Help with understanding your customers
Cup of tea version:
Everybody thinks they're so smart.
On a bad day, I do, certainly. And I bet you a tenner you do, too.
Sadly, it is an established fact that in real terms we are all increasingly less wise. Quite simply, the amount of things that are available to know about in the world continues to increase out of any proportion to our ability to catch up.
You could call this "exponential ignorance". Of course, a lot of it doesn't really matter. The part you really can't ignore concerns your marketplace and, precisely, the customers you would like to buy your goods or services.
Only the most Neanderthal of used-car sales directors would describe "getting to know your target audience" as a waste of time. (If that's you, log off now…)
There are only two elements to understanding customers. One is some form of "research" and the other the ability to generate real insight from what you find.
You need both. That's where Spring Thinking can help.
First off, clients often rush into formal research as a first step in understanding their market.
You should only commission your own research when you have a fair idea about what you are looking for. There should be something you believe could be true and that, if so, would be significant to your future sales.
Sadly, research agencies have a tendency to go round the houses in order to maintain the right methodology. I can help you avoid that, directing, commissioning and managing for you any research project that may be necessary.
Ideally, however, there won't be one.
Yes, you read that right…
My ‘Spring Thinking’ policy is to assume that a large part of the answers you seek exist in your own, previous research. Or in the heads of your experienced colleagues. Here's where the ability to generate insight can save you money.
Working for TNT Sameday, the delivery service, my team developed a 2004 communications strategy based around the idea that the brand helped you "relax at work". The insight here lay in the clients’ own research, which showed that speedy collection of a parcel was important to customers.
Now, strictly speaking, it doesn't really matter how fast the parcel is collected as long as it gets there, right? But we felt these findings showed there was an emotional sales message that neither our client nor their competitors were using.
The collection of that vital package from an office manager's desk caused her to almost literally sigh with relief. So, we built a direct mail campaign that didn't talk about logistics, resources or delivery guarantees, but about tea breaks, hand massage, office Feng Shei and workplace meditation.
The client was more than happy to persist with this unorthodox campaign when average ROI proved to be well into four figures. The campaign won the national Marketing Society Effectiveness Award for business-to-business. All from simply taking a fresh look at the existing facts.
It’s possible you, too, just need some new interpretation in order to move your business forward. It can't hurt to explore this, surely? Just call or e-mail and see what we can discover together.
Thinking about it…
Intuition or research? At Grey we had a beverage client who used to lurk around the soft drinks fixtures of his local supermarkets, looking at buyer behaviour. He regularly came up with observations that no amount of customer questioning would have revealed. What’s wrong with putting some faith in your own abilities?
Of course, frequently intuition fails and we have to ‘ask the market’. I’ve worked with a number of research agencies, good and not so good, and am comfortable I know what to look for. That could save you money and provide you with better marketing too.
For example, we may decide you really want the sort of general information about your customers that the large research-report specialists already produce. If so, don’t pay for your own focus groups. Just because you own that research when it’s finished doesn’t mean it’s telling you anything new.