Comments on: What Does Your Customer Look Like?

By: Rethink SEO

Rethink SEO — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:59:32 +0000

Any information about customers is useful in some manor. What about if the information about your site visitors automatically generated a specific marketing campaign for each visitor?

By: Elaine Fogel

Elaine Fogel — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:42:36 +0000

Good discussion here, Lewis. It all begins with strategy, something that many clients are reluctant to do for whatever reasons. So many want marketing consultants to do the tactics, and that’s fine, IF there’s a bona fide strategy. How else can clients get value for their money if they don’t know where they want to go?

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:27:43 +0000

Neil, Paul and Blog Expert: I so much appreciate your comments. Thank you.

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:23:35 +0000

I’ve been in meetings all day so am just now getting back to this post.
Michael,
Neil is exactly right, the answers to the questions come from the data gathered by a business based on touchpoints. I don’t know any marketers who assumes they can guess what their ideal customers looks like. And in 35 years I’ve never met one.
However, the kind of market research you suggest isn’t the best way to gather that data if it is the only way. And it isn’t necessary to spend the money to run a customer audit annually.
The best way, as I said, is directly through our touchpoints and then combined with surveys and quantitative research, much of which we can gather through our sales and Inbound Marketing data.
Market Research alone skews the data. Why? Because when customers are asked questions directly they all too often try to provide the answers they think we want.
Most of us who have been marketing executives and now consultants gather that data on an ongoing basis and we would last in this business long if we guessed.
I’m sorry for any confusion.

By: Neil Anuskiewicz

Neil Anuskiewicz — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:41:16 +0000

Michael, not to split hairs, but I do not think Lewis was suggesting that we arrive at these answers via “a priori” reasoning.

By: Michael Goodman

Michael Goodman — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:25:06 +0000

I accept the premise that we need to answer the questions you pose with the kind of clear description of our customer, but I bristle a little bit by your assertion that “[t]o draw a picture to frame our marketing and/or communications strategies, verbal or written, we begin by asking and answering a series of questions around who, what, when, where and how.”
What gets me about that is the implied notion that WE answer those questions (from our own understanding) rather than letting our target audience provide the “real” answers in their own words and from their own perspectives.
I think it’s really important to get our answers directly from the target audience … whether it’s through quantitative or qualitative research, or just through a series of semi-structured one-on-one interviews.
I’m always amazed at how many of my clients are operating based on assumptions about what their customers want and need, without having actually done the research to find out what emotional benefits they seek, how they really make purchase decisions or which suppliers respond best to their [perceived] needs.
Net: I agree with where you’re going, but would urge that serious marketers NOT try to conjure up answers on their own, but insist on a rigorous process for answering the questions based on direct input from their primary target audience.

By: Paul Barsch

Paul Barsch — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:55:56 +0000

Lewis, you take the time to do the analysis, and then measure quarterly.
I believe therein, lies the rub in that there are still too many products/services in search of a customer. What is needed is a deep level of analysis and rigor assigned to product/service mix, and or new product introduction.
Easier said than done however. Many companies are forced to release the latest “whatever” because they think customers want it, or to justify their pricing model.
Another challenge is there is an extreme amount of overcapacity in many companies(I’m thinking autos for example) that need to continue to produce a certain amount because their fixed cost structures are too high.
So ultimately, every company should be thinking about and answering the questions you have listed. But sometimes constraints dictate a different strategy.

By: Blog Expert

Blog Expert — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:43:04 +0000

This can work for anything. I love the idea of not telling but actually showing. In advanced composition this was told to me many times.

By: Neil Anuskiewicz

Neil Anuskiewicz — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:01:55 +0000

Great post, Lewis.
Your post in general and your list above in particular are key exercises for every business.