Insight #19: Know Your Target Market

You need to know exactly who buys what you’re selling and then talk to ONLY those people. It’s inevitable. No matter which medium you use for your advertisements, there are going to be some people who see or hear it who are NOT prospects for what you’re selling. So, make sure that your message is directed and targeted to only those who are qualified prospects.

If you’re in the market for a new car, there’s a good chance you’ll be acutely aware of all the TV and radio commercials and all the newspaper ads for cars. If you’re not in the market for a new car, chances are you won’t see or hear those exact same ads. They’re still there; you just don’t notice them. You’ll either tune them out mentally or physically change the channel or turn the page. So what’s a car advertiser to do? Why not simply talk directly to people who are interested in buying cars instead of wasting time getting their attention! Some advertisers feel like they need to put something catchy, cute, weird, sexy, colorful or bold in their ads to make sure that every person on earth pays attention to the ad. They figure if everyone’s looking, then they’ve got a better chance of selling to more people. There’s a real trap in doing your advertising this way - a trap you need to avoid. When you try to speak to everybody, your message gets diluted to the point where it says nothing to anybody. You can’t be all things to all people.

Being all things to all people could be called the “Tigger Syndrome”. In Winnie the Pooh, there’s a cartoon character who is a hyperactive tiger named Tigger. Tigger has a spring for a tail and his talent is bouncing. He’s the best bouncer of all. But, his main goal in life is NOT to excel at bouncing, but rather to be liked by everyone else. So he always tries to do what everyone else is doing so they’ll like him. Someone asks him if he can ice skate, to which he replies, “That’s what TIGGER does best!” and goes on to crash into a tree and ruin everyone’s fun. Someone asks him if he can climb trees to which he replies, “That’s what TIGGER does best!” and then promptly gets stuck at the top of the tree. He does this time and time again until finally, demoralized, he realizes that his efforts are best spent and most appreciated when perfecting his own talent – which is bouncing.

Would you believe that there are Tiggers in the business world? Let’s look as some examples. A video production company wrote an ad to produce corporate videos. They were using a fax broadcast to send out their message, which was extremely confusing. They made four different selling points, included two different offers, and used three main headlines scattered throughout a ONE PAGE letter! This letter had a little bit of something for everyone in it. In fact, their main selling advantage was “low price”. Usually, it’s not wise or accurate to promote low price as the main selling advantage. But in this case, they really were lower - and it was mainly because the competitors had not lowered their prices over the last 5 years - even though technology had significantly reduced the costs involved with producing these videos. So, in reality, their price was actually normal and their competitors’ prices were too high. That’s a different spin on “low price.” But, that’s what this Tigger did best – offer “low price”.

The marketing director initially thought that all 30,000 prospects on her fax broadcast list were viable candidates. Upon further analysis, it was discovered that only about 10% to 20% would ever be in the market for corporate videos. That’s approximately 5,000 companies. After finally realizing that everyone in her database wasn’t a prospect, it was pointed out that these true prospects were all on different levels of readiness to buy. Some of these “qualified” prospects had not even realized that video is an option for them at this point. Some may have investigated it and thought it to be too expensive. Some may have only given it a casual thought. Some may be making videos now, or had done so in the past, with another production company. Some of these may be perfectly satisfied, and some may be ready right now to find a new company to do the production. There are a lot of different situations. The bottom line on this as it relates to your business? You can’t try to sell to everyone at once. And, viable prospects have different needs. You’ve got to make your message focused, like a laser beam, in order to effectively reach your REAL target market.

There’s a box manufacturing company with one of the best inside realities. They streamlined their production to such an extent that they can design, produce, and deliver custom boxes in four hours or less. The quick turn-around was added so the company could provide their big customers, who get into a pinch, with this value-added service as needed. Perhaps four hours sounds like a lot of time. But their next fastest competitor gets the same type of custom order designed, produced, and delivered in about two and a half days! And that’s the next fastest one! Most of their competitors take one to two weeks to do that.

Although this four-hour service can be done any time for any customer at a reasonable but higher pricing level, the manufacturer had not promoted it that way. In fact, most customers didn’t even know that they could do it.

The manufacturer was given a recommendation to put this four-hour ability at the forefront of his marketing and to promote it all the time in everything they did. His question was a fair one: “Not everyone needs four hour boxes. In fact, 90% of all companies won’t need that service at all in a given year. Why would we want to promote that?” The reason they should promote that quick, unique service comes back to knowing the target market. By promoting the four-hour service, they let everyone know that they had created an absolute breakthrough in the box business. Their unusual service message would resonate clearly with purchasing agents, who would most definitely store it in their mental banks just in case they had the need someday.

A series of oversized postcard mailers were put together and mailed out systematically every 3 weeks to a targeted list. This was sent along with some promotional products that were imprinted with their new logo, “Custom Boxes ON YOUR DOCK In Just 4 Hours. Guaranteed!” The results? Extremely impactful. They went from doing one or two four-hour orders a month to doing as many as seven a day. Many of these were new customers in a jam. The rush job premium pricing was not a problem because it was still reasonable, given the “need” circumstance. And, guess who those customers ordered their regular, non-rush boxes from after the manufacturer bailed them out of a major jam? That’s right – the same company. That would explain how they went from doing $880,000 a month to $1.7 million a month in just eleven months and eventually up to $3 million a month - despite losing two major accounts to bankruptcies. They knew their target market and talked directly to them, communicating the exact message that needed to be heard.

Identify what you’re selling and who will buy it. Then, “talk” (market) to ONLY those people. People who are not within that target will not buy, no matter what you say. To this end, it’s imperative that you don’t waste your precious dollars making general statements that get attention but don’t sell. Pinpoint your message. Pick out your prospects. Talk to them individually. And forget everyone else.

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