By Jamie Turner, Editor, The 60 Second Marketer
In this article, you will learn:
1) How to figure out what your customers are really buying;
2) How to position your product to fulfill your customer's need;
3) How to create an experience around that positioning;
4) How to make sure that experience comes through in everything you do.
There’s a small business owner around the corner from my office that knows more about marketing than some of the marketing directors I know at billion dollar corporations.
The small business owner is a dentist. And what he knows is that marketing isn’t about selling what a company makes, it’s about figuring out what your customers are buying, then positioning your product to fit those needs.
If you think about it, there’s only one thing on the minds of most people when they go to a dentist. Pain. Very few people go to a dentist without picturing a drill grinding away at those pesky bacteria in your teeth. But, as I mentioned, this particular dentist gets that. He’s gone inside the minds of his prospective patients and figured out that most of them would rather visit their in-laws than go to the dentist.
So what he’s done is position himself differently from other dentists. Remember your childhood dentist? He was the guy who gave you free toothbrushes when you were a kid. But free toothbrush or not, he was also the guy who gave you the shots for the fillings, so he might as well have been called Dr. Pain.
But this dentist is different. He calls himself – and this is where I realized he was a marketing genius – he calls himself The Gentle Dentist. There’s no sign anywhere that says Dr. Smith or Dr. Jones. (I might add there’s no sign for Dr. Pain either.) Just The Gentle Dentist. Which tells his customers (and his prospective customers), “I get you. I understand what’s on your mind. And I can understand why you see a visit to the dentist as a negative thing. But I’m here to fix all that. And while I can’t guarantee that it’ll be 100% pain-free, I can tell you I’ll be as gentle as possible. After all, gentle is part of my name.”
But an experience with The Gentle Dentist goes way beyond just the name, it goes into how he packages himself. He’s not located in an office park or even a strip mall. Instead, The Gentle Dentist is located in a cottage that looks like it was transported straight from Cape Cod. The front porch (yes, there’s a front porch) has swings for people to enjoy while they’re waiting for their appointment. And while they’re daydreaming about country living on their front porch, they can enjoy the fresh air and flowers growing in their flower boxes – all designed to take you as far away from a painful dental experience as you can get.
And the message doesn’t go away there. The Gentle Dentist has a website called www.nodrill.com. So no matter where you turn, you’re getting the same message – that this dental experience will be unlike any you’ve had before.
What The Gentle Dentist has done is to create a bond with his customers through Experience Marketing. That bond is based on the understanding that his patients aren’t just buying clean, healthy teeth, they’re buying the experience of a painless dental experience as well.
Some bookstore chains understand Experience Marketing extremely well. For example, if you ask most people what they look for in a bookstore, they’ll tell you they’re looking for two things: variety of selection and good price. But if those were the only true criteria, then the only bookstore would be Amazon.com.
What the best and smartest bookstore chains have figured out is that people aren’t just looking for variety and price, they’re also looking for a positive book-buying experience. Most book lovers, when probed, will tell you they love curling up on the big, fluffy chairs with a handful of books to peruse; they love being around other book lovers; they even love the smell of the coffee brewing in the coffee shop attached to the bookstore. All that adds up to a positive book-buying experience, which leads to more books sold and an increase in sales and revenue.
There are lessons that can be learned from The Gentle Dentist and these bookstore chains. And these lessons can be applied to your business, whether it’s a neighborhood business or a large global concern.
- Figure out what your customers are really buying. Most of the time, your customers are buying something slightly different than what you think they’re buying. Do your own research, even if it’s just talking with customers in your store. Ask them about their beliefs, feelings and shopping habits. The deeper you dig, the closer you’ll get to finding out what it is they’re really buying.
- Position your product to fill your customer’s need. A cell phone manufacturer I consulted with asked me to position their phones as “packed with features.” But our research indicated that customers didn’t want phones with more features, they wanted phones that were easy to use. We changed the positioning from “packed with features” to “easy to use” and sales responded accordingly.
- Create an experience around that positioning. Look at whatever it is you’re selling – be it flowers, computers, tax returns, anything – and make sure you create an experience around that purchase. Figure out how to get inside the mind of your customer and tap into the emotions that they have regarding whatever it is you’re selling. Once you’ve tapped into those emotions, you’re on your way to creating an experience that will boost sales and revenue.
- Make sure that experience comes through in everything you do. Every experience your customer has should drive home your positioning. In the case of The Gentle Dentist, that includes his name, his web site, his office location, even his front porch. All of which were designed to drive home the message that he is the gentle dentist. The bookstores have done this by creating an environment that is specifically designed to make book lovers feel comfortable. And when book lovers feel comfortable, they hang around longer. When they hang around longer, they buy more books.
Running a business is a hard thing to do. And no business runs properly without good marketing. Getting inside the minds of your customers will help you figure out what it is they’re really buying. Once you’ve figured that out, you can create an experience around those needs. A positive experience not only means new customers, but it means that your existing customers will buy from you again. And once that happens, you’re on your way to a vibrant, growing and successful business.
Jamie Turner is the editor of The 60 Second Marketer.
© 2008 The 60 Second Marketer
