WELCOME BACK TO MARKETING, MALAYSIA!
With the pressure beginning to tell on the Malaysian shopper from the incessant doom and gloom sweeping the globe, it’s hard to see how any of us are going to make our brands the success story of 2009.Shoppers have already reduced spend on non-essential food and non-food items in hypermarkets, and that pattern of careful consumption is set to continue through 2009.
The simplest sure-fire way to drive sales and deliver success in Malaysia today seems to be to offer the lowest price. But is that the only way to win? Customers might actually rate convenience or product quality over price and be willing to pay a premium. The brands that win are those that understand exactly what their customers want – and then give it to them.
I’m not introducing a new concept. It’s what Marketing is really all about—understanding what customers want and delivering exactly that. It’s not all about price.
Making your brand more appealing for your most important customers can have a dramatic impact on marketing efficiency. While other brands are fruitlessly spending millions on activity that is only attractive to a tiny proportion of the shoppers that it reaches, the smart marketer is talking directly to the small proportion of shoppers who deliver the majority of sales. Therefore better customer understanding improves targeting which means lower sale costs and far less risk of marketing money being wasted.
SO HOW CAN YOU START YOUR JOURNEY BACK TO TRUE MARKETING?
- Understand your core shopper: Make a conscious effort to strategically reward your loyal customers – not to chase the ones that make you a loss! How often do they shop? Which size and flavour do
they buy? - Focus on these customers and ignore the masses: A loyal shopper typically gives you 20 times more business than those that occasionally buy you on promotion. It’s about doing what is right for the customer, not what makes the most money or drives the greatest efficiency today.
- Offer them promotions on the products that they actually buy and want to try: As Edwina Dunn – the founder and chief executive of dunnhumby, says, , “The more targeted your offering, the fewer the gimmicks you need. A product will sell itself because it’s what the customer wants already.”
- Develop new products and offerings for the customers who behave most like those who are already your most loyal customers. Find out what they are buying and make them love your brand too.
Think for a moment about the last time you were made to feel valued when buying something. It was almost certainly due to the process being made as relevant to you as possible.
At dunnhumby we apply this marketing philosophy to retailing and brand building finding clues and patterns as to what customers are buying and why. Turning these insights into something actionable requires a brave new way of customer centric thinking. Change is scary, but not as scary as decline. So go on, be bold and take the bull by the horns in this New Year and vow to know and treat your customers better than
anyone else.
By Michael Hawkins,
dunnhumby Malaysia