Where are they?

No matter what service or product you supply you must know your customers. You cannot reach your customers if you do not know who they are and getting in front of the customer is what it is all about. For example if you sell antiques advertising on MySpace is probably not a good idea, but if you sell teenage fashion it is a must.

Defining your customer base is the first step in understanding your business. I am going to use a couple of famous outlets to make my point. Walmart is a deep discount merchandiser with an incredible information system for distribution. The Walmart customer is lower middle class (and more recently the middle class as well), generally females, of all ages. The price points these people are looking for is in the lower range.

Does it make sense for Walmart to sell high end appliances?

No.

Does it make sense for Walmart to market to the affluent?

No.

Does it make sense for Walmart to advertise on TV?

Yes.

Should Walmart advertise in the Wall Street Journal?

No.




Now what about Saks 5th Avenue? Same questions...


Does it make sense for Saks to sell high end appliances?

Yes.

Does it make sense for Saks to market to the affluent?

Yes.

Does it make sense for Saks to advertise on TV?

No.

Should Saks advertise in the Wall Street Journal?

Yes.


Once you know your market you can make intelligent decisions about marketing, product line, and pricing among other things. This is called Market Position, defining your companies position in the market place to better understand your own company.

Now, let’s turn that lens inward, what is ENA Resource Management's market position?

1) Companies that do not want to keep a technical department
2) Companies that do not want to keep a creative or art department
3) Companies that want to outsource their web presence

By outsourcing their web presence, our customers get a quality web site and a comprehensive set of web site services at a fraction of the cost. Outsourcing has recently taken on the connotation of off shoring production but is not the same thing. ENA Resource Management is an American company (and proud of it). By specializing in providing complete Internet services we provide a great service at an extremely good price.

This may sound like a commercial but I am trying to make a point with this. ENA Resource Management's marketing plan has three pages of market segment analysis and market positioning information. We know our customers, sometimes better then they know themselves. There is no way I can overstate this very important issue.

Many decisions you make each day would be improved if you increase your knowledge of your customer. This is not just advertising and products, what about how your customer will contact you? Voice mail is fine for business to business but not for consumers. How about hours of operation? Again nine to five is great for business to business but evening hours are important to consumers. The list is too large to include all of it here. I think at this point you should get it.

Your customer is the genesis of all your decisions. It makes sense that the more you know about them the better your company will be able to service them.

I took on a huge subject here. I am afraid I may not have covered it well enough or you may have questions that I have not answered. If you take the time to send me e-mail, reference this blog in the subject line, I will take the time to answer your question. I am not a writer, I am a professional engineer that was interested in blogging (this is my first time out... can you tell?). I do my best but feel like I miss the mark sometimes.

I hope I got you thinking about your customers because this is what should be in your thoughts all day. Focus on your customer and you will succeed.


Love you all!

Elliott D. Nadelman

Software Engineer
enadelman@enaresource.com

http://www.enaresource.com