The Sunday Mail
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear”. – George Addair.
The digital world has brought so much clutter that organisations have to devise strategic ears so that they can hear the various calls from their customers.
The only way to hear these calls is through grouping customers into smaller segments. Gone are the days when organisations will be all over the place without a defined or specific market, serving the mass market.
In their efforts to really understand the customer shopping experience so that they can serve them better, modern organisations are trimming the market into homogenous groups. It is more profitable to cut right to the chase and concentrate on a more specific audience which is commonly referred to as the micro audience or niche. It is a small, specific and well-defined audience.
Micro-audiences are easy when gathering customer data since the audience is usually small and easy to manage. Due to their size, information that has been gathered can be used in getting a deeper understanding of how the different customer journeys including their shopping preferences.
This type of understanding is helpful when organisations are looking for new customers or improve on the existing customers. Instead of targeting everyone, organisations can use the current buying behaviour or habits and preferences to approach the right niche and save on time and costs.
As the micro-audience travels online doing their shopping, they are driven by using various channels such as social media pages, websites, electronic mail, mobile applications and even by phone. Organisations must also use these customer journeys to identify all the touch points available for their customers on every platform.
The touch points can also occur on offline channels. Remember a touch point is any time or place that an existing customer or prospective customer interacts with an organisation product, service or brand, before, during or after they do a transaction.
When organisations identify the various touch points they are then able to pick where and when these interactions occur. This will then give them a clear picture and deep understanding of the various channels preferred by their micro-audiences. Such an understanding is then used by the organisation to decide on the current and prospective customer’s preferred channels to use when reaching out to them.
However, for organisations to understand the customer preferences they must at least have a basic knowledge of that customer’s journey while patronising the organisation’s product and/or services. Every customer has had a unique shopping experience in his or her quest to finding a product or service that will meet certain needs. If these journeys were to be shared, some trips may unravel startling revelations.
Nonetheless, marketing oriented organisations know that every touch point experience in a customer journey is a great opportunity to provide an unforgettable shopping experience that will either sell the organisation’s products and services to bigger audiences or destroy brands.
Positive experiences are infectious as they tend to turn price shoppers into paying customers who will eventually become brand loyalists as well as brand ambassadors. Organisations that have knowledge on their customer shopping preferences are able to provide convenience to their customers.
It is no secret that the modern customer has a busy lifestyle and the only thing that can lessen the burden when it comes to shopping is convenience. Customers would rather prefer shopping on the go using mobile phones which are convenient and this has made them to be more self-aware and more savvy.
In the traditional customer journey, customers initially considered brand awareness before considering the product value and then purchase it and loyalty was the last thing they would do in their journey. However, the digital era has re-organised the traditional customer journey in such a way that the customer now considers the product first, and then purchase the product.
Product consideration is the first thing that customers will look for before checking out the different brands on offer. Customers want to know the benefits and value they derive from the product before anything else. Thus, today’s organisations must put more effort in showcasing their product before building a loud halo great brand campaign.
As a customer all I want from a product is the value that I will get, for instance if I were to buy a deodorant my consideration will be; it must be a long lasting anti-perspirant, that is able to keep my armpits fresh and dry without exuding the sweaty smell. Thus, its value should be able to give me a reason or reasons why I should patronise it and not the next product. Brand awareness and loyalty will only follow when the customer already has the product.
Why it is important to understand customer preference
Organisations can, therefore, profile my anti-perspirant preference for use so that they are able to classify me in a specific micro-audience. Their marketing efforts and research should be directed to the niche that I share the same preference with.
Organisations are also able to tell what drives conversions if they have deeper knowledge on their customer shopping experience, shopping behaviour and above all niche interests of their current and prospective customers.
Accurate delivery of messages to the micro-audience regarding product consideration approach is guaranteed as the organisation can precisely articulate why a customer needs its products to satisfy their needs.
Normally potential customers are converted when their potential personal need is met but understanding what they value is equally important as it gives them the chance to come up with creative ideas of coming up with personalised content. Thus, targeting a micro-audience and using the product consideration approach help organisations to build brand loyalists, ambassadors as well as increase return on Investment.
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba is a marketing enthusiast with a strong passion for customer service. For comments and suggestions, she can be reached on [email protected] or on 0712 979 461
