Victoria's Secret Plays Marketing Ball!
You stride out to the plate.
The roar of the crowd is deafening.
The scoreboard is flashing your impressive statistics
from last season.
You begin your pre-swing warm-ups. You take a couple
of practice swings. You feel really loose. You swing again.
You notice that, in fact, you feel looser than you normally feel.
That's when you notice the lack of restriction in your
swing. The left sleeve of your jersey isn't binding you
like it usually does.
Then you realize why. It's because you don't have
one on! You're standing at home plate in front of the
home town crowd completely naked!
Hmm. maybe the sound of the crowd isn't cheering after all?
;-)
======================
OK, It's Not That Bad.
======================
But it could be.
What do you think it would feel like standing there
in front of all those people without anything on?
I don't think I'd want to find out.
Somehow, we skipped the all-important pre-game session
in the locker room. So why is the locker room so
crucial in marketing ball?
Because it's where we come up with our game plan.
It's where we plan out strategy and comb through
our scouting reports about the opposing team.
==============
The Game Plan
==============
Preparing for a game of baseball includes looking at the
opposing team and assessing their strengths and weaknesses.
In marketing ball, we do the same thing. How?
By defining our target-market (TM). Who is it that
we serve? Where are they? How do we reach them?
In assessing our TM, we need to identify two characteristics:
They're demographic and their psychographic. Huh?
Demographics: The "who" as Mark Silver puts it.
Who is it you serve in your business? Demographics
refers to the observable characteristics of your TM.
To better understand this , let's take a look at one the
demographics of one of my retailers: Victoria's Secret.
Uh, ..not that I actually go inside or anything....
;-)
Victoria's Secret has a very definable demographic:
Women between the ages of 18* and 44. Although a lot of men love
this store, they don't occupy the demographic. You'd be hard-pressed
to find anything specifically for men in Victoria's Secret.
(*Although women younger than 18 shop at Victoria's Secret,
you must be 18 to have a credit card, therefore women over
18 are in the TM!*)
Getting to know our TM also includes identifying their psychographic.
Mark Silver (Mark is one of my teachers) calls this the "What." These are
non-observable characteristics, such as, our TM's preferences,
their painful issues, their feelings and desires, and what they want.
Back to Victoria's Secret...their psychographic is again very definitive:
Their customers like a certain style of undergarments; they like sheer fabrics,
and lace, and need to feel safe while browsing and ultimately buying them.
The complete profile for a Victoria Secret customer (their ideal customer)
is then: Women between the ages of 18 and 44 who want to own sheer undergarments
and want a safe environment within which to buy them.
You won't find your typical K-Mart shopper frequenting
Victoria's Secret. They're a completely different
demographic altogether.
===============================
Enough of Victoria's Secret...
...I can't believe I said that...
===============================
So who is your ideal customer? To find out, list the observable
characteristics (their demographics) and their non-observable
characteristics (their psychographics) on a sheet of paper.
Try to brainstorm as many of these as possible. The more you
come up with the more definitive your TM will become.
Use this as a pattern:
"I help (serve, work with, etc) [insert demographic, the Who]
who feel (want, desire, need, yearn for, etc) [insert psychographic]
and want to [insert second psychographic, solution oriented]."
Here's an example - mine:
"I help independent business owners (demographic) who feel barely visible
in the marketplace (psychographic) and want to become (psychographic)
better known in their target market."
========================
The Rest of the Uniform
========================
Now that you've got your cap on, let's put on the rest of your
uniform. You can't expect to get very far with only a cap.
Your cap is your properly identified TM and phrased in such a way
(see my example above) that when someone asks you the dreaded question...
"So, what do you do?"...you'll have this Business Mantra TM) ready.
"I work with young elevator riders (demographic) who feel frightened
(psychographic) when getting inside a closed space but want to conquer
(psychographic, solution-oriented) their fear of elevators."
When phrased correctly in this manner, the person who posed this
question will say..."Wow, How do you do that?"
Your natural response would be to explain your process.
But that's not what is best. Simply rephrase the problem your
demographic is experiencing and talk about how they feel after
they work with you.
Instead of saying, "I do intensive thyroid-thumping-therapy for thirty-three
minutes for thirteen consecutive Thursdays..."
...you would say, "Well, you know when a person successfully faces, confronts,
and overcomes a fear...how they feel like a new person and they're ready to
take on the world? Well, I help people get to that place."
You haven't exposed any secrets, trade processes, or anything else that
would lead them to say, "Oh, Yeah..I know what you do...I don't need you."
========
Suit Up!
========
What's the rest of your uniform consist of?
Problem, solution, and distinction.
Answer these questions and you're almost ready to play ball:
1. What problems do you help your TM solve?
(Hint= look a their psychographic)
2. What solutions do you offer them?
(Look at your services, the answer to their most pressing question)
3. What makes you different? What's your Unique Selling Proposition?
(Why should they choose you?) Do you offer the fastest service, the most experienced
background, or the best no-risk guarantee?
Your almost there....
When you spend time with this, and finally put it all together,
you'll have your core marketing message in place.
You're now ready to leave the Locker Room.
You have your game plan, you know your opponent,
and your fully dressed in your core marketing message.
This is only the first installment in the Marketing Ball series.
Next week we'll look at what it takes to step into the box at home plate,
and get to first base. Until then, get started on assembling your uniform.
Look in your in-box next Wednesday, June 21 for the article:
Marketing Ball: Getting to First Base
Thanks for reading,
Barry
P.S. As always, you can shoot me a response, a criticism,
even a compliment ;-) here: Barry@BarryMorris.com
The roar of the crowd is deafening.
