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Are Your Customers Cats or Dogs?

Written by: Greg Chapman

Article Overview: Many businesses poorly match their services with with their clients resulting in frustration on both sides. By understanding the place your product sits in the marketplave and being able to segment the market appropriately your sales will soar.

Are Your Customers Cats or Dogs?

Our dog is not particularly active, suffering as he does from a touch of arthritis, but he loves his food. If you give him fillet steak, or just plain dog food from the can, he eats it with equal gusto. He will eat what our cat doesn't finish from her bowl. In fact if she throws any of it up, he will eat that too. He is just not that fussy. In fact the only thing we have found he won't eat is brussels sprouts. (I can't say that I can blame him.)

Our cat on the other hand is quite fussy. She is rather partial to mince tenderloin- and won't eat cheap cat food. It has to be the type of food you get from those small containers which are twice the cost of the larger cheap brands. If you put out something she regards as inferior, she will leave it... for our dog. She would never go near the dog's bowl.

So what are your customers like? Are they cats or dogs? Are they only interested in the premium cuts, or couldn't tell the difference between tenderloin and reprocessed meat.

The problem many business owners create for themselves is trying to sell a service that only felines will appreciate and pay for to their canine clients and then are upset when they focus on price. There is nothing wrong with having canines as clients, but they will not appreciate and pay for tenderloin.

If you have canine clients (and there are a lot more of them than the felines) make sure that your service is designed to meet their needs rather than your ego. This is the biggest mistake made by many business owners who want to provide what they believe the market should want rather than what the market actually wants and values.

You can of course have both feline and canine clients but make sure the message you present to each does not confuse. Your feline clients expect to be treated differently from your canine clients and would be upset if they were not valued more highly. Your canine clients, on the otherhand, don't care.

Consider your favorite airline. Does it treat its first class passengers the same as the ones in coach? Regular coach travellers would never pay for first class although would be happy to receive an upgrade they didn't pay for.

When you understand if your clients are dogs or cats, you will know what food they will appreciate and pay for and be able to keep them happy and faithful for many years.

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Article Tags: Customer Segmentation, Marketing Strategy



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