STONE
COLD DEAD IN THE MARKET
Whatever
The Market Is, Anyway
Ok, everybody
talks about marketing, and markets, and how
to reach them – but has anyone stopped to define what a market really is?
We all tend to take for granted that when we use the term market we all mean the same thing. But let the
conversation go further, and we quickly discover that the term means different things to
different people.
And yet, there is probably no exercise more vital to successful marketing, nor so
frequently overlooked, as defining a market. Without that definition, all marketing
activities are either clichés or exercises in futility. For example, do companies in a
declining or static industries define a market in the truest sense? Is a market an
abstract idea -- a place or a bunch of people who buy something? Is a market a reality, or
an academic abstraction?
How can you target an effective campaign at a specific market if you don’t
know what it is in the first place? And yet, it’s done every day.
Consider the definition in terms of the answers to the following questions, and see
where that leads you...
·
Does the segment of prospective clients
you see as a market have a commonality that's responsive to your service? For example, do
they all want , essentially, the same things that you have to offer? For example, every business, and most individuals,
need tax services. Does everybody who needs tax services need long range tax planning? Or
tax shelters? Or defense from the IRS? The market for tax services, then, is only that
segment of the population or business community that has a common need for a specific and
clearly defined service.
·
Is the segment of prospective clients you
see as a market easily reachable and accessible with a common medium? For example, are there trade journals or other
publications specifically targeted to that segment? Do they all belong to the same trade
associations? If you can’t reach them easily, then they’re not a market
– they’re a collection of isolated individuals. You may be able to reach
them individually with your message, but only at great expense. The return on investment
is substantially diminished.
·
If you should succeed in penetrating a
specific segment of prospective clients you see as a market what will you actually have
achieved? Will they be profitable? Or will you have succeeded in winning the
business of a bunch of buggy whip manufacturers? Is the return on investment worth the
chase?
·
Are you capable of serving that market if
you should succeed in getting their business? The
market may indeed exist, but can you effectively meet its needs? Will you have to add
staff or learn new capabilities? Is it practical? And again, is the return on investment
worth the chase?
There is, of course, yet another
question -- and that is, does this kind of definition really matter?
Of course it does. Consider, for example, the cost of buying an ad in a publication
of which only ten percent of its readers can use your service. Ninety percent of your
money, then, is wasted.
Consider the cost of a direct mail
campaign to a market segment that can't possibly see any value in your high-priced
accounting or legal services. Or that's so geographically dispersed that even if you sold
them you couldn't afford to service them.
There are, remember, four basic tenets of marketing....
·
Know your market ... in terms of
its needs and your ability to meet those needs
·
Know your services ...in terms of
your ability to meet the needs of your market
·
Know your tools ... and how to use
them to move your message to your market
·
Manage your tools .. so that they
effectively, cost effectively, and
persuasively reach your market
But it all
starts with point one -- know your market.