With all the new technological advances in customer acquisition it is easy for any business owner to jump from one marketing tacit to another in hopes of finding the silver bullet. You know the silver bullet, it is the elusive magical tacit that will produce all
the business leads easily and effortlessly. Every business owner has heard of the “new” service or software that brings in more customers than the business can handle. Every Business owner has also received either: emails, phone calls, or mail, telling us how this one method of obtaining clients will give us all the leads we ever wanted.
First of all, there is no silver bullet that will solve all the marketing needs of a business. Secondly, a marketing tacit usually will have a limited result. If the marketing tactic does produce some results they will not last unless they are part of an overall marketing strategy.
A marketing strategy on the other hand is first and foremost about meeting the needs of the target market in the best way possible for maximum profit. This means that in order to develop a marketing strategy it is important to first know who the target market is. Then it is important to know what their needs are specifically.
Let’s take a look at a recent scenario that is the result of changing demographics, and see how two different restaurants had different results from the same tactic.
An area where businesses are struggling to determine who they serve is the latest “no children allowed” policies of some restaurants, airlines, movie theaters, and even resorts.
For example, Malaysia airlines have now banded children in their first class cabin area and several resorts in Fiji are advertising relaxing kid free vacations. These organizations have decided to cater to people who don’t have children at the expense of those customers who do have children.
So what was the result of these changes?
At first blush the results have been a mix bag. Take for example one Brooklyn restaurant Union Hall, who tried to impose a ban on strollers. They ended up getting such a pushed back from patrons they quickly removed the ban. However, when McDain’s, a restaurant outside Pittsburg imposed a ban on kids it received thousands of supportive emails and business went up 20%!
So what does this mean?
It is the age old answer, it depends, and there is no, one size fits all answer. The first thing to take into consideration is a complete understanding of where the profit of the business is being derived from. In the case of the two restaurants mentioned above it is obvious that each restaurant is servicing a different client base.
A major mistake made by many business owners is to blindly adopt a marketing tactic simply because it is being implemented for the competition or another similar business. Examples of this are: running an ad in the same place and style as the competition, offering similar discounts and coupons just because your competition has done it, offering the same products/services just because everyone else seems to be doing that.
Whether these strategies will work or not depends on the preferences of the target market and how these offerings serve their needs.
Before launching into a new marketing strategy or tacit a business should survey their customers and determine what the needs and wants are of that group. It is not uncommon for the respondents to share ideas that were never thought of before, opening up new possibilities, and saving the business money.
Next, it is extremely important to test the strategy on a small segment to see how customers respond to the new concept. It is only by testing that the right strategy can be found. Without testing a business is just taking chances and hoping that the strategy will work. This is a sure fire way to end up wasting time and money.
As a business matures and defines itself in the mind of its customers, it becomes easier to understand the needs of the customer. Nevertheless, it is still necessary from time to time to take the temperature of the customer base and make sure that they are still being serviced the way they want to be serviced.
At Bay Area Mastermind our members benefit from the latest marketing test results taken from real world business examples. During meetings, members learn what has worked and what has not worked in various marketing campaigns as well as how to employ the winning strategies in their business. Why not take a test drive today, and discover for yourself the power behind Bay Area Mastermind.