The question then becomes: If my customer doesn’t know what he wants, how can I?
The answer is, you can’t!
Not unless you know more about him than he does about himself.
Not unless you know his demographics and his psychographics.
Demographics and psychographics are the two essential pillars supporting a successful marketing program.
If you know who your customer is—demographics you can then determine why he buys—psychographics.
And having done so, you can then begin to construct a Prototype to satisfy his unconscious needs, but scientifically rather than arbitrarily.
Again, demographics is the science of marketplace reality. It tells you who buys.
Psychographics is the science of perceived marketplace reality. It tells you why certain demographic types buy for one reason while other demographic types buy for another.
Let me give you an example of how these sciences might be utilized in your Marketing Strategy.
Notice the shade of blue. I call it “IBM Blue.” Why? Because it’s IBM’s color. That’s why, I imagine, IBM is called “Big Blue” in the marketplace.
Why that specific shade of blue rather than another? Why blue at all?
Because that shade of blue has an extraordinarily high appeal and preference to IBM’s Central Demographic Model.
They see that shade of blue, and it’s love at first sight!
Ever heard the expression, “True Blue“? That’s what that particular color is: the color IBM’s Central Demographic Model consumer knows it can depend on.
What do you think would have happened had IBM chosen orange instead of blue?
Well, since orange is at the opposite end of the preferential spectrum for IBM’s consumer, the IBM success story may not have been so momentous. It’s hard to imagine “Big Orange” instead of “Big Blue.” I think IBM’s customer would have had trouble buying an orange computer!
Now, I know that sounds ridiculous, but you can test it if you like.
Remember the little test I suggested earlier, the one with the navy blue suit?
I’d like you to visualize someone wearing such a suit. Can you see him in your mind’s eye?
Deep navy blue, vents in the back, possibly a pin stripe. Sharply creased trousers. White starched shirt. A red and blue striped tie. Black, highly polished wing-tip shoes.
Now how do you feel about him?
- Does he look businesslike?
- Does he look like someone you can trust?
- Does he appear to represent something solid, reliable, dependable?
Of course he does.
Research shows that the navy suit is perhaps the most powerful suit a person can wear in business. Instant impact.
Now visualize the very same person you did before, but this time he’s not wearing a navy blue suit.
Now he’s wearing an orange suit.
That’s right, a two-piece orange suit!
An expensive one at that.
And with it, he’s wearing a white-on-white silk shirt and a green and white striped Italian silk tie.
And a silver belt buckle with his initials in green jade across its face.
And a diamond tie pin, two carats, glimmering out at you just above the top button of his vest.
And proudly peeking out of his finely creased orange pants, an incomparable pair of white lizard cowboy boots!
Can you see it?
Do you get the picture?
Well, you better take it fast because he’s out of business!
And what’s important to know is that the difference between the two men isn’t in them—it’s in your mind. Your Unconscious Mind.
What’s more, the difference is perceived instantly without a moment of thought.
The fact that you couldn’t conduct serious business
with the man in the orange suit but you could if he were wearing blue says that there is no such thing as reality. At least as we understand it.
Reality only exists in someone’s perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, conclusions—whatever you wish to call those positions of the mind from which all expectations arise—and nowhere else.
So the famous dictum that says, “Find a need and fill it,” is inaccurate.
It should say, “Find a perceived need and fill it.” Because if your customer doesn’t perceive he needs something, he doesn’t, even if he actually does. Get it?
Those perceptions are at the heart of your customer’s decision-making process.
And if you know his demographics, you can understand what those perceptions are, and then figure out what you must do to satisfy them and the expectations they produce.
You can know your customer’s psychographic reality. Each demographic model has a specific set of perceptions that are identifiable in advance.
Women of a certain age, with a certain amount of education, with a certain size family, living in a certain geography, buy for very specific psychographic reasons.
Those unconsciously held reasons will be different from another group of women, of a different age and marital status, with a different educational background, living in a different part of the country.
And these differences predetermine what each group buys.
Are you beginning to get a sense of the complexity of this business called marketing? I hope so.