The scoreboard is flashing your impressive statistics
from last season.
You begin your pre-swing warm-ups. You take a couple
of practice swings. You feel really loose. You swing again.
You notice that, in fact, you feel looser than you normally feel.
That's when you notice the lack of restriction in your
swing. The left sleeve of your jersey isn't binding you
like it usually does.
Then you realize why. It's because you don't have
one on! You're standing at home plate in front of the
home town crowd completely naked!
Hmm. maybe the sound of the crowd isn't cheering after all?
;-)
======================
OK, It's Not That Bad.
======================
But it could be.
What do you think it would feel like standing there
in front of all those people without anything on?
I don't think I'd want to find out.
Somehow, we skipped the all-important pre-game session
in the locker room. So why is the locker room so
crucial in marketing ball?
Because it's where we come up with our game plan.
It's where we plan out strategy and comb through
our scouting reports about the opposing team.
==============
The Game Plan
==============
Preparing for a game of baseball includes looking at the
opposing team and assessing their strengths and weaknesses.
In marketing ball, we do the same thing. How?
By defining our target-market (TM). Who is it that
we serve? Where are they? How do we reach them?
In assessing our TM, we need to identify two characteristics:
They're demographic and their psychographic. Huh?
Demographics: The "who" as Mark Silver puts it.
Who is it you serve in your business? Demographics
refers to the observable characteristics of your TM.
To better understand this , let's take a look at one the
demographics of one of my retailers: Victoria's Secret.
Uh, ..not that I actually go inside or anything....
;-)
Victoria's Secret has a very definable demographic:
Women between the ages of 18* and 44. Although a lot of men love
this store, they don't occupy the demographic. You'd be hard-pressed
to find anything specifically for men in Victoria's Secret.
(*Although women younger than 18 shop at Victoria's Secret,
you must be 18 to have a credit card, therefore women over
18 are in the TM!*)
Getting to know our TM also includes identifying their psychographic.
Mark Silver (Mark is one of my teachers) calls this the "What." These are
non-observable characteristics, such as, our TM's preferences,
their painful issues, their feelings and desires, and what they want.
Back to Victoria's Secret...their psychographic is again very definitive:
Their customers like a certain style of undergarments; they like sheer fabrics,
and lace, and need to feel safe while browsing and ultimately buying them.
The complete profile for a Victoria Secret customer (their ideal customer)
is then: Women between the ages of 18 and 44 who want to own sheer undergarments
and want a safe environment within which to buy them.
You won't find your typical K-Mart shopper frequenting
Victoria's Secret. They're a completely different
demographic altogether.
===============================
Enough of Victoria's Secret...
...I can't believe I said that...
===============================
So who is your ideal customer? To find out, list the observable
characteristics (their demographics) and their non-observable
characteristics (their psychographics) on a sheet of paper.
Try to brainstorm as many of these as possible. The more you
come up with the more definitive your TM will become.
Use this as a pattern:
"I help (serve, work with, etc) [insert demographic, the Who]
who feel (want, desire, need, yearn for, etc) [insert psychographic]
and want to [insert second psychographic, solution oriented]."
Here's an example - mine:
"I help independent business owners (demographic) who feel barely visible
in the marketplace (psychographic) and want to become (psychographic)
better known in their target market."
========================
The Rest of the Uniform
========================
Now that you've got your cap on, let's put on the rest of your
uniform. You can't expect to get very far with only a cap.
Your cap is your properly identified TM and phrased in such a way
(see my example above) that when someone asks you the dreaded question...
"So, what do you do?"...you'll have this Business Mantra TM) ready.
"I work with young elevator riders (demographic) who feel frightened
(psychographic) when getting inside a closed space but want to conquer
(psychographic, solution-oriented) their fear of elevators."
When phrased correctly in this manner, the person who posed this
question will say..."Wow, How do you do that?"
Your natural response would be to explain your process.
But that's not what is best. Simply rephrase the problem your
demographic is experiencing and talk about how they feel after
they work with you.
Instead of saying, "I do intensive thyroid-thumping-therapy for thirty-three
minutes for thirteen consecutive Thursdays..."
...you would say, "Well, you know when a person successfully faces, confronts,
and overcomes a fear...how they feel like a new person and they're ready to
take on the world? Well, I help people get to that place."
You haven't exposed any secrets, trade processes, or anything else that
would lead them to say, "Oh, Yeah..I know what you do...I don't need you."
========
Suit Up!
========
What's the rest of your uniform consist of?
Problem, solution, and distinction.
Answer these questions and you're almost ready to play ball:
1. What problems do you help your TM solve?
(Hint= look a their psychographic)
2. What solutions do you offer them?
(Look at your services, the answer to their most pressing question)
3. What makes you different? What's your Unique Selling Proposition?
(Why should they choose you?) Do you offer the fastest service, the most experienced
background, or the best no-risk guarantee?
Your almost there....
When you spend time with this, and finally put it all together,
you'll have your core marketing message in place.
You're now ready to leave the Locker Room.
You have your game plan, you know your opponent,
and your fully dressed in your core marketing message.
This is only the first installment in the Marketing Ball series.
Next week we'll look at what it takes to step into the box at home plate,
and get to first base. Until then, get started on assembling your uniform.
Look in your in-box next Wednesday, June 21 for the article:
Marketing Ball: Getting to First Base
Thanks for reading,
Barry
P.S. As always, you can shoot me a response, a criticism,
even a compliment ;-) here: Barry@BarryMorris.com
posted by Barry W. Morris at
2:46 PM
