Identification of Customers/Consumers
The Customer May Not Be the Consumer
In the practical business world, your customer is the person who pays you. Your customer may be far removed from your consumer.
Indeed, you may have little to do with the people who ultimately use or buy your wares.
The first task is to identify who will be the most likely customer for your new enterprise. While the markets for consumer and industrial goods
are distinctly different, in many respects their analysis is much the same.
Fortunate is the firm that will sell to only one type of customer - for it only has to do research on that one buyer. And Pity the poor soul who
sells to dozens of different types of customers, each of whom buys a sifnificant portion of the firm's output.
The Whos of Marketing
Who is the most likely customer for your concept? That question alone can be broken down into the four seperate areas:
1. The User
2. The Decision Maker
3. The Buyer
4. The Influencers
1. The User
The concept must be designed promiarly for the user. Diapers must fit the baby, not the mother. However, the decision-maker's (mother) wishes cannot be ignored.
The baby doesn't really care whether the diapers are cloth or if they have pink teddies bears on them, but maybe the mother does.
Many products ahve fialed when they did not take into consideration the user's needs and preferences. If a computer fails to please the user it won't work right regardless
of the decision-maker's evalution of it.
Far too little attention has been given to this aspect of product design. For example: in the menswear industry, experience proved that the firms that gave attention
to how their garments fit their target market stayed around while those that did not pay attention to fit, did not last as long. To make a well-fitting
garment, the manufacturer has to study closely the dimensions of the inteded customer. Old men are built differently than young men and need different
products.
Study carefully how users use your product to point out the ways you can make it more convenient.
2. The Decision Maker
Marketers have placed great emphasis uponi studying the cecision maker for the obvious reason that unless the firm can get a favorable buying
decision from that person, no sale will be made. In many situations, the decision making power is shared so, several parties must be
contacted. Much motivational work is directed as trying to find out why the decision maker behaves in the manner that they do. Marketing probably spends
more effort on the decision maker than any of the other parties in the transaction.
3. The Buyer
Who will make the actual purchase? Often the decsion maker and the buyer are one in the same. Channels of distribution are laregely determined by
the buyer's desires. Where does the buyer wnat to go to buy your product/service? Find out and be there. It's that simple.
4. The Influencers
INfluencers are many and can be devious. The boss may be strongly influenced by what some professional athlete or celebrity says about a particular product.
Maybe the next-door neighbor's opinion will count for something. It's often called word-of-mouth advertising and it's effective. If you are selling smoke
detectors, try to get the fire chief to recommend yours!
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