Page 49 - Duct Tape Marketing

Chapter 3

Seeing Your Product through
Your Customers’ Eyes

In This Chapter

ᮣ Honing in on why your customers choose your product
ᮣ Putting your unique selling proposition into words
ᮣ Rating the value of your product or service
ᮣ Calculating your product’s price/value equation
ᮣ Charting your product’s life cycle
ᮣ Extending and diversifying your product line

The best products aren’t sold — they’re bought.

Yet you’ll never hear a customer say he bought a lemon at the used car lot.
Nope, someone sold him that lemon — but hopefully not you or your busi-
ness. If you’re a good marketer, when it comes time for the purchase, you
aren’t selling anyone anything. Instead, you’re helping customers to select
the right products to solve their problems, address their needs, or fulfill their
desires. You’re helping them buy.

As a result, you devote the bulk of your marketing efforts to the steps that
take place long before money changes hands. These efforts involve targeting
customers, designing the right product line, and communicating your offer-
ings in terms that address the customer’s wants and needs. Then when the
customer is ready to make the purchase, all you have to do is facilitate a
pleasant exchange and make sure he or she feels good about trading money
for the right product.

Chapter 2 focuses on your customers — who they are, where they are, and
what needs they have. This chapter puts the spotlight on everything there is
to know about your products and, even more so, on all the reasons your cus-
tomers would want to buy those products from you.