Getting Inside Your Customer's Head

The whole purpose of being in business is to meet the wants, needs and desires of your customers (and profit from the interaction). Easy!  Not really. Every person on the planet is unique, with their own unique individual wants, needs and desires. You will never be able to satisfy them all and you would go broke trying.

This is where statistics can add value. If you have a large enough sample group, you will begin to see statistically coherent patterns. If you use these patterns you can gain a little window of insight into what's going on in your customer’s heads. Census data is a typical case in point – by looking at large groups of people, governments can make appropriate policies to meet the needs of individuals.

Statistical analysis have changed over the years. At the turn of the last century statisticians looked at demographics to analyse data. Businesses applied this process by analysing which the age of their best customers, how much they spent, what areas they lived in, what type of jobs did they have and what shops they visited. 

Demographics were a great way to help businesses to segment their customers and to help them target their marketing. Demographics were the dominant form of data for over a century and still remain popular in some quarters. For example the print media provides businesses with demographic data on their readership to influence whether or not the business should advertise in their publication.

However, demographics are not the total solution. They don’t take give you answers about the large variances within particular groups and they don’t reflect the differences in how people view the world and source their information. 

Thirty years ago people relied on the print media for their information, so demographic data was useful. However, today people rely on the net to research their information. People find and build virtual communities on the net to share ideas and exchange information.

As a result print media readership has dropped dramatically. The side effect is that TV viewing and radio listener numbers are also down. People now go to their virtual and real communities to source the information they need.

Today if you only relied on demographic data for your marketing decisions you would be doing a great disservice to your business. So where do you go now for your information?

In recent years there has been a growth in use of psychographic profiles – where a profile is created of the common things our top customers think, value and believe in.

Psychographics help you analyse why people do what they do. The sort of questions that are asked include:

• What needs are your best customers looking to fulfil?
• What beliefs about themselves and the world do they hold?
• What inspires them?
• What problems do they have?
• What is similar in how they view the world?
• Where do they “hang out”?

Pyschographics came into their own when psychologists started to use tools such as Myers Briggs, Team Management Index, and Belbin to create psychological profiles of people.

To make this more practical -

With one health care practice we started with demographic data and found that their best clients were split into two categories – young mums with very small children and retired people.  They were located in a blue collar, lower income suburb. 

We chose to focus on the young mum market and then started to dig a bit further to look for similarities in their lives and how they viewed the world.  Many of them had grown up in a life of semi-hardship, with the majority now living in the same or close suburb to the one they grew up in. They were locals who had been to the local school before marrying and settling down in their community.

"I want my kids to have a better life than I did when I was growing up" was a common saying among these clients when talking about their kids. "I want my kids to be healthy so they can do their best in school and make something of themselves", "When it comes to my kids health, money is not an issue – their health is more important than money".

So how did this translate into our marketing? Well we placed an emphasis on boosting the health of their kids to help their school performance. We also made mention of wanting the best health care for their precious children to set them up for future. We also used pictures and colours that reflected the taste and age of their customers (and not some over the top flash designers' ideas of what kids and families look like).

Is this manipulation? No. We just looked at what was already there with their customer base and sought to understand their needs better. The business wanted more customers just like the ones they had, so by directing our marketing to the psychographic profile of their best customers made it easier for customers to feel right at home with the company from the marketing. This translates to more sales from the right customers.

Now it’s your turn to get inside your own customers heads. Think back to your best customers – the ones you truly enjoy working for.  What makes them so great? How do they think about the world? What problems do they want to solve by coming to you? What do they value and whay is important to them? Where do they hang out?

Next, take a look at yourself and your business. What specifically makes you so great? How do you think about the world? What problems do you love to solve? What are your values adn what is important to you? Where do you hang out?

When your profile and your customer’s profile are congruent, then your business will boom. If you are not clear on your own profile, then you are likely to attract the wrong type of customers to your business.

Getting clear on your own psychographic profile and the psychographic profile of your ideal client makes small business marketing easier, selling easier and your life easier.

Ingrid Cliff is a Brisbane freelance writer and the Chief Word Wizard of Heart Harmony - her writing services studio that helps put your business into words. Ingrid writes a free weekly newsletter packed full of small business tips to help both you and your business grow www.heartharmony.com.au.