Astonish Your Customer(s)

How specific does your target audience need to be

The more specific, the better. 

Ford's Fiesta has been a huge success in the compact car market. 

Who did they build the car for?

College student? Budget car buyer? Under-sized people? Single people?

A 23 year-old Italian immigrant.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

(re)Align - Never invest ahead of the learning

P&Gs Align brand team was developing a probiotic pill whose daily use could alleviate the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (30 million sufferers in U.S.) The idea was brimming with disruptive potential. A pressing problem with no adequate solutions. "The team stair-stepped to market, never investing ahead of learning." P&Gs Align group reframed its approach to one that was more "invest a little, learn a lot." Instead of trying to come up with a definitive answer about Align's potential, members of the brand team identified which assumptions would have to be true to create a business about which P&G could get excited. Two questions they zeroed in on: Would doctors promote the solution? Would consumers take the probiotic every day? "The training helped us narrow down to the critical things we had to answer before we and management were comfortable moving on to the next step."

Instead of putting all their eggs in the shelf-life basket, the Align group decided to offer the product on the Web as an over-the-counter supplement. P&G didn't invest big in advertising. Rather, its existing pharmaceutical sales force promoted the product to doctors in three cities. By selling to consumers online and being able to track sales histories, P&G was able to learn whether consumers were trying Align and repurchasing. "The most surprising thing was how word of mouth spread." "We were only [focusing] in three cities, and in four months we had online sales in 49 states."

Borrowing from birth control packaging, the P&G group created an Align blister pack with days of the week on it to remind consumers to take the pill every day. 

The team talked to people taking the product. They videotaped consumers' touching stories. Some of the stories were amazing. These interviews would come in handy later.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

Who is worth listening to

Is it the loyalists, the screamers, the complainers, the vocal fans, the silent fans, the professional critics, the amateur critics, the competitor's customers, the uninitiated, the lapsed users, the heavy users, the idiots, the geniuses, the accountants, the President, the bloggers, Oprah, Martha? All of the above? Prioritize the different groups? None of the above? 

Who will give you the best advise?

The best answer may be a combination of inputs from Bob Hoffman of Hoffman & Lewis and Seth Godin. 

Seth says "listen to your "Sneezers" - the people who tell the most people about you (good or bad). Listen to the people who thrive on sharing your good work with others. If you delight these people, you grow. " 

But what if you are just starting out and/or you don't have sneezers?

Find the people who sneeze about products similar to yours and see what they think of you. 

Bob Hoffman thinks that appealing to the heavy/high yield user is the key. Given their knowledge and use products in that category, they pay the most attention and are the de facto experts in the category. Also, it is the brands that attract the most heavy/high yield users that dominate a category.  

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Do u kno y u buy?

Think about your thoughts?

Do you know why you buy Skippy v. Jif? Alpo v. Pedigree? Colgate v. Crest? Heinz v. Hunts? 

If your dog doesn't seem to care which brand of food you buy, why should you?

Think about your own buying decisions for consumable items.

How much of the decision for just one products you often buy is based on logic and how much is emotion?

What items are based just on logic (sandwich bags)?

If a marketer cannot even explain to herself why she buys what she buys, why does she think that a few points of data and some observations of customers at a focus group or in a store gives her clarity as to her customer's motives and decision-making criteria.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.  

 

Plan Your Media Backwards

Many brands approach the media plan in a similar fashion. They describe their ideal audience (demographics, psychographics, aspirational wellness advocate, educated, high income, women over 35, with 2 kids, proactive self-medicator, exercise nut, in good shape - or some such fluffy description) and ask the media planners to find channels to reach that groups(s). 

Suppose the creation of a campaign started in a different place. 

Ask the media planners to identify the audiences that have proven to be the most easy and cost efficient to reach (regardless of the brand) as well as the audiences that are proven responders.

Maybe one or more of those audiences will match or come close enough to matching your desired audience. If so, then maybe, just maybe, you could tweak your creative message to appeal to the sensibilities of that audience.  

You may not think of your brand as being aligned with rural folks that hold blue collar jobs but if that is the audience that can be reached and will respond, why not. 

You could also take this approach as you consider your next stage of product development.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

 

Find the Bright Spot(s)

In the Heath Brothers wonderful new book "Switch" they outline ways to bring change and also ways to determine solutions to problems. 

The first way to solve a problem is to find the bright spots, the areas where there are positive results or meaningful progress. They urge people to learn from the success and transplant that behavior elsewhere. 

I met with the owners of a small-ish cold & cold remedy brand yesterday. The brand's sales have dropped precipitously and the company is resource-constrained in dollars, people and time. They can't afford expensive or fancy market research to determine what the bright spots might be, so I gave some ideas about how and where to look for the bright spots (this is CPG/HBC brand sold in food, drug and discount stores). 

• People who profess love for the product (scan: Twitter, Google, Blogs, Community sites)
• If you have email or other means of speaking with your customers, ask them why they like/love the product (do those people belong to any particular group or profile that can be connected to)/
• Look for clues in the following areas: Remarks made on 1-800 customer service calls, requests for samples (what markets), information left by people on brand's web site, PR coverage (what markets, reporters, publications, web sites tend to love brand)
• Complaint letters (they often include helpful info as well)
• Retailers where brand has a positive trend 
• Flavors and sizes of product that have positive trend
• Ask employees, especially the mouthy, iconoclastic folks (in every function of company)
• Consumer Reports 
• Ask vendors and suppliers (they are working with brand for a reason other than money)
• What promotions tend to work for brand (time of year, retailer, price-off or bonus packs, etc.)
• What geographic region has the best sales record 
• Public information available about brands that are similar to your brand  
• Measure all past advertising and brand communication programs to see if you can prove a positive ROI
• Please pass along your suggestions 

Somewhere, someplace the brand/business has some bright spots. The spots can be found with little to no expense, if people are willing to look and are inquisitive and resourceful about the process.  

Last thought. Every company should put the process in place to capture formal and anecdotal evidence of bright spots (everyday).

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.  

(Your brand) sucks

If you want to know what people are really thinking, enter your brand's name followed by the word sucks in the Google search box. 

Do the same thing with your category ... "mouthwash" sucks. 

Do the same with competitive brands. 

Do the same thing with your most important retailer/channel of distribution.

What do people ... hate, complain about, feel is missing, confuses them (as well as love, want more of)? 

Where there is angst, there is opportunity. And you should look at angst as an opportunity. Remember, strong feelings (pro or con) are not to be feared, indifference is. 

If you can't find anything, try to stimulate a conversation and see what you learn. Meaningful research doesn't always require a budget.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.