As a marketing consultant, I watch with interest as a growing number of companies around the world in a variety of different industries have opted to become market-driven a.k.a., end-user focused, customer-centric, etc.)

In post-Communist Russia...
...Successful business managers in the new economy recognize the importance of trying to please their customers. A March, 1999 Financial Times article quotes the head of product design for a successful jeans manufacturer, "Before our boss was the state. Now we have a new boss -- the market. We choose styles and designs, but the risks have also increased. If we work (choose) badly, we earn bad wages."

Pretty simple, pretty direct!

American industrial distributors...
...are continually being advised to listen to their customers. In a May, 1999 article in Industrial Distribution a recent chairman of the National Association of Wholesalers-Distributors states, "distributors need to stop being product-driven and become customer-driven. We need to target customer segments better to retain them . . . and increase value-added." Sounds like good advice, especially in these days of disintermediation.

In Silicon Valley...
...Marc Andreessen, founder of Loudcloud, a new technology service provider, and ex-Netscape wunderkind, deflects competitors' skepticism by admonishing them to "focus on their customers and not on their computers."
(Business Week, Nov. 8, 1999.)

Why the Change?

Someone famous once said, "Change occurs only when the pain of changing is less than the pain of staying in the present state." And this pain is a function of time and circumstances.

In Russia, for example, it is easy to see that the strategies for success that worked well in the past, would not work so well in the new free-market economy driven by independent customer choices, decisions, and purchases.

The result of continuing to use those dated strategies would have been more painful for the company (eventually going out of business) then the result of trying a new way to run the company.

In a lot of industries, the new digital era of technology is driving the change and compressing the time companies have for getting in touch with, and understanding, their customers. In fact, it is oftentimes the company's decision to create a Web presence that quickly highlights the extent of the customer understanding -- or lack thereof. "At a lot of companies the Web just provides a more effective conduit for demonstrating that you don't know anything about your customers," says Steven Pratt, a Deloitte Consulting partner in a recent Industry Week article.

The company facing the largest risk is the one whose customers are better understood by the competitors than by the company itself. In the pre-internet economy, a company could profitably exist for some time operating with strategies that weren't end-user driven. However, in today's digital world with a thirty minute HTML update of text, your competitors are telling the world (and your customers) why their products and services deliver the best value for the money.

So, How Well do You Know Your Customers?

Don't assume you know your end-users' want and needs. Ask them directly. Then decide if your company's Year 2000 sales and business plans focus in on satisfying those needs? If so, have a Happy New Year. If not, let's talk about how to make that happen . . a year from now you'll be glad you called.

Remember, Mosaic creates customers and increases sales for business-to-business companies through specific project work, on-going retainer assignments or marketing coaching sessions.

Until next time.....

Rosemary Walter
847-483-5018
Rose1Walter@MosaicMM.com

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© 1999 Rosemary Walter, all rights reserved. You are free to use material from Mosaic's Monthly Marketing Tips in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including a live website link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

"By Rosemary Walter of Mosaic Marketing Management, Inc. Please visit Rosemary's web site at http://www.MosaicMM.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for business to business companies."