Step 4: The Market
You can make a million widgets, but until you sell one, you don’t have a business. Finding and nurturing the market for a product goes hand in hand with product development. Very few products or services sell themselves. One of the first steps a prospective business owner, or rehabilitation staff offering support, must do is to identify her customers. Identifying customers and developing a marketing plan are two essential aspects of any good business plan.
Small businesses grow or die. Profitability is determined by reaching customers, satisfying them, and then attracting more customers. The Pareto Principle that 80 percent of a company’s business comes from 20 percent of its customers is true, but it’s also obvious that the other 80 percent is important, too. People with Traumatic Brain Injury are continually seeking more efficient ways of doing everyday tasks. This same idea applies when searching for a market for their product or service. Many of their initial customers will be people or organizations that currently supply some of their personal supports. Their secondary customers may come from their experience in the larger community. Once a new market is targeted, the small business owner with a Traumatic Brain Injury will pursue it persistently. It is important not to ignore the initial market while pursuing new markets. Supports may be needed to maintain focus on the larger market picture while developing new customers. Focus and follow through, always important when working with people with brain injuries, are doubly true here.
Typically, a business has both primary and secondary users of their product or service. For instance, most coin-operated carwash patrons use the facility to clean the family sedan. Advertising and promotion is most likely geared to this crowd, with typical approaches being discount coupons, signs on the building or placed along the major routes nearby, and perhaps some local television or radio ads. Once a customer base is established and growth slows, new advertising pushes are needed to battle a new competitor in the market, or to attract those new to car ownership.
Another potential income producer often overlooked though by business owners is the secondary customer. A secondary customer is someone who has a different need or use for the product/ service being offered. In the case of the carwash, for instance, secondary customers may be tractor-trailer drivers who need to clean their big rigs. Another secondary user is fleet managers for the local school bus concession, or the police and fire departments, the local cable TV company that owns 30 pickups, the phone or public utility companies that keep a hundred trucks and vans in service around the clock, or even the local cattle ranchers who need to clean out trailers with the high pressure equipment found in car washes. Perhaps boat owners need to wash down their units after a day of fishing on the local lake.
Advertising campaigns as simple as the direct mailing of discount coupons to these user-groups is enough to attract new customers. And certainly a lot of business can be done by putting fliers under windshield wipers in the parking lots at cattle auctions and truck stops. A personal visit or a letter of introduction to the local phone company manager or the Chief of Police might also bear fruit.
Marketing is not generally a passive activity. It must be planned and budgeted for and made an essential function of the business operation. A business that is not adding new customers is at risk of dying.
Target Market & Positioning Worksheet
Instructions: This worksheet is designed to identify and isolate both primary and secondary customer niches. A primary customer is one that is most likely to buy from you. A secondary customer is one that will buy after (and probably in less volume than) the primary customer. For instance, a coin-operated car wash has typical car owners as its primary customer. A secondary customer may be the used car lots down the street that bring in their cars before putting them up for sale. Field work, research, and study will result in the demographic information important to the business owner in designing the product/service, establishing a pricing structure, and in determining distribution and promotional approaches.
DEMOGRAPHICS: PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CUSTOMERS:
- Location (city/county/particular part of town/cyberspace)
- Age Range
- Male and/or Female
- Income
- Education Level
- Career Type (Professional, Blue Collar)
- Marital Status
- With/Without Children
- Pet Owner
- Particular Hobbies/Interests
- Religious/Political Affiliations
- They know they need your product or service?
- They need your product or service but don’t know it yet?