Page 42 - Duct Tape Marketing

26 Part I: Getting Started in Marketing

By creating customer subgroups, the retailer can begin to chart which kinds
of guests purchase which kinds of products or respond to which kinds of
offers.

You’ll see patterns emerge. Certain customer groups account for higher sales
volume or more frequent purchases. Or perhaps some subgroups purchase
certain types of products from you. Once you know the tendencies of your
various market segments, you know what to say to each target group.

Using customer profiles to guide
marketing decisions

Customer knowledge leads to strong marketing decisions, including decisions
that affect product development, media selections, and the creation of mar-
keting messages. The following two examples show how businesses use cus-
tomer knowledge to steer their marketing efforts.

ߜ A downtown dry-cleaning and laundry business determines that its
market is comprised primarily of affluent professionals who live and
work in the nearby area. Knowing this, the business decides to remain
open from 6:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. so that its customers, who work full-
time during the day, can drop in before and after work. Additionally,
when placing ads, the business avoids airing broadcast messages during
daytime hours when its prospects are at work. Instead, it schedules ads
during evening and weekend financial, news, and sports programs.

ߜ A life-insurance representative finds that her clients are primarily young,
newly married couples. Knowing this, she rejects a half-price offer to run
an ad in an upcoming special section of the local newspaper focusing on
senior citizens. Instead, she approves a schedule that includes ads in the
newspaper’s entertainment section, where her prospects may be looking
for information about things to do over the weekend. And she asks the
media advertising representatives to let her know when they’re publish-
ing special sections on home improvements or do-it-yourself money-
saving remodeling — or any other opportunities that would correlate
with the lifestyles and interests of her market.

Determining Which Customers Buy What

Especially for small businesses, marketing is a matter of resource allocation.
It’s about figuring out who’s buying what and then weighting your marketing
efforts behind the products and markets apt to give you the best return on
your marketing investment.