Marketing Monday: be a profiler

Before you can really think about developing a relationship it might be a good idea to think seriously about who it is you want to relate to!! Remember when you were dating you probably didn’t say “I just want a man/woman” that is a pretty big pot to fish in. You most likely had some vision of who a potential date and eventually partner might be, so you may have made a list:

• No nose picking
• No spitting
• Yes good looks
• Yes likes the outdoors
• Yes likes dogs
• No doesn’t like hamsters
• Eats with utensils

Old School v. New School

You get the idea…the same is true for folks you would like to become your best all time buyers. The old school way of doing this was to see these folks as “targets” to put labels on them and then treat everybody under a certain label the same. These “targets” found and analyzed in truly dehumanizing scientific ways.

Things are different now. Now you need to get to know who would be most likely to be a supportive, repeat word of mouth buyer/customer/promoter. You need to get all deep and really describe that person in terms that fit.

Before we start our profiling thing, you need to understand that your buyers have problems and they look to you for solutions. Now this is probably something you never imagined… I mean, what kind of problems would people have that buying your stuff could fix? Well, think about what you intended for your stuff when you made it. Was it whimsical? How about colorful? Could people wear it and what was it supposed to do when they put it on? Or, maybe they want something cheery to brighten up a dreary corner. These are all problems potential buyers have as they discover your stuff.

OK… the other thing this profile process is designed to do is to eliminate those grouchy,crabby, nick-knack, flea markety types who you want to bitch slap when they ask if “made all this stuff yourself?” Focusing on who you really want to invite into your special circle will pretty much inoculate you from having to deal with folks who just don’t work for you and in the process save you  a whole lot of grief, energy and time.

Two things…

There are basically two things to consider in this process the first is the observable touchable, describable things that mostly describe these folks. Like income, family size,married/unmarried,gender,age etc. These are the hard stats called demographics you can get from census info or any other collection of people related statistics. These help you get into the ballpark or may within a couple of blocks.

The next thing is not so obvious because it is all about how the group you are looking at  see’s themselves. Like “drives a BMW” or “rides a bike” ” is a hopeless romantic” ” is green”. While plenty of people drive BMWs or ride bikes it is the underlying intention that their behavior is based on that counts. So the guy who bikes to work everyday religiously because he doesn’t want to pollute has a different motivation than the one who does it for fitness. Likewise the BMW owner may be in love with the precision of “german engineering” and see her car as a work of art while her friend my see it as a rank indicator. These factors are known as Psychographics.

Case Study

There are two outdoor oriented stores here in the Twin Cities, REI and Midwest Mountaineering, one is corporate big box type the other is locally owned and operated since the ’70s. While the both attract out door oriented people they each attract different customers all together. REI is focused on more consumer, casual outdoor folks while Midwest Mountaineering attracts the the more hard core climbers, kayakers, hikers and campers. People who are looking for knowledgeable staff who can help them select the best gear generally go to Midwest Mountaineering, those who are not so concerned about such things go to REI. The difference between the two is found lies mostly in the psychographic factors and not the demographic which is relatively the same.

Midwest Mountaineering does little advertising so it draws it’s customers by word of mouth and it’s reputation of having an expert staff. It started out of the garage of the owner who sold climbing gear in the ’60s and early ’70s so it has a strong and loyal following. While REI started similarly in Seattle it has evolved its’ focus to be more consumer oriented with a touch of price point attraction by way of its’ membership rebates. Midwest Mountaineering often sells the same gear but at higher price and it specializes in premium brand gear.

While there is some cross over it is not significant, both brands have a loyal base. So you can see while both pull from the same demographic their psychographic profile is pretty much opposite of the other. The point here is to think about the psychographic element at this time because it will likely be one of the key differentiators that make the difference between a loyal following and a not so loyal one.

The whole point of this profile thing is to come up with an identity, a “name” for that person who feels like you have known forever and who as a result buys your stuff and gets other like minded folks to buy it as well. When you “name” this profile you and she will recognize each other above the din off competitive noise and maybe run headlong into each others arms for ever and ever…well maybe not like that but you never know. I call these folks “get yours” because the really get you and identify with what bring to the world.

Finally, another way to look at building this profile is to use yourself and your values as filters. Think about what is important to you when you go out into the market looking for something, what factors matter when you are trying to make up your mind. Is it knowledge, is it that they look reputable, is it that they recognize you and seem to know what you are looking for?

Now go ahead and profile away…

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