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 Know Thy Customer
By Wayne Cameron
Vice President - Strategic Services
"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself." – Peter F. Drucker
Introduction
In our experience working with various clients, we have found quite a large gap between what our clients think they know about their customers and what is actually true. As Phil Begley pointed out in the last issue of OnPoint, the business-to-business landscape is dotted with many different kinds of customers at various points along the supply chain ( January on-point newsletter ). Manufacturers sell their products to distributors, dealers, consultants and contractors – even select end users.
Despite this complexity, many companies attempt to impose a one-size-fits-all marketing effort to reach all of their customers in the same way. What they fail to realize is that each link in the supply chain has different needs and value propositions. Proper customer segmentation can help companies approach each group of customers in a meaningful way, thus, increasing their chances for success.
Customer segmentation gives you the opportunity to understand your company’s various customer groups by categorizing them using one or more common metrics. The greater insight you can gain into your customer groupings, the greater the opportunity to differentiate your product or service in meaningful ways, allocate resources, manage relationships and implement targeted strategies.
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Do the Right Thing
