"The Buyer" ala HGTV
August 16, 2008
How many out there are fans of HGTV? I admit that I'm addicted. Even now, during the Olympics, I'm clicking back and forth from Michael Phelps' latest gold medal attempt, to "Design on a Dime," or "Design Star," at HGTV.
It's not merely that Tom and I are house hunting...we are... it's that HGTV is really interesting. And there is one thing said over and over on HGTV that hits home, when marketing to women, online or off. This word is used in almost every HGTV show..."buyers."
In the design shows, in the make-over shows, in the highlight shows (at kitchen and bath conferences), the one word that pops up most often is, "buyers." Everything is about "the buyers."
How often do you think about "the buyers" for your products and services? Are "the buyers" topmost in your thoughts when you are designing new products, or creating new services? Or, are you stuck in, "I need to expand, grow, multiply...so let's create new stuff"?
News reports all over TV and on the net are shouting gloom and doom because the economy is less than optimal. Everything, but everything!, costs so much more than we're used to paying, and it's spawning a lot of negative interest in how to do business. Cut-backs are popping up in all the major Fortune 500s. Small biz is taking the brunt, so they say, often cutting marketing or sales staff, or raising prices to offset the cost of shipping and handling.
Is that what you're doing? How do you think "they buyers" feel about that?
Here's the reality: women are the buyers, in most cases. If they don't buy it, they influence its purchase. When I say women you know I mean...females. That includes tweens.
How can you serve "the buyers" and still keep your business profitable, in a down economy? Well, it's not that hard. Your first realization is to accept the fact that you don't know your business, your products, your services, as well as we do. WE use them ... WE find ways to utilize them, in a totally different manner than you may even know. If your focus is on results, we can help.
On HGTV, everything is about the buyers. It's NOT about the homeowner...and how much he or she thinks the house is worth. It's about what the buyers will pay for the house. It's not about what the house...or the decorations...it's about the buyers. On HGTV, if you aren't working to please the buyers, you're running in place
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What do your buyers want? Find out how your buyers are using your products and services. Host contests...video contest are fun. Host interactive converstions. Create an open forum for feedback, and then reward the folks who are open and honest with you. Invite criticism... (have some rules, there... politeness should be required).
The buyers own you. The buyers can make you or break you. The buyers don't want you to go out of business...so, engage them in helping you stay in business. Watch some HGTV and see how they do it. Visit Ford Motor Company's media page and look at the way they're doing it: it's not about them, it's about the buyers.
At HGTV and at Ford, the buyers rule. Who rules at your office?
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