I Am Not My Target Market

How Well Do You Understand Your B2B Buyers?

Are Your Messages Aimed at You or your Target Market?

When my clients and I discuss ideas for marketing programs, campaigns and messaging, they often say “I don’t think I would go for that”, or “that doesn’t sound appealing to me”, or “if I were the buyer, this is what I’d want”.

Do you see a problem here?  Is it possible that buyers might want what doesn’t appeal to you or that they don’t love what you love?  Are your decisions based on your personal perceptions rather than the reality of your target audience?  If so, you won’t achieve your goals relative to the product/service that you've designed, the campaign you've launched, the channels you’ve selected, or the price points you've set.

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By John Bernardi

Puffery Will Derail Your Brand

Self-Promoting Content Turns Off Your Audience

Much of the promotional content that we see, hear and read is an unproven self-testimonial to the marketer's products and services.  Anyone can say "we're the leader in the field of ..."  This image positioning puffery will disable a branding strategy.  Character expression is a more sustainable approach.

Character Expression enables your target audience to understand what motivates you to do what you do for them while Image Positioning puffs up an exaggerated image. Why jump into the pool of sameness as everyone else who is creating self-testimonials?  No one believes these subjective reviews anyway.

The challenge is not to create puffery, but to create raving fans who put you on stage.

Image Positioning Strains Credibility	Character Expression Builds Trust
Focus on company and its competitors	Focus on customers and employees
Exaggerates minor differences	Reveals significant differences
Fabricated evidence supports claims	Authentic experiences create differences
Goal to preserve image	Raving fans prove reality
Applies faddish style	Integrates long lasting design
Company-sponsored marcom	Media and referral driven marcom
Separates marcom from product and service delivery	Integrates marcom with delivery of products and services
Inconsistent brand messages	Brands express company values

Cheap Doesn't Mean Low Price

Use Your Words Wisely

Cheap Doesn't Mean Low Price

It's like finger nails scraping a blackboard when I hear someone say that their product is cheaper, or that they are looking to buy something that is cheaper.

Do they really mean that?  Cheap translates to "poor quality", not better value.

If a quality product happens to be available at a lower price, wouldn't it be better to say that it's less expensive or more economical?

With this as the backdrop, can someone tell me what they'd rather buy or sell that is "cheaper" than the alternative?

"Like" Doesn't Really Mean "Like" on Facebook

Awareness expands when you click Like on a Facebook page.  Your community automatically sees everything you Like.

But, does Like lose its meaning when a company says "Like and be eligible to win something"?  [I guess you can't blame people who Like your offer if they stand to get something in return.]

As a marketer, I refrain from baiting people to Like my article, or product or website, etc.  Otherwise, how would I know how many people really Like my product or service or article, etc.?

The Al Dente` Approach to Marketing

The Al Dente` Marketing Strategy

Throw it on the wall and see what sticks

This strategy is followed by many marketers and it doesn't work very well.  Create a master plan and make sure everything you do is aligned with it.

Advertisers Use Mediocre Content

If you study "product-centric" ads, you'll notice the same trite phrases and buzz words that everyone else uses. They don't do a good job of setting themselves apart from all the rest.

Media vendors, whose end game is to run the ad [TV, Radio, Print ...], would prefer that clients provide content, but most don't have a content portfolio for them to draw upon.  So, the media vendor scrambles to author content that doesn't differentiate their client from others who are hoping that an undifferentiated market will "buy my stuff".

If you haven't taken the time to continually update your content portfolio to be aligned with your marketing and business development strategy, you are making a big mistake because you won't be able to create a differentiating theme for a well-defined audience and produce measurable results for the call to action you've set as your goal for every promotional campaign.