Where is your focus in marketing? There are times in marketing when we
focus on the wrong things that neither appeal to nor have significance for the
consumer. If that is the case, you are bound to fall short of reaching your
goals.

Where should our focus be? Author and business lecturer, Jim Rohn, was
credited with the phrase: Don’t major in the minor things. That is true when
you come to marketing. Too often, people who are very close to a product or
service become so enamored with the details of how something is produced that
they want that to be their marketing promotion. They lose sight of the fact
that consumers don’t care how it got to them, they just want to know how it
benefits them. Your marketing should focus on the benefits, not the process.
That is, unless the process matters to the consumer. But even if the process
matters, keep your marketing explanation short and relevant. For instance, I
remember when bottled water first became a thing. The water that was sourced
from a natural spring was promoted heavily. However, in time, consumers became
more concerned with two things about bottled water: was it inexpensive and was
it clean? I cannot tell you the last time I looked at a bottle of water for its
source. That mattered to consumers at one time. It does not any longer.

Another way your marketing can focus on the wrong thing is when you have
not defined your target market well. How many companies have done great damage
to their brands by veering away from their target market to appeal to another,
lesser market? Sometimes this is political in nature and violates the values of
your major target. Sometimes it is an attempt to draw in a different
demographic. Whatever the case, if you violate the values of your target, they
will leave you. That means you need to research your target market and find out
where the parameters of their beliefs lie and what they really want from
you.

At its core, marketing is not complex. It is finding out what consumers
need and promoting your brand as a solution to that need. It involves competing
well against the other products and services in the marketplace that are
clamoring for the attention of the same consumers in your target market. It is
making it easy for the consumer to give your brand a try. If you focus on these
major aspects of marketing, you will find success with your marketing.