diagram of round hole in floor and square object attempting to pass through

Square Pegs Do Not Fit In Round Holes

Strategy, The Dream Team

Have you ever played with one of those kids toys with the ball with different shaped holes? They have corresponding shaped pieces that you (or your kids….) need to match up in order to get the pieces inside the ball. 

When properly matched up, the shaped pieces will slide into the ball effortlessly. Have you ever seen a child struggle trying to put the star into the hexagon? They get frustrated and angry, they start bashing the ball with the star. It can get pretty out of hand. I think a parallel can be made regarding marketing.

Your business is the child. The ball is your customer base. The shaped pieces are your marketing and advertising efforts. This is how it works.

Your business more than likely targets more than one demographic segment. It may target one group, however that group has many segments. Each segment values different things with varying levels of importance. There will be different personality types. Some will look for information in different places. Some will listen to the radio, some read the newspaper, and others will be tuned into social media. This is a matter of putting your brand where you customers are looking. 

The next, and arguably most important piece is your messaging. This could be the images you use, the language you use, your offer, and your call to action. Even things like the colour of a button on a website have been shown to impact how likely your customers are to take the action you would like them to take. Finding the right formula requires testing and observation, especially early in your communication efforts. 

Try this if you have never thought about these things before. Break your customer base down into 6 segments. That part should be easy. In reality you will have a lot more. Start with dividing into female and male segments. Then break down age groups, 3 per gender. Now come up with ways that make each of these segments different from others. These should be things that you have observed, for example, marital status, whether or not they have children, the kinds of vehicles they drive, their values, and anything else that you can think of that makes each group unique. 

Now, brainstorm ways that you can speak to each of those segments in a way that’s meaningful to them. Your product or service doesn’t need to change, we simply may need to adjust how we’re presenting the information to the desired segment. 

I hope this made sense and that you got value by reading it. This is a much bigger subject than one blog post can solve. There are a lot of different ways to test and observe, and right ways and wrong ways to go about it. Feel free to reach out to me if you’d like to discuss it. 

Cheers,

Jeff