Marketing Focus: Client or Competition?

The competition often seems to be the sole focus of business owners and their teams. What are they doing? Who are they working with? How much are they charging?

This focus aims to develop a strategy to better position the company in its market. But is this approach truly the wisest one? On one hand, it would be irresponsible to completely ignore the competition. We recommend that you review your competitors on a yearly basis.

That said, another important question to ask yourself is: how much time do you spend gaining a better understanding of your customers?

If the answer is limited to once a year, it is very likely that you may not be quick enough to adjust to your customers’ needs. The last thing you want to do is put all your marketing efforts into studying the competition to the detriment of gaining a better understanding of your customers. Successful companies pay attention to their customers on a weekly basis. These moments are often built into team meetings or customer feedback analysis.

This begs the question: do you know your customer?

We invite you to answer these questions to find out:

• Who are they (this should be the easiest question to answer)?
• Why do they choose your products or services? (What makes you special in their eyes?)
• Who else do they buy from? What products do they buy from them?
• Why do they choose you over the competition and vice versa?
• How do they find you?
• If they choose you, what need or problem are you solving?
• What are their greatest challenges? Their fears? Their hopes? Their joys?
• What makes them happy? Proud? Uncomfortable?

You can effectively differentiate your company and put your products and services front and center with the answers to these questions. This approach provides a highly effective marketing strategy because it aligns your entire brand experience with what’s important to your customers.

Incidentally, there’s a quick exercise that can help you further your thinking., t Although it’s very basic, all successful Maïeutyk clients take the time to do it to make sure they’re on the right track:

Draw a circle and in it, write an exhaustive list of your customers’ needs and wants.

After all, the act of buying is preceded by one or many needs. These needs include everything your customers are looking for. They are not limited to specific functionalities or features. They have tangible or intangible benefits such as time savings, a sense of security, brand awareness, etc. Whether spontaneous or planned, a purchase responds to a need.

Needs can also be motivated by specific circumstances: a moment in life, a seasonality, or a particular event. You need to understand their needs and motivations to reach your prospects and develop an effective, relevant marketing strategy. This is the role of the persona role, a fictional character that represents the potential customer for a product or service in a specific industry as accurately as possible. The persona is defined by precise characteristics that evoke a group of people likely to be interested in your products and/or services. So, before properly identifying your customers’ needs and wants, it’s important to determine who your persona is. This is an essential marketing tool for understanding how your customer buys.

Then, based on this list, answer all of the questions above.

At this stage, it is essential to understand the customer journey, i.e., all the interactions between the moment your customer identifies a need and the moment they use the product or service that meets that need. All these interactions should represent the evolution of the customer’s state of mind throughout the buying process, not just at specific points of contact with the company. In particular, a complete mapping of the customer journey will help determine why your customers choose you or your competition.

In the second circle, list all the benefits offered by your products/services.

These benefits represent the value you provide to your customers. They can include functionalities and features that solve your customers’ specific problems, such as improving quality of life, saving time or money, etc.

The areas common to both circles should be communicated by your marketing strategy and customer experience.

Are you wondering about your persona and your customer’s buying process? Take our free diagnostic! In just a few minutes, you’ll have a clear picture of your marketing.