Page 45 - Duct Tape Marketing

29Chapter 2: All About Customers

months. The motel would be wise to offer summer guests special incen-
tives that encourage them to return in the spring and fall to build year-
round business.

ߜ National and international guests account for approximately one-quarter
of the motel’s business. Because these guests are a far-flung group, the
cost of trying to reach them in their home market areas via advertising
would be staggering. Instead, the motel managers might research how
they found out about the motel in the first place. If they booked following
advice from travel agents or tour group operators, the managers might
cultivate those sources for more bookings. Or, if they made their decisions
while driving through town, the motel would benefit from a few well-
placed billboard ads to inspire more such spur-of-the-moment stays.

Conduct a similar analysis for your own business:

ߜ How do your products break down into product lines? (See Chapter 3 for
more information about this important topic.)

ߜ What kind of customer is the most prevalent buyer for each line?

If you determine that one of your product lines attracts customers who are
highly discerning and prestige-oriented, you probably won’t want to employ a
strategy that relies on coupons, for example. Likewise, if you know that a cer-
tain product line appeals to a particularly athletic or health-conscious group,
you can forget about trying to prompt purchases by offering such things as
all-you-can-eat dinners.

Tracing your distribution channels

Distribution is the means by which you get your product to the customer. A
good distribution system blends knowledge about your customer (from the
first half of this chapter, that part should be clear) with knowledge of how
that person ended up with your product (that’s what distribution is about).
It’s often a surprisingly roundabout route.

To demonstrate, take a look at how visitors might arrive at a local museum or
cultural attraction.

Say that 50,000 visitors walk through the turnstiles every year. Suppose that
10,000 of those visitors are school groups who arrive on school buses, 5,000
arrive as part of tour groups, 5,000 arrive with tickets prepurchased through
local motels and hotels, 5,000 prepurchased their tickets online through the
Web sites of the museum and the regional visitor bureau, 5,000 arrive with
tickets distributed by partner businesses as part of special promotional
programs, and 20,000 arrive at the museum’s entry gate as either museum
members or independent visitors.