| Cliché but true: customers come in all shapes | | | | understanding your customer is a key to gaining a |
| and sizes. Just check out any grocery store or gas | | | | competitive advantage over your competition. |
| station: you see a cross-section of society, right? You | | | | We suggest two sources which are far less |
| find people from many walks of life and all income | | | | expensive than traditional research. Of course, if you |
| levels. But underneath the surface these people share | | | | have the budget, by all means spend a portion of it |
| something in common: for some reason--known or | | | | with a reputable research firm. But if you don't here |
| unknown to the store's owner--they all made a choice | | | | are a couple of sources that can give you some |
| to shop at the same place. | | | | insight. |
| Here's the small business marketer's primary puzzler: | | | | First, look to your peers in your industry. Your trade |
| why do they come to my store? What do they have | | | | association and your trade publications both have |
| in common that makes them my customers? Once I | | | | general information on your industry's customer base. |
| know that, then I can discover (and reach) more of | | | | Granted, this isn't primary research specific to your |
| them. | | | | individual business. Plus, this is data typically compiled at |
| If you are fortunate enough to have a customer | | | | the national level. Yet, you can combine this industry |
| database then you can integrate known data, primarily | | | | material with your own common sense and your state |
| purchase data, with psychographic or demographic | | | | or city economic and demographic data. Once done |
| data you acquire from outside. You can then combine | | | | you will have a localized picture of your industry. This |
| both the internal and the external data to construct a | | | | can yield some good, if general, facts about your |
| composite of your customer base. | | | | customer base. |
| However, if you are like most retail stores, you will | | | | A couple of half-days spent in this type of research |
| have to rely on other types of data, such as survey | | | | often can yield insights that can't be acquired without |
| data and research data, to establish your customer | | | | extensive (and expensive) research that is hired out. |
| profile. | | | | The second asset: employee research. More on that in |
| This type of research can get expensive. Very | | | | our next article. |
| expensive. Frankly, top-drawer research data is often | | | | Remember: Brand (who you are) + Package (your |
| outside the budget scope of many small businesses. | | | | Face to the Customer) + People (customers and |
| Yet, as a small business marketer you know that | | | | employees) = Marketing Success. |