Kurt Hunter

How I Failed My Client

I failed….well, maybe I’m too hard on myself, but I was recently reminded of an important lesson when starting or running a successful business.  That lesson: If you focus on creating (and executing) the best product or service, your odds of creating a successful business will skyrocket.

The mistake I made with my client was trying to do too much for his business.  He recently opened a restaurant, and wanted me to help him drive traffic to the new place.  I told him he would need nightly specials to entice new customers; he would need an extensive menu to please the diverse crowd he wanted to attract; and he would need to create social marketing campaigns to generate buzz about the new restaurant.

His response to me was simple: “I’m going to make the best hamburger in town and price it between McDonald’s and Five Guys.  Customers will understand the value of a superior burger and word of mouth will drive traffic.”  The restaurant opened two weeks ago– every table is packed for lunch and dinner.  While he’s going through the growing pains of hiring and training staff to keep up, he has a wildly-successful restaurant on his hands.

I was reminded that focusing, first and foremost, on creating a superior product is the first step to a successful business.  If you have a superior product, or you can create a service that is superior to your competition, people WILL find you.  Sometimes I get caught up in the buzz about the new marketing channels, and I forget success ultimately depends on creating a product or service that people love. 

What can you do to create a memorable product or service?  Is your company known for being the best at something?

Good luck!

As marketing techniques continue to change on a daily basis, it’s important to remember one of the fundamentals of creating a successful marketing campaign: NICHE MARKETING!

Niche marketing requires you to clearly identify specific customers you are targeting. You don’t have the advertising and marketing budget of a Fortune 500 company, so stop marketing like a Fortune 500 company. If your marketing campaign and message fail to specifically communicate directly to a certain segment of customers, you might as well flush your marketing investment down the drain.

Here’s an ad from Coke (the goal of this ad is to raise brand awareness. Coke can spend advertising dollars on brand awareness because it has a billion dollar advertising budget….you DO NOT! Who is the target market in this ad? The world?).

Brand Awareness Ad

Here’s a great example of a niche ad from the famous “Dummies” series. It’s extremely easy to identify the target (new bowlers and people who want to improve their bowling! This is how your marketing campaign and message should look…SPEAK DIRECTLY to your target market!!):

Great Niche Marketing Ad

What tweaks can you make to your advertising and marketing strategy to communicate directly with your core audience? Start with identifying your target marketing and then create a marketing plan that speaks directly to them.

Good luck!

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