Target Marketing Will Make You More Effective

 Many CEOs think that their company does well at target marketing.  Although sorting customers by industry, geography, size and channel is a sales process prerequisite, this isn’t target marketing. Awareness of those who buy from you is only a step towards understanding the niches you serve even better than the products and services that you deliver.

Target Marketing Tips

Target marketing guides the design of the right products and services along with the optimal pricing strategy and distribution channels.  It sets the stage for developing compelling content and messages that are delivered via the target audience’s preferred communication channels.

Carefully choose a target market only after fully understanding it and if your company has what it takes to capture mindshare.  Then, design a targeting strategy [product, pricing, branding and channels of distribution and information].

Narrowcast over time to define other niches that are distinctly different from each other and for which you are well-suited to serve.  Build unique profiles for each segment including economic drivers, what they do for their customers, how they make buying decisions, their response mode [growth, trouble, even keel, euphoric] and opportunities and threats that they face.  Give each profile a name suited to its traits.  It is a bonus if you create personas of key decision makers and influencers within each target market.

As you add more niches, decide if you need to adjust your targeting strategy:

• Differentiated - separate targeting strategy for each segment
• Undifferentiated – one targeting strategy across multiple segments
• Concentrated - one targeting strategy for one broadly defined target market

Assign market manager accountabilities for overseeing target market portfolios.  Train your customer-facing teams to be competent in each target segment and for their antenna to be continually tuned to learning, networking and participating in segment related activities.

Although challenging, designing and implementing an effective target marketing strategy will make it easier to influence your target audience and to participate the right deals with fewer surprises.

By John Bernardi

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

Why Companies Buy Products and Services from a Value Brand

Many Who Claim to be Value Buyers Don’t Pass the Test

Not all buyers are value buyers even though they claim to be.  Some buyers acquire prestige and others procure performance while price shoppers are always negotiating.

Value buyers fear losing what they've worked so hard to create but also want to continuously improve image, productivity and financial results while confidently managing the associated business and personal risks.  They make price/performance decisions based on the perceived or measurable worth of the product or service.

Value Buyers associate your higher than median price with the measurable value you offer.

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Please stay safe and protect others.

John Bernardi

Is There a Role for Golden Spike Hunting in Your Company?

Golden Spike Strategy Fosters Sustainable Growth

BizD Rainmakers Hunt for Golden Spike Opportunities

Golden Spike hunting helps companies expand into new markets, develop new products or services and further penetrate existing markets through large sales of slightly modified existing products and services.  The ability to find, nurture and manage Golden Spikes requires patience, diligence, peripheral vision, business acumen and insight, and exceptional time management.

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Thank you for taking the time.

John Bernardi

The Power of Indirect Marketing

The Power of Indirect Marketing

Indirect marketing attracts buyers who are apt to enter your sales funnel as sales-ready leads with rapid velocity towards closure and costing much less than direct marketing.

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Regards,
John Bernardi

Marketing Assisted Selling Helps Deal Makers

Develop Your Marketing Competency to Reach the Next Level

Sales driven companies are slanted towards transactions.  Their sales reps sell existing products to existing markets and are accountable for prospecting and account management.  They rely on the “marketing department” for sales support and are not interested in developing or acquiring a marketing competency.

Companies Evolve from Being Entrepreneurial to Having a Sales Driven Identity.

But Most Don’t Achieve Marketing Driven Status.

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By John Bernardi

Every Company in Every Industry Has a Walmart Type Competitor

No Need to “Out-Walmart” Your Low-Price Competitors

Walmart type competitors cause a "down economy" for companies that rely on low hanging fruit for their revenue source.  They blame low-price foes for eroding the value that their higher priced products offer.  Not all low-price competitors are as prolific as Walmart, but this type of competitor inspires companies who practice solid marketing principles to thrive while others fall by the wayside.

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By John Bernardi

Lack of Early Planning Solidifies the Status Quo

Lack of Early Planning Solidifies the Status Quo

Course Correction is Difficult if You Start on the Wrong Path

If you are you a business owner who knows where you want to take your company during the next five years, you most likely spend your CEO time developing the competencies and resources required for getting to the next level.  You prevent early entrenchment of bad habits and attitudes, flawed processes and assigning the wrong people to key roles. You know that a well-designed strategy impacts customer experience, innovation, unique value proposition, target markets, products and services, process excellence, profitability, market share, customer relationships, hiring, training and partnerships.  So, if this is you and you’re ready for the next logical steps …

Andiamo!  Let’s Go!

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By John Bernardi

Lack of Early Planning Solidifies the Status Quo

What Prevents Your Company from Moving to the Next Level?

