Ideas and Opinions from Donald Trump and TrumpU Faculty.
Know Your Customer, Create Your Success
I'd like to ask you a very basic question today:
When you become an entrepreneur, will you know who your customers are?
That's an interesting question, because there are so many ways to answer it. As an experiment, I asked our Executive Editor Barry Lenson to call three entrepreneurs and ask them that question. Here is what they told Barry:
Entrepreneur #1 answered, --Well, I know who my customers are, but I have never actually spoken to any of them.--
Entrepreneur #2 said, --I have spent a lot of money on focus groups that told me what my customers like, and don't like, about my products.--
Entrepreneur #3 replied, --My customers are mostly men between the ages of 22 and 25 with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000.--
Those are all valid answers. But they are pretty different. Each of them says something different about what it means to know your customers.
But since today is the day after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I'd like to position the question a bit differently:
How much do you know about the heritage, religious and racial backgrounds of your customers?
Even today, many business owners know nearly everything about their customers - except about their heritage, religion, ethnicity or race.
Why do you need this extra level of information about the people who buy your products or services? Let me mention just a few reasons that we cover in our course The Marketing Mastery Program.
Having this information:
- Allows you to market to your customers using highly targeted magazines, radio stations, television networks, Websites and other media. As a result, you get a much higher return on investment for your advertising dollars than you can get from --scattergun-- advertising that targets everyone.
- Lets you cultivate customers in highly affluent customer groups. African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latino-Americans, South Asian (Pacific Rim) Americans (and gay and lesbian Americans too, for that matter) are gaining economic clout at an accelerating rate. They are starting businesses, investing, buying homes, graduating from college and becoming wealthy at rates that outpace --traditional-- white Americans.
- Brings you greater customer loyalty and repeat business. Many marketing studies report that customer loyalty is disproportionately high in Afro-American, Asian-Americans and Hispanic-American communities. In other words, once you have won customers in these groups, they will remain loyal to you in the long run.
So the bottom line is, you have to dig deeper and really know your customers. To win a level of loyalty that will outpace your competitors, don't leave racial, ethnic or heritage considerations out of your marketing plan.
To learn more about marketing strategically and profitably, enroll in Trump University's Marketing Mastery Program. Classes are forming now.
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3 Comments
Another one is, dispite what anyone says...You've shown compassion in giving the Miss USA support and guidance... (rare in a seasoned business veteran) and while defending MISS U,gave through her to all of us who have felt or witnessed the pressure of being close to success and/or the vicious peering jealousy and comtempt of bullys just for being a natural winner that others wish to destroy {WHICH PEOPLE UNWITTINGLY SUPPORT THESE BULLYS BECAUSE THEY FEED THE WEAK POPULATIONS OWN LACK} "She knows her customer/ (you given those who need it or could not help an it's okay shake it off/all in a days work punch in the arm).Thank-you Sir. You've proven that good people do not have to be weak/wimps.
Bad things happen to good people and you didn't keep your name out of it which certainly commands my respect for the calibur of you and your family. Your daughter had to be proud to feel powerful enough to back up her powerful Dad with the truth, that..."She" has been bullying people long enough. Look at how "She" and her buddies treated a certain "Diva" for losing weight. And now the "Fat Bully" community is sensitive now? The "Nice" fat people are totally Not like that. They are our Mother Dears, Aunte' , Nanna and Grannies. They possess inner beauty and teach it.
Meanwhile I'm reading currently two of your books and have already read "The Art of the Deal" and "Think like a Billionaire".
Mr. Trump, you endured and worked around alot of CRAP during the time depicted in "The Art of the Deal". Your rich Daddy as people like to say...did not wither the storms for you. Any parent would advise. Anyway, you are an inspiration, a scholar, gentleman, and winner.
A GENTLEMAN WOULD STAND FOR A WOMAN IN DISTRESS AND YOU DID REGARDLESS WHAT ANYONE SAYS,which also speaks for what kind of woman is your backbone (one with integrity).
Too bad another great Gemini didn't have a* You to stand up for her...Marilyn Monroe. Beautiful people are discriminated against across every socioeconomic & ethnic board. People act like its okay ( usually FAT, UGLY OR GENERAL HATERS). Well it's NOT. Beauty is a GIFT from THE ALMIGHTY just as the gift of song. Beauty is art and poetry in motion. This is my stance on the matter...I was born on Marilyn's birthday...MARILYN WOULD BE PROUD OF YOU TOO. I would not wish what happened to her on a dog. She didn't have anyone to turn to, her beauty put her in powerful, vicious places...without anyone to show her empathy. They used her spit her out and disgraced her corpse.
I've also seen the critical comments about you on your own blog...see what people don't seem to realize is that it's all relevent. Why do people always seem to defend the person who started it??? Because they identify with the bully. They are living their dreams through the bully.
I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT I AM WITH THE HERO FAMILY...THE TRUMPS.
Knowing your customer is one thing but attracting them is another.
You may be find something interesting here
http://three-points-corner.com/2007/02/09/attract-your-customers.aspx
regards
gazzali
When we know what our customer values, marketing can show them how buying our product brings them the underlying value. Instead of spin or manipulation, this is actually motivation.
On a personal note, knowing what you value helps you make better decisions in every aspect of your life. Choosing close relationships and work relationships on compatible values helps to ensure you pull together instead of apart.
I believe the true measure of success is having what you value in your life. For some, that is money and material things, for some that is freedom, for some, it is a life full of friends and family. The point is that it isn't the same for everyone.