Level 8 · Part 1
Know your customer
Describe one main customer in detail. A message for everyone speaks to nobody.
Good marketing starts with a clear picture of who you are speaking to. It is easier to win a small group of customers well than to try to please everyone.
A simple customer profile
- Who are they? For example a family in a town, a school canteen, a small shop owner.
- What do they need, and what do they worry about when they buy this kind of product?
- Where do they buy now, and how do they decide?
- What would make them try something new, and what would stop them?
- How do they hear about products: from friends, at the market, on the phone, online, from a shop?
Learn by asking and watching
Talk to your customers, visit where they shop, and watch what they pick up and put down. Small, honest conversations tell you more than guesses. If you plan to run more detailed research, FAO guides on market research for small processors can help.
Exercise 8.1 · My customer profile
- Choose one main customer for your product.
- Answer the five questions above about them, using what you have heard from real people.
- Write one thing you do not know yet and how you will find out.
Background reading for this part:
- Agricultural and Food Marketing Management — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), I. M. Crawford, 1997
- Market Research for Agroprocessors (Marketing Extension Guide 3) — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Andrew W. Shepherd, 2003