Ms. Bermont

Sales & Marketing

How to Hit a Bull's Eye With the Right Target Market

By Debbie Bermont, President, Source Communications

If you were to throw a dart at a dartboard, the demographic and psychographics of your target market would represent the outermost ring of the board. This means that if you are targeting all of your marketing and sales efforts using only demographic and psychographic information as your ideal market criteria, you will have a tough time hitting a bulls eye with any consistency. This translates into wasted time, money and resources marketing to the wrong people - a sure sign your property is out of alignment and you haven't correctly profiled your ideal customer.

Here are telltale signs that your property is out of alignment:

The alignment process is relatively easy to understand and apply but so often overlooked by many businesses. If requires four simple steps. Step one is determining your mission. Step two is determining your business values. Step three is determining your business philosophy and step four is profiling the demographics and psychographics of your ideal market.

Most businesses want to skip straight to step four without adding on steps one, two and three which is why a whole lot of money is spent going after the wrong folks. Your hotel property has a specific mission, values and style and philosophy. Those people who appreciate your style and personality and align with your values, your mission and your business philosophy ...and who fit your demographic and psychographic profile are your ideal customer.

The most important thing you can do to ensure that all of sales and marketing efforts are focused solely on attracting only your ideal customer is to put your business into alignment. Let's break the alignment process down step by step.

Step One: Define your mission

Your mission states why you are in business. It identifies what the purpose is of your property. For example, your mission might be to offer the leisure traveler uncompromising service and luxury. That's a different mission than a property who serves traveling families with small children.

Nonprofit organizations are a good example of how to use the alignment process successfully. A charity first determines their mission and cause. Then they attract donations from people who believe in the same mission. For example, the Lung Cancer Society is only looking for people who want to support the efforts in advancing the cure for lung cancer. If you didn't align with their mission then you would probably not donate to this charity. If you knew someone who suffered from lung cancer, then you might be inclined to support this cause. Charity organizations look for people who align with their specific mission. They don't change their mission just to get donations from people who are charitable.

Step Two: Determine your business values.

Your company values represent the qualities which you think are important in operating your business. Prospects who share the same values will be attracted to you. These values must be demonstrated in your business through your communications and your actions.

People who are in alignment with your business values will be more loyal customers. The business values come from the top down and must be demonstrated in all of your actions and communications. This is the only way a prospect can identify if you are the right fit for their needs. Your ideal customer is someone who shares and appreciates the same values you do - whether it is service, affordability, reliability, fun or convenience. You set the standard and then let the people who appreciate that standard align with you.

Step Three: Determine your business philosophy.

This is the weeding-out process that is a critical step in the alignment process to determine your ideal customer.

The most profitable customers for your business are those people who have expressed a desire to purchase your product and they share the same business philosophy as you do. This -- in essence -- is a mutual attraction.

Your company's mission is to deliver a specific set of services and products which fill a need for a specific audience. Your business philosophy explains why that is important. It is the bigger picture of why you are on your mission.

I asked one of my clients who owns a computer consulting firm to define his ideal client. Here was his description:

Companies located in a certain geographic area with five or more employees and have a local area network.

They pay their bills on time.

All of his current clients fit these demographics and psychographics. I asked if he felt all his clients valued his services. He admitted that he had some clients that he felt didn't really value his time, questioned his pricing and wanted additional services for free. While they fit the right customer demographic profile, they were a drain on his time and ate into the profitability of his company.

I pressed him further to talk about his business philosophy. After a bit more investigation, he said that he really wanted to work with clients who believed their computer network wais an integral part of the success of their company. He could help these companies with business solutions to make their technology more efficient and their employees more productive. We had pinpointed his business philosophy.

Business Philosophy: Your computer network is a critical component to the growth and success of your business.

Anyone who fit the right demographic criteria, had the same values, and the same business philosophy would be an ideal client for him. Anyone else would be a waste of time and would not value his services....even if they fit the right demographic profile.

He understood that the customers who didn't value his services also didn't share the same business philosophy. They did not want to explore how they could use their existing computer network to increase their productivity, communications and profitability of their company.

Think about your property right now. What must someone believe in order to understand the value of what you offer? If your business philosophy is that a traveler should be pampered and be able to relax in a serene environment then you probably offer a spa facility at your property. Only people who share that same philosophy about travel and who value these amenities will be your ideal customer.

Step Four: Determine the demographics and psychographics of your target market.

As you can see the first three steps are all about YOU...not your customer. You determine your mission, your values and your business philosophy. Then identify the demographics and psychographics of your target market. When you add up all these steps the perfect customer is someone who appreciates and can identify with your mission, your values and your business philosophy and also has the demographics and psychographics you have profiled.

If you skip steps one, two and three, you will definitely be talking to many people who do not appreciate or value what your property offers. Most businesses have it backwards. They identify a group they want to go after and then try and figure out what that group wants by continually offering new products and services. If the group you are trying to reach is NOT in alignment with your company mission, values or business philosophy you will have a hard time getting loyalty from that group. You will have to continually keep trying new promotions and offers to keep their interest.

Once you have clearly defined your ideal target market using this alignment process, finding qualified prospects becomes easier. The only way to actually find out who is in alignment with your company is through your communication.

If your communication is through print, you must use marketing strategies that are targeted to people who fit the demographic and psychographic profile you outlined. The vehicle might be advertising, marketing brochures, a website, an e-mail campaign, or direct mail. The weeding out and qualifying process is demonstrated in your copy. Somewhere in your marketing piece you should weave in your company mission, values and business philosophy besides outlining the benefits of what you offer. The correct, targeted copy will appeal to people who fit the profile of your ideal customer and who have a need for your products and services.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak about the alignment process in front of a management team at a very large, upscale hotel property in Florida. I pointed out that their website, although very professional looking used the words - "whimsical, enchanting and magical" to describe their property. When I arrived at the property there was nothing whimsical, magical or enchanting about the property atmosphere or d'ecor. The property was extremely lovely and the service was exceptional - the words whimsical and enchanting didn't do the property the justice it deserved. Words and pictures are the only tool you have to communicate who you are and who you want to serve. This property was missing out on a big marketing opportunity by using words that didn't properly communicate to their ideal target market.

There is no need to spend time and money marketing to the wrong people. Once you go through the alignment process, and apply it to all of your sales and marketing efforts you will find it is much easier to attract your ideal customer to your doorstep.

Debbie Bermont is president of Source Communications, a marketing consulting firm, and author of Outrageous Business Growth- The Fast Track To Explosive Sales In Any Economy. Debbie is a leading expert on helping businesses reduce their marketing costs and accelerating their sales growth. Ms. Bermont can be contacted at 619-291-6951 or Debbie@outrageousbusinessgrowth.com Extended Bio...

HotelExecutive.com retains the copyright to the articles published in the Hotel Business Review. Articles cannot be republished without prior written consent by HotelExecutive.com.