I was watching an old TV show the other day. A
funny situation happened. Here is the scenario: a guy was attracted to a female
coworker and found out she thought he looked young, so he grew a mustache to
make himself look older. One day, he got up the gumption to ask her what she
thought of his mustache and she did not respond in the positive manner he
expected, so he shaved it off. The next time he saw her, she looked at him and
asked, "Why did you shave your mustache? I liked it!” I cannot think of a more
appropriate scenario for the wooing of customers to your brand than that!
Do you find that your customers treat you like a
fickle love interest? They may say they want one thing from you, but then
they reverse course and want just the opposite. What is the conscientious
marketer to do? Here is a short list of steps you can take to deal with the
fickle customer.
The first step is to identify who is and who is not
in your target market. There are certain people (or industries) who need what
you produce. Are you pursuing the right customers? If you are honest, there are
great potential targets; some who are good, but not great; and those who are
not worth your time because they don’t need anything from you. Not everyone
falls into the great target category. Pursue the great candidates. Give them
the majority of your marketing effort. Don’t ignore the good candidates, but
don’t let them drive your marketing.
Next, decide what it is they really need
from you. Where are they feeling pain? How does your brand alleviate that pain?
How does it make their life easier? How does it make them feel better? What
emotion does your brand stir in them? Happiness, pleasure, relief, empathy,
patriotism, pride, etc. If you market your brand to appeal to these felt
emotions, you will have more success in turning marketing into sales and keep
your customers from playing a fickle game where they waffle back and forth over
what they really want from you.
Another step towards avoiding the vacillating
customer is to separate their values from their attitudes. Values are deeply
held convictions that rarely change over time after a person becomes an adult.
An example would be their political affiliation. Attitudes, on the other hand,
change quite often. You might call them fads – here today and gone tomorrow.
Think about the way attitudes have shifted in recent years. For example, turn
on a comedy from a decade or so ago. What was openly considered hilarious has
fallen out of vogue lately. The point I am trying to make is your customers’
values cannot be violated without losing customers. Likewise, supporting the
same values with your marketing will help you keep in step with your customers.
The nice thing is values rarely change. Once you
have them figured out, your marketing can proceed. Attitudes will swing from
one extreme to the other. You need to be aware of what the trending attitudes
are so you don’t step on them, but you don’t want to make them the long-term
focal point of your marketing. If you do, you find yourself shaving off the
mustache that was in style yesterday.