Smart, Sexy and Sophisticated
Posted on April 23, 2008 - Filed Under Business, Marketing |
Relax. This isn’t about a profile on Match.com.
My online project hit a delay, which needs to be shared.
With the product out of development and the website coming together, the real reason why this idea was launched was somehow missed.
True, the Duct Tape Marketing book did a great job helping me map out a course. But the question, the oldest question in existence was missed.
Why.
Two characteristics of my demographic market: Mostly women, between 25 and 45.
Mentor: So why are these women looking for your product?
Clifford: Because our product is the best product out there. No one does what we do.
Mentor: That’s not what I asked. I asked ‘why’ women are looking for your product.
Clifford: . . .
Mentor: You’ll need to understand that. Once you truly understand the question, you’ll master how to give the answer. Then you’ll be onto something.
Clifford: I guess I missed that when learning about marketing.
Mentor: Learning about marketing? Where?
Clifford: From a book.
Mentor: That was your first mistake.
During the rest of our conversation, the topic of Guru.com came up. His suggestion: hire a marketing person for a few hours to solidify the marketing approach to the business. Admittedly a part of me is extremely curious as to what this might yield.
What I did was not wrong. Ideas for lead generation, referrals, the free newsletter . . . all of which are good. But why is our demographic going to open their wallets? What basic need or emotion are we responding to?
True: our product will be the best product out there. No one offers what we offer. But how many times through-out history has a great product been launched and then quickly forgotten? How many great ideas or great products languish in obscurity because the marketing wasn’t there to push the product forward?
Our core ideas are still there. This past week, the Partner and I have been reworking the ideas to fit our new marketing message.
I’m quite anxious to see where this leads.
If you liked that post, then try these...
Call of the Entrepreneur on March 17th, 2008
It is still a mystery to me why I was watching PBS the other night.
Stretch on January 25th, 2007
A knock at my door was followed by an interesting question:
"Clifford, my dad is going to help me buy something.
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2 Responses to “Smart, Sexy and Sophisticated”
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Whoa… You have no idea how this helps us out as well…
This entry was just vague enough to fit our project we are working on… It’s actually a little spooky how you could plug our product into your comments… I could have been writing that myself.
We hadn’t thought of going to outside marketing either, but now that possibility sounds like a good avenue to travel.
Thanks for the enlightenment!
@Matt: Yeah I’m still under a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) at the moment. I’ll let you know how things go with the marketing person. I’m in the process of putting that together.
The difference between knowing your market and understanding your market is critical. That’s the step I missed. Superficially, I could spew out all kinds of facts but the elemental question of “Why” slipped right by. But I think I got a handle on that now.