If you are you a business owner who knows where you want to take your company during the next five years, I’m confident that you spend your CEO time developing the competencies and resources required for getting to the next level - however you may define it.  You prevent early entrenchment of bad habits and attitudes, flawed processes and assigning the wrong people to key roles. You know that a well-designed strategy impacts customer experience, innovation, unique value proposition, target markets, products and services, process excellence, profitability, market share, customer relationships, hiring, training and partnerships.  So, if this is you and you’re ready for the next logical steps …

Andiamo!  Let’s Go!

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A Marketing Driven Company Makes Selling Easier

Do Marketing Cultures Outperform Sales Cultures?

I Believe That a Marketing-Driven Company Makes Selling Easier

From my experience most small and mid-sized companies are product-centric and sales-driven.  They fall short of practicing solid marketing principles.  Their promotion and sales campaigns fail to achieve ROI goals.  They typically reward only short-term quota related metrics.  Buyers are wary of their sales reps who ask to partner with them to solve a problem but don’t have the necessary business acumen for adding value, which results in customer relationships that last only as long as a given sales opportunity.

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By John Bernardi

What Role Does Business Development Play In Your Company?

BizD Is Much More Than Hunting for New Prospects

Most companies define business development as building relationships with lead sources and hunting for new prospects.  They hire and churn people to fill these narrow roles.  Effective BizD is a multifaceted process that is directly tied to the long- and short-term sustainability of your business.  It includes a variety of interesting roles that have dynamic priorities based on timing, category and company.

At the current rate, what will your business look like in a few years?

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John Bernardi

Marketing Masters Outperform Others

Marketing Masters Are Change Masters

Their Masterpiece is Marketing Excellence

If your company subscribes to the basic keys to success that apply to any marketing competency and have achieved novice, apprentice and practitioner competencies, you may aspire to join the guild whose masterpiece is marketing excellence.

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By John Bernardi

Marketing Practitioner Competency

Has Your Company Achieved Marketing Practitioner Competency?

Marketing practitioners don't consider "marketing" to be a department.  Instead, it is a concept and belief that is wholly embraced and executed throughout the organization.

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By John Bernardi

Apprentice Level Marketing Competency

Has Your Company Reached the Marketing Apprentice Level?

If you subscribe to the basic keys to success that apply to any marketing competency level and your company has achieved marketing novice competency, you are ready to design a marketing strategy that will support your long-term goals through tactics and objectives that evolve during the next 3 to 5 year time horizon.

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By John Bernardi

What Competency Level Is Required For Your Company To Implement Its Marketing Strategy?

Is Your Company A Marketing Novice?

The primary KPI for a marketing novice company is related to the number of leads generated by each marketing program, campaign and resource in which the company invests.

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By John Bernardi

Marketing Competency Must Fit Your Strategy

Marketing Competencies Must Match Your Strategy For Creating Value, Positioning Your Brand And Fostering the Right Selling Process

Which Marketing Competency Fits Your Strategy?

What Is Your Current Marketing Competency?

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By John Bernardi

All Companies Offer Services

People Purchase Services Differently From Tangible Products

Inseparability of the service provider from the service itself challenges people to make objective buying decisions since experience can only be judged during and after service delivery.  Services buyers are influenced by past experiences [their own and others whose opinion they trust]. They pay attention when raving fans tell stories that help them to visualize how the benefits would apply to them. Indirect lead sources are key.

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Do You Need Immediate Marketing Gratification?

Generating marketing qualified leads is a patient process.

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Should You Raise Your Marketing Environment to Hallmark Status?

Excellent execution of an adequate plan will produce stronger results than adequate execution of an excellent plan.

Who will identify which changes are necessary to raise an important aspect of your business to the next level?

Who will implement your changes?

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Market Research is Essential Prior to Capacity Investment Decisions

What To Do When Your Company Reaches Capacity Limits? [People, Facilities and Equipment]

Status Quo Strategy

You selectively determine what sales opportunities to pursue in order to optimize available capacity.

This short-term strategy will lead to trouble mode and storm clouds will eventually appear on your horizon.

If market research proves a total available market that is growing or significantly higher than your available capacity, then status quo is a high-risk strategy.  When your market share declines you will become a higher cost producer in your category.  This opens the door to growth mode competitors who will become more attractive to your customers and employees.

Growth Strategy

You aggressively pursue all sales opportunities that match your ideal customer profile.

If market research proves a total available market that is growing or significantly higher than your available capacity, then lower your risk by implementing a growth strategy to maintain or increase your market share.  You will improve your position as a low-cost producer in your category.  This will spell trouble for your competitors as you become more attractive to their customers and employees.

If you opt to invest in more capacity in order to elevate a key aspect(s) of your business, you will also need to invest in skill development, process enhancement and productivity tools in order to capitalize on your growth opportunities.

Market Research Competency Is Essential

Without the appropriate market research competency [in-house or external], you won’t be able to make objectively correct capacity investment decisions.

By John Bernardi