a business builds a negative perception across multiple items — say, extremely inconvenient parking for a poor location, slow checkout lines, and dirty bathrooms — it won’t matter how well a salesperson talks about the quality of their offerings or meeting their needs. That simply isn’t a place where customers want to be. Shopping with a competitor that isn’t offering the same value but offers a significantly better shopping experience becomes the better choice.
The Solution: BrandsFormation
The items listed in Customer’s Perspective need to be addressed before you start heavily advertising. That’s because once they respond to your message, they’ll have certain expectations about their experience. Your product, service, or store needs to live up to your marketing message, especially doing what you say you do. If not, your advertising will actually do more harm than good, and you could even put yourself out of business.
Once that’s in order, you can work on tapping Customer Values and influencing their Behavior. You’ll do this through branding, and you can excel at it if you utilize my four-step BrandsFormation process. In the first step, you design a strategy based on the current market, your competition, and your customer’s values. You’ll have to dig in and do some actual research because you need to make your decisions based on facts, not assumptions. You need to really understand what value your customers are looking to meet, and whether or not your competition is already meeting it.
Let’s jump back to the mattress example. What if your target audience doesn’t value a great night’s sleep so much as a decent but extremely affordable night’s sleep? What if they’re looking for a luxurious night’s sleep? These nuances matter, and which approach your competition is taking can help you decide how to position your brand. It should help you uncover your difference maker, which is the unique thing that gives your branding power. It’s the thing that makes your business matter. What are you offering that the competition isn’t? Is it a better solution, or a solution delivered in a different way?
This is where the strategy-based message and the bricks in their brick-and-mortar approach come in. Your message needs to be based on your difference maker, and each “brick” should dramatize it with a story that shows why it matters, rather than having copy that flatly tells customers why you matter. This is where your marketing can connect with customers at that emotional level. You run one brick at a time, and it’s all held together with a consistent “mortar” — to complete your branding. Whenever a customer is exposed to your brand, they should recognize it. This requires consistent elements like a logo, colors, or jingle. The bricks can’t build your brand unless your mortar binds them together. From here, you need to dominate your marketing channels and eventually your corner of the market. That requires leveraging the right frequency across media to expose your audience to your message often enough that it makes an impact.
Your target customer needs to be the center of how you approach your business because the way they see things is what will define your success. Take the time to analyze how customers perceive your business; learn what they value most when they’re looking for the products and services you offer. This can inform your decisions and give your business a Brandsformation.
