Customer Profile

Everybody says that customer is God. And we should everything to please our customers. But you can only please your customers, if you understand what is the nature and the manner in which they come. So, let me share with you the profile of 4 types of customers that most brands come across. The first types of customers are Brand Champions. These are your customers, who will always say good things about you. They are your most valuable asset. Next are another bunch of customers who are called Walking Wounded. These are customers who buy your brand, are unhappy with it for whatever reason, maybe you promised something and you did not deliver it and hence they are walking wounded. At the first opportunity that they get an option, they are going to leave you. They are going to desert you. Third types of customers are those who are technically called Missing in Action. These are customers who bought your product, were unhappy with it, dissatisfied with it, the brand caused dissonance to them and therefore they decided to leave you and move on to another brand. And last are Terrorists. These are the guys, no matter what you do, are always going to speak bad things about your brand. Having understood that there are normally going to be 4 types of customers, then what should your spend strategy be? Simple. If you got 100 Marketing Dollars to spend, then this is the way I would recommend that you spend the money. Spend a disproportionately large amount on your Brand Champion. Make sure that they continue to be your brand champion. These are your most valuable asset. Next, shift your spend to Walking wounded. These are the guys who are still with you, but are unhappy. Spend money to understand, why they are unhappy. What are their pale points? And come out with a strategy to either reduce or eliminate those pale points. This will ensure that these customers will migrate from being Walking Wounded to becoming a Brand Champion. Third, the balance money, please try and spend on Missing in Action. These are the customers who have tried your brand and therefore are familiar with you. And for whatever reason you probably overpromised, under delivered, or any of these things could have happened, because of which they left you. Reach out to them. If you can come out with a solution and solve the problem, because of which they left you then chances are they are going to come back into your fold and over a period of time, become your Brand Champion. Bottom Line: Spend your money to make sure that Champions continue to remain your champions, walking wounded get migrated to the champion category or segment and Missing in Action come back to your fold and gradually move into the champion segment. That leaves us with terrorists. What should you do? Nothing. These are the guys, no matter what you do, are going to say bad things about you. Run you down. Ignore them. Bottom Line: The 4 types of customers that you have, your marketing spend, your desire, your perspective should be to make sure that the 3 categories – Champions, Walking Wounded, Missing In Action are not 3 segments but one big segment. And if all your customers become your brand champions, you know what is going to happen? You are going to be the most successful brand that ever graced Earth.