Strategic Marketing: Customer and Competition
Author: Christian Fea


To begin an effective strategic marketing strategy, it isimperative to know your customer, as well as yourcompetition. Knowing what your target audience is, andknowing who your target customer is, will be the first step towards developing a marketing strategy. Once you have identified your audience, you can then begin to tailor yourmarketing strategy, including your collaborative marketingefforts.

Who is your customer?You can start by making a series of imaginary profiles ofyour potential clients and customers, asking specificquestions such as:- What is the age range of my potential clients?- What is their income range/- What are their lifestyles and hobbies?

Depending on the product you are marketing, your phantomclient profile will vary. The motivation here is to thinkof the customer as an individual, rather than as anamorphous group of unknown clients. Once you identify apotential client profile, it will be a more natural processto tailor a marketing scheme.An effective marketing plan begins with thinking specifically in terms of whom your market is, and who you are trying to entice to use your products and services.

An advertisement, email or website display will vary greatlydepending on whether you are targeting college age,financially conservative students, middle income families with small children, or single, young professional adults.The same series of advertisements is likely to appeal to adiverse variety of clients than a variety of ads tailoredspecifically to reach an audience.

The same product mayvery well be suitable for a variety of clients, but thesame product is less likely to sell to a varied consumerbase with the same marketing strategy. Don't reinvent the wheel Knowledge of your competitors' marketing scheme and howthey market their products is almost as important as beingable to identify your prospective clients.

There is a lotto be learned from studying a competitor, especially if they are a well established business with a solid marketing strategy.Marketing is the way to get your productsnoticed;this is why it is an essential aspect to asuccessful business. If nobody knows about you, how canthey purchase your wonderful goods and services?

Build upon what has proven successfulIf you know of a business in your industry that has catchymarketing ads, it is a good idea to try to understand what they have done to be successful.

This is important for two reasons: you don't want to exactly replicate another marketing strategy, and you want your advertisements to stand apart from what is already being produced. This will help you to develop and tailor your marketing scheme toyour target audience, in a way that is different from yourcompetition—and get you noticed!

Awareness of how similar businesses in your industryapproach marketing will help you develop the edge you needto target your own clients. Intimate knowledge of who these prospective clients are will set you in the right directionfor developing a successful marketing strategy that isunique and specific to your business. Knowing your targetmarket, and how the market is targeted by others in yourindustry, will put your business on a successful path for growth and recognition. Based upon this knowledge, you caneven choose a synergistic competitor and create acollaboration marketing campaign.

About the Author:Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A strategic Collaboration Marketing consulting firm. He empowersbusiness owners to discover and implement Integration,Alliance, and Joint Venture marketing tactics to solvespecific business challenges. He demonstrates how to createyour own Collaboration Marketing Strategy to increase yoursales, conversation rates, and repeat business.
Contact: http://www.christianfea.com/