It may seem like the simplest thing: asking customers what is important to them and then delivering on that. But surprisingly, many companies don't do this. What's more, even if they already offer what the customers want, they don't focus on this in their marketing messages to potential and existing customers.
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Simple market research techniques can help you uncover your customers' true priorities, according to Jonathan Bein of Real Results Marketing in the recent MDM article, Price vs. Value: How Distributors Position Their Businesses. He notes that you'd think customers want everything – but there are features that are more important to them than others that could drive them to buy from you.
Market research can help you determine minimal requirements for the features that are most important to your customers, as well as the level at which you can differentiate through the feature, he says. The example he provided in the article: "Nearly all distributors boast about the number of products they carry. To be in a certain market segment may require 25,000 SKUs. In that segment, 30,000 SKUs could be enough that your customers truly can do one-stop shopping."
