Do you know who your customers are? Do you know what they think about your brand?

Or do you just THINK you know how they perceive your brand?

The trouble is most businesses big or small tend to drink their own kool-aid and believe their brand may be a value-driven brand or a premium brand or whatever position they believe they own in the market, only to discover that their customers perceive something entirely different about their brand.

Most companies don’t make the effort to ask their customers what they think, and to their detriment, sales numbers are often lackluster because they are bombarding prospects with marketing messaging that may tout ‘we are a proven brand, we are the safe choice’ when they haven’t had any success stories. Others may market their products as durable and high quality, only to have the product break within the first year or purchase.

Great marketing only works with you are telling the real story.

Are your products cheaply-priced and work just about half as well as a more premium competitor? They maybe your marketing position is exactly that - 'we make the perfect lower-priced substitute for product A’.

Do you recall the old Buckley’s commercials that really helped to secure the brand as an effective medicine for treating coughs? The slogan was “It tastes awful, but it works." Tell it like it is, and the market will concur. We are constantly bombarded by so much marketing nowadays that if you fail to tell a real and authentic story, prospects will see right through it and pass right by your brand.

When you are planning your marketing strategy, it doesn’t matter what you think about your brand, it matters how and what your customers define your brand in their minds. Only by understanding how they are comparing you against your competitors and what position you own in the market in their minds are you able to effectively market your products and services.

Why is this the more effective way you ask? Because it’s a lot harder to change a person’s mind about what your brand is, and a lot easier to work with what they already believe in their minds. Consider the following example.

A customer visits Company A when they want to buy minimalist, decent decorations for a reasonable price - they believe that Company A is a value-driven brand when it comes to furnishing their home. The same customer goes to Company B when they want to spend a little bit more on furniture, for pieces they will need to interact with in the home — let’s say they want to spend more on a sofa or a bed or an armchair they would curl up on to read their favourite book, they believe Company B is a premium, durable quality brand and are willing to pay more for it.

In the above scenario, although both brands sell furniture, the customer visits the two brands for different reasons and buys different products at these two brands because of their perception of the level of quality and value they get out of the brand. In this current moment, if someone tried to change the mind of the customer to perceive Company A as offering high quality, durable products, it would be a tough sell, same if they wanted to convince the customer that Company B is a low-priced brand.

The customer believes what they believe, and it’s much easier to discover that ‘oh, the customer thinks we are a value-driven brand, we could own this position in the market’ versus ‘oh, we want to change what the customer thinks of our brand and become a premium brand’ (just imagine how many steps and leaps you have to take before you successfully rebrand the company!)

Work with what you have, which is the position your brand owns in the customers’ minds.

HOW DO I FIND OUT WHAT MY CUSTOMERS THINK?

1. Ask them.

2. Observe them.

3. Test what they are willing to pay for.

Asking them would be the fastest and easiest way to find out some baseline information about what customers think about your product, although for anyone who has conducted a market research focus group, we know how these sessions can be so fragile and easily tempered with when we have one dominant personality in the focus group. The other issue is that most people don’t tell you what they really think, they tell you what they feel is socially acceptable and what you want to hear.

So, what’s the next step to get a more accurate answer?

Go observe them in their environment. Spend an hour or even 15 minutes in your competitor’s store, we guarantee you will find out much more in that 15 minutes than spending time reading a competitive analysis report from your team. Go see how YOUR customers are interacting with your competitor’s products and the store environment. You will definitely learn a thing or two.

Finally, the real test is putting your research and observations to the test and making the tweaks to your product and service to see if your customers are willing to pay for it. Only when customers are willing to pay for it, and there is money in the bank, is when it means your marketing is effective; only then is when it means you have found a market position that resonates with your target audience.