03 Oct Finding Customers

Seth Godin said “Don’t find customers for your products. Find products for your customers.” And of course he’s right.

Potential clients frequently ask me if I specialize in marketing for a certain industry or area. The truth is I specialize in people. In understanding what people want and need from a company or business, even if those same folks are not exactly aware of it themselves. Then, with that knowledge, we shape the product offering…the brand story…. to meet the needs of the customer. Sometimes we need to change the product, not just how we talk about it. But the direction is always based on what the customer really wants and needs.

Marketing isn’t about communicating what you’ve got. Marketing is about making what you’ve got appeal to your audience. And the sweet spot is where what they want and what you’ve got intersect.  Product or service. Big company or small. Doesn’t matter. And if you’ve got the right message, your customers find you.

Because marketing (I’ve said this before) isn’t about what you’re selling. It’s all about what your customers are buying. What you can do for them. How you can help them. How you can satisfy their needs. And remember that what they are buying isn’t always the obvious thing. Take the new Starbucks on my corner, for example. It’s making a mint, despite all the places that make better coffee in my food centric Park Slope neighborhood. Because the coffee that Starbucks sells isn’t actually what people buy when they go to a Starbucks. It’s the experience. See what Starbucks does to create that experience here.