The #1 Skill Set That Can Make You More Valuable To Any Company - Steve Blacker

Whether you are a media seller buyer or creator the current business model is changing on a daily basis Those that try to survive or prosper using today39s or worse yet last year39s methods are an endangered species Aside from innovation and knowing how to creatively bring together new concepts one must understand the consumer far better than ever before The consumer is driving changeMarketers may try to identify markets and sell new services to people but the consumer is now totally in control Most consumer data that currently exists are demographics but that39s no longer enough Nor is sophisticated modeling which tells you which part of your marketing budget workedWhat39s needed is understanding why things happen in the market place A consumer behavior skill set will become a critical asset for any media or marketing executive Just knowing your area of expertise ie print TV digital marketing etc will not be enough While there are numerous studies that measure various media from TV and outdoor to web sites no one syndicated study accurately measures how and why today39s time pressured consumer selects his daily media choices What determines which web sites a person visits Or what TV shows they watch and how And even more importantly why they buy one brand of tooth paste versus another Is it habit price the packaging a friend39s recommendation the taste etcConsumer behavior drives media interaction and the purchase of any product or service If someone has an interest in music food fashion travel or politics being a smart consumer whatever that can determine many of their buying decisions Media companies and marketers tend to focus mainly on demographic profiles This only tells you who your market is it does not tell you how to attract more of them Or why you may be losing market shareTo acquire consumer behavior expertise you need to personally conduct your own brand audit Rather than utilize a costly branding company which often times asks the wrong questions and relies on a few focus groups consider initiating your own brand audit using Survey Monkey which has little or no cost Take three different groups to surveycustomers you have customers you have lost and customers you wish to attract Find out their favorite web sites magazines TV shows activities and major interests The interests you measure could range from how important it is for them to become smarter healthier wealthier a trend setter etc What39s importance is to measure those attributes and characteristics that are most essential to your brandTake enough time to make sure you select both the right and key characteristics to measure You should ask others in your company for their opinions too The results will help you create a meaningful and actionable profile of consumer behavior as it relates to and impacts your brandBy asking the right questions you can better understand what drives consumption of any product or service First you need to find out what key brand attributes are most important This can be done by listing different variables For a soft drink it might be taste price nutritional value mixability status packaging other etc The attributes could be easily rated on a 15 scale with 5 being extremely important 4 important 3 somewhat important 2 very little importance and 1 being not important at allBy finding out what attributes are most important to your target prospects who don39t buy your product or service you can be better able to market more effectively to them For those who have stopped buying your brand and switched to another it39s important to find out why Again a series of possible reasons can be listed for check off such as price my friends and family members my taste changed just wanted to try something new etcFor a TV show web site or magazine the same approach is easy to applyFirst you need to fully understand why people regularly read or watch your programing or content versus your competition What brand attributes are the key drivers and how important are they on a 15 scale Verbatims open ended questions become highly valuable such asHow would you describe this program or magazine to someone who has never seen it before What one thing would you change to make it more interesting or valuable to you What do you like least If it disappeared what would you replace it withBy better understanding consumer behavior one is better armed to market any product or service Whether a content producer or marketing or sales executive the more you know about why someone buys or does not buy your product or service the more marketable and valuable you become With more choices than ever before facing consumers the ability to create new strategies based upon known consumer behavior will become a heavily demanded skill setSteve39s most recent book You Can39t Fall Off The Floor The Insiders39 Guide to ReInventing Yourself and Your Career chronicles his 50 year career working for over 25 different companies with 189 lessons learned and insider tips from Gayle King Cathie Black Chuck Townsend and 28 others Blacker is still going strong today as a partner in Frankfurt ampamp Blacker Solutions LLC His web site is blackerreinventionscom and email address is blackersolutionsaolcomRead all Steveamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Media ReinventionsCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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