It's not personal: attention valued shoppers

"In these tough economic times"...blah blah blah. We have all heard it far too often. Some of us have even heard it so often we now blame any inability to adapt and grow our businesses (not just grow in earnings but also in brand strength) on this very statement. Now, this wouldn't bother me so much if people would just look past this most obvious answer (excuse) as to why their businesses are failing and see what else could be slowing business down.

As a business owner (and its marketer), when I see a large event like the 'recession' of 2009, I see an event that will change the mind-set and thus the spending habits of my current and potential customers. If spending habits change and you're just plain lucky (which rarely happens in business) then money will keep coming in. If not, then you're in trouble (which regularly happens in business) and something has to change, fast.

"This is all fine and dandy," you might be saying "but how does this help me?"  Well if you're running a lucky business (again, this doesn't happen that often) then your customer base just changes during a social shift and different people keep coming in, or calling for quotes, or whatever your customers do to make you money. But what if the social shift lands you with a totally different breed of customer, one that your business, or more importantly your brand, is not ready to market to? Different social groups need talking to in different ways with a focus on different aspects of your business. Keep telling your new customers your old marketing line and it may easily fall on deaf ears.

Take the example above and let's apply it to a real business, say a Michelin star restaurant. Now for many years the successful restaurant was known for its incredibly expensive food and year-long waiting lists then, suddenly, the credit starts a-crunching and the customers on that year-long waiting list start cancelling. This is disastrous for a high-end restaurant with high overheads and a business to keep afloat. During the crunch many restaurants were forced to close up shop still trying to reinforce the same old marketing message of high prices and decadence. The smart cookies, they started figuring out who their new customers were and what they wanted to hear. For the most part this often meant opening for lunch to generate more earnings from the leased location and at the same time offering a scaled-back or simplified menu with the same quality of service and ingredients but in a slightly less guilt-inducing price bracket. Not surprisingly, the new, more value-focused message reached the new customers and even convinced some of the now financially strapped clientele that a few nights out for dinner each month would have to replace their tropical holiday this year.

Having to reassess your marketing means stepping back from the daily issues of the business and seeing who your customers are and what they believe in. Some customer groups will believe in price, others quality, and others just plain brand image. Finding out whether what your business is saying means something to your customer group can mean the difference between effective marketing and a total waste of time and money and in this tough time I don't think anyone wants to be wasting money on anything unprofitable.

So if the dollars are coming in a little slower than usual, look a little deeper as to why your customers may not be hearing you. If the message isn't getting through, make sure you're saying the right thing and to the right people. The simplest answer might be to continue pushing the same message you always have and blame the economic downturn, but it probably won't help your business.

James Crow is the Auckland-based entrepreneur behind Pot of Gold skin balm. He blogs about life as a startup entrepreneur each week for Unlimited.