How your entire work depends on somebody else’s aspirations, needs, fears, or contentment. And how we need to be pinpointing these traits to stay relevant for them and sell them something valuable.
If you think this is tedious, maybe entrepreneurship is not for you. Business is all about crafting the best possible solution for a problem or a need someone else is struggling with. We have to want to help in a way they find helpful. In this matter, knowing every detail of the person we are trying to help is as important as studying the problem itself.
Customers hold incredibly valuable information about what your solution should look like, the features it should have, or how it should be marketed to them. All we have to do is listen. Honestly care and pay attention to what their needs, habits, wishes, opinions, etc. are. This is the starting point to crafting a valuable customer experience, and building a business around it.
As Dan Olsen explains in The Lean Product Playbook, companies that know this are way ahead in the game because they are achieving “product-market fit”. They are actively creating opportunities to know all they can about their customer and use that data to create solutions and experiences that resonate with them to the point they say “wow, this was made for me”.
This extended knowledge of your customer develops into a very beneficial accuracy that will help you have more efficient use of resources as well as make huge improvements in many areas across your business.
Here are 3 example areas in your business that are highly influenced by your target customer.
1. Customers influence design.
Everything that gets designed in a good business — products, posters, ads, systems, protocols, etc. — carries a purpose. Evoke a feeling, trigger an action, or redirect attention. Customer data give us parameters to calibrate our design to increase the chances of achieving such a goal.
A little example: When we were working with Agatha Ruiz de la Prada in Peru, we were asked to redesign the shopping bag for her stores. At the moment they were elegant, simple white paper bags with the logo in the center.
They wanted the new bag to keep being elegant and simple, but also to reflect more of the brand's colorful essence. They also wanted something that could grow brand awareness.
During the strategy session, we learn that what the target customer (mostly super energetic women) loved the most about the brand was its vibrant and unapologetic colorfulness. We also heard a Black Friday was soon to come.
We proposed a magenta bag, made with fancy paper, and a super shiny silver print for the logo. We launch on Black Friday, and it was a hit. The mall was flooded with magenta bags — so eye-catching! It got re-used to carry groceries, school lunches, and even gym wear. ARP kept giving those bags for a whole year.
If we weren't thinking about the client and how much they would enjoy carrying a flamboyant bag, we would have made another black bag for a Black Friday.
Sadly, we weren't measuring the impact of our designs 10 years ago, but we’re sure sales went up and brand awareness was huge. All thanks to a tiny magenta bag.
2. Customers influence communication.
If your brand wants to be listened to and understood you have to make sure you are speaking in a way that your listeners find compelling and clear. Your brand message is very important and you have to make sure it's being communicated effectively. Knowing your customer helps you craft a story and a tone that gets your audience's attention and builds a strong connection.
An example: One time, a great startup asked us to help them with their brand identity. They had an innovative disposable bamboo razor that was fully biodegradable. They wanted to take over the market and fight out plastic razors. But the market was huge, highly competitive, and saturated with options.
During strategy, we went after anything that could help them differentiate. The story is way more complex, but we basically found that CPG companies (especially the ones in sustainable goods) were mostly talking to an audience ready to flex for green products, in a soft and inspirational tone, with lots of green pastel colors, and with a message full of “we love nature”, “save the planet”, and “there’s no plan B”.
With differentiation in mind, we proposed to build their brand story around outdoors and adventure sports, with a more proactive message, and stronger colors. The message was crafted for people who loved nature and were up to take care of it because it’s their playground and they want to preserve it to keep having fun in it. It was bold, empowering, and sport-driven. Kind of the Red Bulls of disposable razors.
This decision shaped a strong and unapologetic identity that separated from the “soft” competitors. And the message turned into great ads, social media posts, website copy, and easier market acceptance.
3. Customers influence performance.
If we pay attention, customers’ behavior can be very enlightening. Most of the time, they show you exactly how they want things to be, and you can adjust your process to surprise them.
A curious example: Years ago we were running a few stores for an elegant European child clothing brand. We noticed many dynamics going on depending on who visited the store to buy clothes for the kids. Sometimes it was only mom with one kid, others mom with more than one kid, other times dad was included, other times grandma was there too.
So, we started catching patterns in each situation and set protocols to deal with every sale accordingly. With time and observation, we tweaked small details around the whole experience to delight our customers.
Some ideas: We made a “dad corner” with a TV, a comfy sofa, books, and a fancy liquors bar for them to relax and enjoy. We built special cribs and changing rooms to make it easy for the kids and the parents to swap clothes. We had a special aroma for the stores. We created several playlists catered for specific moments or types of clients. We offered a service for busy parents where a curated selection of the best clothes (based on their kids and their tastes) was delivered to their offices or homes to try out. We created a tailoring service for the clothes we sold.
We did a lot of little client-based improvements that compound and helped us give a high-level service. And we end up with a book with all the “plays” (like in sports) detailing “who did what” and “what was where” in every situation in order to win.
—
As you can see, identifying your ideal target audience is good for business. The depth of knowledge is also important. Evaluating a market will not give your the same information as a customer persona. However, they’re both helpful to a large extent. It’s important we learn how to collect and organize this information and use it in our favor.
A good place to start is with your current customer. Get to know them a little more. They are already buying and coming back to you for some reason. Find out what is that and make it even better.
Follow with well-done research of your business space. Any news in your industry or market can be a good hint. But don't stop there. Research also your audience, and build a target customer. Go into demographic and psychographics (name, profession, income, dreams, beliefs, fears, etc.). The deeper you get into your clients’ psychology the better chances you’ll have to tailor your business to surprise them.
Our Customer Avatar Template may be of help. It has plenty of questions and information to collect from your customers, a worksheet to organize the answers, and some examples and tips to follow through.
Finally, put it all together and create links with your product features, processes, and company goals. Ask yourselves the question “how could customers’ feature X be solved while my company achieves goal Y? Is a hard question, we know that. But once you start finding links it will get easier. We may launch a resource to help you with this later on.
