Marketing begins with Identifying what does the Customer Want?

What makes your products and services strategically different?  Does the customer care?  Focus on the customer.

"True marketing starts ... with the customer ... It asks 'What does the customer want to buy?'  It does not say, 'This is what our product or service does.'  It says, 'These are satisfactions the customer looks for, values and needs.'"  Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices

Identifying what the customer wants and satisfying those needs at a fair price increases profitable revenue and drives market share.  Quoting from Peter F. Drucker: "True marketing starts ... with the customer ... It asks 'What does the customer want to buy?'  It does not say, 'This is what our product or service does.'  It says, 'These are satisfactions the customer looks for, values and needs.'"  Most companies forget about this simple tenet - they often get it backwards.  If your company does not follow this critical concept, your business will soon be encounter declining sales and your competitors growth.


Is it time to reevaluate your Marketing efforts?


Begin by developing a Strategic Plan.  Next, Identify Your Company Brand and Image.  Most important, Effectively Execute the Plan, by growing profitable revenue streams and exceeding goals.  But don't stop there.  Results must be reviewed through detailed Marketing Analytics, and  adjustments must be made, as necessary.

At Focused Strategic Integration, we will create an Executable Strategic Marketing Plan to keep your company focused on sustainable success.  It all begins with preparing a Strategic Plan.  As Henry Ford once said, "If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."  Marketing must truly understand the consumer, not just his words.

An effective plan will guide your team in identifying the customer base and the products and services they are seeking.  What are the Target Market Segments?  What Market Position are you seeking?  Does the Pricing Strategy align with your customers and generate Profitable Revenue Streams?  Do your Products and Services meet your customer's needs?  If not, are you willing to let your competitors have these customers?  Maybe it is time to develop, merge or acquire new lines of products / services.

What are your competitors doing?  Are they really your competitor?  It is very important to correctly identify who is your competitor and to know their strategy, their strengths and their weaknesses.  A thorough Competitive Analysis will assist in exposing threats, but more importantly, opportunities.  Quantifying your attributes, and

those of each competitor, assist in analyzing the competitive landscape.  Are your challenging your Competitor's strengths with one of your weaknesses.  If so, you are setting your company up for continued struggles.  Instead, attack your Competitor's weaknesses with your strengths.  Distinct Strategic Advantages lead to profitable revenue streams.

"If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."  Henry Ford

After answering these questions, it is time to Identify the Company Brand and Image (maybe a re-branding process is needed).  Your customers buy products and services to meet their needs, but they also want to be associated with a brand to portray an image .  Are all  of your company's decisions focused in the same direction?  What does your in-line and on-line presence say about your company?  Is it communicating the right message?  If not, your Advertising and Promotion campaigns need to be focused on generating your Brand and Image.  Let your customers know that their search is over - your company offers the products and services that they have been searching for!

Now that the customer, market and competition have been identified and a Strategic Plan prepared, the next critical path is the effective execution of that plan.  The company leadership has defined the plan and the course of action, and now it is up to the management team to effectively execute the plan.  Again, Peter F. Drucker got it right when he said: "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and it sells itself."

Continuous improvement in an organization requires evaluation and redirection.  How well did your business reach  its goals?  Did your company achieve its performance benchmarks?  If not, what needs to be changed?

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."  Peter F. Drucker

Marketing Analytics can isolate both opportunities and shortcomings.  This is where the focused, strategic integration of the organization is critical.  Your financial team and data analysis can thoroughly evaluate performance and identify areas for improvement.  Capture the right data, ask the right questions, analyze the data trends and relationships, evaluate alternative courses of action and the result is Continuous Improvement with sustainable Profitable Revenue Streams.

At Focused Strategic Integration, we endeavor to ask the right questions, so that efficacious decisions can be made.  The ultimate goal is to strategically integrate Marketing with Finance and Operations to effectively generate profitable revenue streams for sustainable growth.