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Nutritionalmarketing.com Weekly Newsletter Update
- Marketing Ideas, Information and Tips Nutritional Retailers Want
and Need!!
Volume 4, Issue #23 - June 5, 2003
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In this issue:
Find a need and fill it
Listen and you could be surprised at what you learn
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Find a need and
fill it
One of my favorite
marketing adages is find a need and fill it. It’s simple - find what
people want or need and provide it to them. This is so basic and profound
it scares me, the idea of finding a need first and then identifying
a solution.
The challenge is
that this is the opposite of what most nutritional retailers do. I
spoke with a retailer last week and he talked about his business and
it’s trends. I asked what he liked to do and what made him unique and
better than the other solutions people have for their nutritional needs.
He stumbled and said he didn’t really know.
Well, that is a
cardinal sin. You need to know what makes you better than the competition
in the eyes of your customers and prospects. If you don’t know, how
can you differentiate yourself and your services? (If you want to know
more about this, re-read my enewsletter about this topic a few weeks
ago.)
If he had responded
with a good answer to my question, I would have asked what do your customers
and prospects want? What is the need they have that you can fill?
What is it that keeps them awake at night or causes undue stress in
their lives?
Identifying the
need up front makes marketing so much easier. You no longer have to
throw darts in the dark just hoping to hit a bull’s eye. You know what
they want, so you simply tailor your message around the customer and
the need. You talk their language and share their fears and frustrations.
If you don’t find
a need and fill it, you’re forced to create a need or want. That is
very hard to do for a couple of reasons.
First, creating
a need takes deep pockets. You not only must educate your target market
about why they need your product, you also must explain why your product
will solve the new need. This does more than double your marketing
costs. You’re forced to carry the entire weight of building the desire
for your product.
Second, it’s not
easy to get people to understand they have a new need. Over the years,
there have been many great products that would have made peoples lives
easier, but they never could figure out the need for them.
Here’s an example.
My wife and I were together for more than 10 years before we had a microwave
oven. As a matter of fact, we didn’t even buy it. It came with the
home we purchased. It was a nice extra, but we didn’t really care.
Now, after having
a baby, I can’t believe we lived without it. We’re always warming something
and the microwave is fast! That’s a very good thing when you have an
unhappy baby in your arms.
So if a company
had tried to get us to see "the need" before our son was born, it just
wouldn’t have happened. The stove works and who cares if it takes seven
minutes or 17 seconds?
We understand our
need for a microwave oven now but the market didn’t cause the need,
we did.
It’s much better
to find a need and fill it than it is to hope you can create one.
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Listen and you may
be surprised at what you learn
One of the best
ways to identify a need is to listen. Customers and prospects will
often tell you what they want and need. They’re more than happy to
do this because they want their problems solved or their lives made
easier.
Customers will share
needs with you in a variety of ways. It can often come out in a very
emotional manner and when it does, that’s great because it shows that
this is very important to them.
Also listen for
comments that multiple customers say and repeat. This means that more
than one person is looking for the same solution or has the same need.
This is a great sign because it could be the start of finding a hot
new niche to work with.
After you hear the
need, you want to ask some questions. Many great ideas have died slow
and often costly deaths because one simple question was never asked:
"What are you willing
to pay for that solution?"
You can end up in
a very unfortunate situation if you don’t know the market’s perceived
value of a solution. It could be a great idea, but the market may not
be willing to spend as much as you need to charge to make a fair profit.
So after you listen
and find the need, ask a few questions to make sure you can solve the
need and make a living!
As always, have
fun with marketing!
Marty
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They need RespirActin!
http://www.respiractin.com/
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Quote
"No man ever listened
himself out of a job."
Calvin Coolidge
Listen to your customers
and prospects and you may discover you have solutions to their nutritional
problems or concerns. You may even find a new "job," a new service
that serves your market well.
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Information provided by Martin Baird and NutritionalMarketing.com. Visit
us at http://www.nutritionalmarketing.com/.
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Please note that
all of the marketing ideas that are mentioned in our enewsletter or
on our web site are designed to help you grow your business. As you
know one size does not fit all and some of the ideas may work better
for specific applications.
