Knowing your Customer

A customer is treated as the center of the market, some may consider the customer to be a God (Bhagavan). However, a customer is none other than a person whose need has been discovered or uncovered. Need is nothing but a feeling which already exists in every person. A person becomes your customer once you as a marketer can uncover the person’s needs. The question arises how do you uncover a customer’s needs because it is difficult to understand his needs which can be uncovered. Here a good marketer will observe the customer’s pattern of spending, purchasing power, lifestyle, etc. But a great marketer not only considers the above points but also understands how to shift the customer’s interests. A good marketer plays the odds but a great marketer plays the man. Hence, the greatest marketing strategies don’t showcase the particulars of their product rather they showcase a story wherein their product is the star. Most great marketers have one saying in common “Don’t play the odds, play the man”.

A customer is a person who doesn’t understand some of his needs himself. He showcases these needs through his subconscious behavior. E.g., A person wants to purchase a mac book even though he has a great laptop. Here the person is not trying to buy a mac book rather he is trying to buy attention from others and he believes buying a mac book is equal to buying attention. A great marketer identifies his need for attention and deviates the conversation and customer’s attention from a mac book to some other product that buys attention like Swiss watches, Italian suits, French perfumes, etc.

This kind of marketing can only happen if the marketer can identify a person’s hidden needs and can read sub-conscious behavior. Generally, a great customer can never be a great marketer as an expense from a customer is profit to the marketer the and marketer will always think of generating revenue over expenditure. Additionally, a great marketer is also a great negotiator and this, clearly makes him a poor customer.

In India, customers are price centric instead of being quality-centric which has increased competition in the market resulting in new marketing strategies and techniques being introduced. And these new techniques will further drive customers towards emptying their own pockets.