The Bicycle Shop Marketing Lesson
Once upon a time there was a shop that sold bicycles. The owner was asked who his ideal client was and he gleefully said:”We sell bicycles to anyone who is happy riding a bicycle!”
However, when he stopped to think about it, he realised it wasn’t totally true. He sold many different types of bicycles and had many different types of customers, and they all liked riding their bicycles! He realised it was time for a marketing lesson for he and his bicycle sales team.
There was the really fit person, who rode their bicycle for exercise and fitness. Lean and Lycra clad, they were out on the roads at daylight each morning, and their machines were the lightweight, road racing bikes.
Then, there were the commuters, who had a more sturdy bicycle with bigger tyres and more tread on the road, with a little rack, somewhere to lock up a helmet and a place to tie on a bag to carry their shoes to change into when they got to work. The seats on these bikes were more comfortable, and the people sat up a little more straight too.
The weekend bikers bought mountain bikes, a very sturdy, strong framed machine that could handle jumping over rocks and logs all weekend, had big knobby tyres for off road riding, big springs to absorb the shock of jumping and rough trail riding. And of course a great, comfortably padded seat.
The most fun of all were the BMX trick bikes, with their crazy teenage riders, doing tricks and pirouetting on the back, and sometimes front wheels – you couldn’t do that on any of the other machines.
Finally, there were the little kiddies bikes, the ‘first bikes’ and trikes that toddlers and tots got as Christmas and Birthday gifts, and rode around their back yards, and sometimes living rooms when Mum wasn’t aware! The kiddies didn’t buy the bikes, their mums and dads did, but it was the kiddies he needed to satisfy also.
He realised that his marketing lesson was going to be a little more extensive. He didn’t have just one customer, he had many totally different customers, and to sell each of these bicycles in his range and make his shop more profitable, he would have to get to know and understand every one of them, very well!
Each of his bicycles had an ideal purchaser, someone exactly suited to them. And each was very different. Formerly, he promoted himself as the best bicycle shop in Brisbane, but now he knew he’d have to do a lot better than that! Each of these special people, his ideal clients, deserved a special message from him, and deserved the time it took to get to know them properly, so he really could be the best bicycle shop in Brisbane for each of them, in their very own way!
What marketing lesson can we learn from this bicycle shop?
How many ‘bicycles’ do you sell in your product or service range?
And how many ideal clients have you identified and are marketing to?
If you, like Mr Bicycle Store owner, have a single mass marketing message, you are losing a huge amount of business to the shop up the road, which is just working on targeting the specific clients they want for exactly the solution they provide, with their particular product or service!
Target your Ideal Client
Every different product or service in your range has a different ideal client. For you to market effectively, you need to firstly understand and accept that, and then learn how to identify them and what they really need, to solve the problems they have when they go shopping for their solutions.
Fortunately it’s no longer a huge challenge to access this marketing lesson. The opportunity to educate yourself in how to target your ideal client is now available, both in online, self-paced form and facilitated workshops.
What is the benefit of this ‘marketing lesson’?
You get to understand and identify your ideal client so well, that you can reduce your marketing budget, and go precisely to where your clients are, to present the exact solution they need to the problem they want to solve. And you can learn to do that for every ideal client, for every product or service you provide!
Some people go shopping for the feel-good effect, but most go shopping for a solution to a problem they have. Your product or service is specifically designed to solve certain problems, and provide specific solutions to those problems for the people who are experiencing them.
Your challenge is to get your precise message, which is simply that you have the best solution to their problem, right in front of them! If you have been broadcasting to the four corners of the world about the features and benefits of your widget and not getting results, then perhaps there is your answer. They were not looking for that, nor were they looking in those four corners.
They were right here, looking for a solution to their problem.
Here endeth the marketing lesson.
Til next time, take time to enjoy the life you live.
Ray Jamieson