Do you want a new car?

Just imagine if you received this sales call. "We have just the car for you. Its got all the features you want and its in your style and colour". You'd be a little sceptical and would ask "How are you so sure?". I am certain that you'd then be amazed to hear the caller reply. "Well you're the same as everyone else you want the same as everyone else don't you?"

In a word, "No". If ever there was a policy sure to fail; its to treat your customers as if they are identical. They are not. But many businesses do just that, sometimes unwittingly, read on and see what I mean.

It was all so different 100 years ago.

The Ford Motor company became famous, and fabulously wealthy, because of a simple policy. Their product, the Model T, was totally standard, manufactured in high volume and at low cost. There was no real choice - you could have "any color; as long as it's black". It was a classic case of one size fits all. This was great for Ford, they didn't have to worry about customisation, they ordered in high quantities and they made lots of money.

The fortunes of the Ford Motor company have waxed and wained since that time, and they have moved away from their original one product policy - Why? One word supplies the answer - competition. Competitors came along and offered alternatives and choice. As consumers, we are all different, and when we are given a choice we express our individuality by making different selections.

The world is now full of a bewildering varieties of almost very product, there is rarely one choice of anything. Even the Bible is available in variety of versions.

You might think I am telling you nothing new, and yet some of the the lessons have still not been learned.

Just imagine, for example, that you are trapped in the queue at your local bank (heaven forbid - there's a situation I'd like to chose to avoid) and you look around you. You might find yourself next to one of those displays that holds all the flyers about the different services a bank offers nowadays. You know the sort of thing, loans, mortgages, insurance, new accounts, high interest accounts etc... Now reach out and pick out the ones that interest you.

Look at what you have in your hand. A selection, only the flyers that interest you today. Something about these particular offers, or the look of the flyers, appealed to you. They were designed to do just that. Some of them you like, others you'll reject. You picked some up because you are the target market. The person next to you would select different flyers and next month even your own choices might have changed as your priorities change.

"So what"? I hear you ask, "Who cares"? The banks care.

You see if they were like the old Ford they wouldn't bother with all these little flyers, it would be easier to print one big brochure with everything in it - something for everyone. And here's a question - would you have picked it up a big brochure, that appealed to everyone? I doubt it. You are not everyone, and its virtually impossible to design a piece of marketing that appeals to everyone. It would be bland, and boring and uninviting to everyone.

The plain fact is, when it comes to marketing, one size does not suit all --- it suits no-one at all.

So how does this relate to you and your business? Well... think. Do your customers all look the same? Do they all have the same reason to buy from you? If they don't then you need find more than one way to attract them. That means your brochures, adverts, events, sponsorships, websites, etc. need to reflect the different desires of your customers. Each important group needs to be represented and usually you'll find they cannot be mixed in one advert or brochure. Producing a general brochure/advert/event/website just won't work. Different markets need different messages.

So pick up your brochure, or look at your website. How do they set our attract your different markets? Or do they? Do they fall make the common mistake of merely listing your target market groups by saying something like....

"xxxxxxxxxx is the perfect solution for Lawyers, Newsagents and Caravan Owners"

It could be that you have a great product that is perfect for Lawyers, Newsagents and Caravan Owners. But their reasons for buying your product will be different and you need to explain those reasons to them - individually. And you are unlikely to find a single venue or activity or publication that's attractive to Lawyers, Newsagents and Caravan Owners so where to do put your brochures?

Maybe you need to create a group of brochures and not one large one, or a second website or two different ads. It may cost a little bit more, but not that much.

In fact if you don't separate your marketing in this way it it will cost you more, because you'll just be wasting your marketing money.

After all men are from Mars and women from Venus - your marketing needs to be on the same as planet as your customers.

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