The 4 types of customers of marketing

An important idea about marketing is delivering the right relationships to the right customers.

Some customers are worth your time, some others aren't worth the investment you want to make.

As a result it is important to classify your consumers, and to target the most profitable ones.

You can classify customer by using their lifetime values, the consumer equity and their loyalty.

As a result we end up with 4 types of customers.

The first ones are strangers. Your company must not invest into strangers. They don't plan to be loyal to your company, they are showing low potential profitability. As a result, you don't have to do business with these customers.

The second types of customers are butterflies. Butterflies are not loyal but can show some profits over a short period of time. As a result you can enjoy them while they are at your company, but you shouldn't spend any effort into gaining them back once they are away.

True friends are your most profitable and most loyal customers. Their is a strong link between them and your company and you want to create the best relationship over time with them, in order to make them as comfortable as possible. They can become true believers, in that case, they come back often and tell others about their good experience with your company.

Finally, barnacles are highly loyal. But they are not profitable at all. Like barnacles, they lag your ship behind and you have to push them away to go faster. You can either try to make them profitable by creating specific products made for barnacles. If they cannot become profitable, you have to fire them.

As a result, you have to adapt your strategy depended on the customer your talking with. This is an important fact about customer relationship management strategies.

The Marketing Mix

Once a business has assessed the marketplace, and targeted its customer, it can finally design its marketing strategy.

A Marketing strategy is put simply by using common tools.

A useful tool is the marketing Mix. It is also famously named the 4P's of the marketing.

In order to create satisfy a customer, a company must first design a good product. This will be the first P. The product must fit with the ideas of the customer, according to what the consumer expect to have, when buying a product.

The second P stands for price. In order to have a good product, a company must find a good price. With a specified target price, a company can easily integrate a market. There is a balance between the price the customer is expecting and the margin the company is making upon selling its product. In fact, some companies sell sometimes way below their margin, so that the customer is attracted by the low price.

After that we have the third P for place. In order to sell these products, you must find the proper seller, retailer or wholesaler. You also must find the good area where you want to sell these products. Depending on the country, you might sell the same experience, but not the same products. For example, in Asia, Mac Donald has designed specific burgers for chinese taste, as they don't eat the same as americans.

Finally, the last one stands for promotion. When you are selling you product, you want the customer to know about it. You have to make him understand that your product is for sale and that it is able to satisfy his needs. To do this you have to run advertisement campaign on TV, radio, internet, or even on the point of sale, in that case it is called merchandising.

Then you combine all of this into one comprehensive integrated marketing program that communicates and delivers the intended value to chosen customers.

Needs, wants and demands

During the marketing process, you might use terms like needs wants and demands. These words are fundamental when conducting marketing analyses. These concepts are used to describe the different motivations behind a customer buying process. 

 

First, the principle of the needs. Needs are described as states of felt deprivation. Something is missing or something isn't right. The consumer is looking for a way to satisfy the needs. According to the pyramid of Needs, made by Maslowe, we categorize the needs into 5 different ideas. Physiological needs, like drinking, eating, shelter, cold. Safety needs, health, employment. Love needs, like friendship, family. Esteem, for example respect. Finally self actualization, like self expression.

Second, the wants are part of the process. Wants are what are human needs, when they are shaped by the culture and the preferences of the individual. It is as simple as eating rice in Asia, where it is the most common dish, or eating a hamburger in the US. Depending on where you lived and your education, you will not have the same wants as your neighbors.

Finally, when you have wants and buying power, you can formulate demands. When you have enough resources, you may have better demands, and ask for products that will satisfy you better. Usually, the customer claims for the product with the best benefit and the best price, but demands can change that.

Once you have these ideas in mind, you can then learn and understand your customers behavior and adapt to him. You are able to target them and be more precise when offering them your products. 

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