‘To build brands that mean something to customers, you need to attach them to products that mean something to customers.’ Clay Christensen shared this nugget of advice with us 10 years ago.
30 years prior, in the same publication (Harvard Business Review) Theodore Levitt instructed us that ‘the view that an industry is a customer-satisfying process, not a goods-producing process, is vital for all business people to understand’.
Your job, as a business owner or marketer, is to make that connection with your customer. To figure out the business that you are in.
You’re not creating products or offering services, you’re providing the tools that take your customer from Point A to Point B on their chosen journey. To sell your tool, you take the role of guide on that journey. An essential, trusting, insightful guide. The greater the guide, the greater the likelihood of selling more products (providing more tools) as that journey continues to Point C and so on.
To guide your customers you need to know the route. Each step. Each crevasse.
The journey begins when people start asking questions.
We can all point people in a certain direction or provide a map. The brand that wins is the brand that accompanies their customer on the journey. Step by step.
That’s why it’s fundamental to share your process. The decisions you make, as a business, and how they impact upon your customer’s own journey. Relate everything you do, everything you share, within your business to that customer journey. For some it’s second nature. For most, it’s not.
Your market isn’t a particular segment of individuals on a graph. It’s not an age group or level of affluence. It’s a mindset collective. People who share similar values and strive for similar goals.
As you realise that you’re building a brand for (not ‘marketing at’) people with shared values the more you’ll understand what your craft represents (and what your business stands for). You’ll communicate better. That’s how your business will thrive online.
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