Marketing Around Products or Customers

I just finished speaking at the sold-out Web Content 2008 conference in Chicago where quite a few questions revolved around organizing content (and thus businesses) around product groups vs. customer groups/segments.

Here are some key takeaways.

What do you mean? Product groups versus customer groups?

Motorola is a good example of an organization that is in the process of switching to a focus on customer segments versus product groups. A few years back, everything on Motorola’s b2b side was set up with the product being the center of the strategy.  Customers were targeted by what product they purchased, or what Motorola "thought" they would purchase. The sales force was set up by the products they sold.

What happened?  By focusing on products, Motorola didn’t have a good grasp on customer needs. The sales force was pushing product, and not listening to the informational needs and challenges of its customers. It happens in every industry, and is natural for salespeople to do when organized in such a way.

Take the Razr – I sat in on a presentation by Motorola’s consumer-side CMO at the Association of National Advertisers meeting a few years back.  At that time, the Razr was the hottest thing going.  He talked about innovation and design and the "big idea" of the Razr.

Motorola focused on the product and not the needs of the customer. Over the next few years, the "idea" of the Razr became old and customer needs went in a different direction.  Motorola is still trying to catch up on the consumer side.

By focusing on customer groupings or segments, everything the company does must follow the needs of the customer. Constant research and "talking" with customers must happen in order for processes to work. "Listening posts" are set up and the Internet is used first and foremost as a research and learning tool (via social networks, blogs, forums, etc.). The sales force is set up by different "types" of customers or buyer persona. It’s a solutions mindset vs. a product mindset. Listen to the customer, listen again, and look at what you can offer or create out of your portfolio of products and assets to solve the problem. Then listen some more. This is the service mindset – and where most of the leading brands are going.

What happens in the content marketing process if our strategy revolves around our products and not our customers?

It’s challenging for a company centered around their products to create relevant and valuable content. Why? Since the product is the center of their universe, the information coming from the business always revolves around the product. It becomes difficult to keep product and sales messaging out of educational information.  Spin is everywhere. Even customer research, that may have the best intentions, is manipulated in the marketing process in order to "position" the product – instead of using that information to solve customer needs and challenges.

It’s a fine line, and not an easy process, but the mindset of a product-run organization limits how much you can truly get involved in the customers’ lives.

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Hats off to Michael Silverman of Duo Consulting and Scott Abel from The Content Wrangler for holding an outstanding conference.  Truly enjoyed it. First-class audience.

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