When taking a product to market you are no longer operating on a local scale; in 2014 and beyond there will always be someone offering the same or similar, cheaper, faster, more polished than you. They will have a bigger budget, more advocates, a greater presence and the strap line that you dreamt of before you had the chance to use it.
What they don’t have is you; you make the difference, your passion, your drive and vision for the marketplace. They don’t know you or your friends and immediate customers as well as you.
We like to support who we know, we prefer to shop locally, we take reassurance that we can connect directly with you, speak to you because we feel we know you.
To compete on a bigger scale we need a way of standing out amongst our competitors, we need to better identify your loves, likes and interests outside of the product we are trying to sell, we need to connect. The Guinness Book of World Records was created because sales of Guinness beer were falling, their research told them that their customers loved knowing and exchanging facts on achievements and who was the best. It has since become much bigger than the reference book found behind the bar of every Guinness stockist.
Consider that you are no longer a High Street retailer, you are now a media business that also happens to be selling products from your store. Instead of spending your marketing budget on lots of advertising, SEO tactics, website banner ads… you invest in a channel that your audience absolutely love, it entertains them, it makes them share more with their friends, it drives a brand awareness you would never have thought possible… How do you know what it is that will better connect with more of your customers?
RESEARCH. You maybe think you know your customers, hell you even buy product specifically for them.
But really do you know:
1. They only subscribe to Vogue to have something nice lying around the house when visitors come
2. They believe they spoil their children by spending vast sums on entertaining them but spend hardly any time actually speaking to them
3. They would love to shop in Lidl but are too scared they might be seen by another school Mum who shops at Waitrose
4….
You might decide that an exclusive event is the way forward, a weekend break to Florence for mothers and daughters, a bi-monthly cinema night for fathers, a “Hello magazine home visit” for a monthly featured customer – there are any number of associated products or activities you can create. The point is, you are creating an excuse to constantly communicate to all of your customers on a more personal basis which no longer revolves around pushing product down their throat – a marketing channel that allows you to use great high profile content that creates laughter, fun, smiles, entertainment all aligned with your brand.