Originally published in Kochie’s Business Builders July 28, 2015, 1:50 pm by Luke Faccini 

Three easy steps to identify which customers to focus on.

Who are your juicy red customers?

In most businesses there are customers who buy your most profitable product or service repeatedly and over a long time span. These are your juicy red customers, because like ripe fruit, they hold the sweetest juice for your business and they’re beneficial in more ways than just profit.

These customers are your raving fans, meaning they actively generate new business for you. They cost you less to acquire as you aren’t continually replacing them, and with the right customer experience strategy, require minimal resources to keep.

On the flip side, many business have customers who are far less profitable or cost the business money. This can be the result of costly acquisition; one time purchase; buying products or services that are your least profitable, or cost more to deliver, implement, or support; are draining on resources; or simply do not align with your brand values.

Juicy red customers include those who want to connect to a brand with a purpose they can align with, or values they share. This kind of emotional connection enables a business to command its own price (we will cover this in detail in a future post), and leave the competition to battle it out over price.

Think about Apple and the iPhone. Their market share in the mobile world is at 19 per cent. Yet that 19 per cent represented 89 per cent of the profitability of the entire industry. There is no haggling over the price of an iPhone!

Defining your juicy red customers will enable you to know exactly “who” you need to be addressing in your marketing, giving you context for your content. It gives you and your marketing team a means of evaluating all your communications and campaigns. So here’s how to define them: Thinking like Apple, you need to approach this with a willingness to upset the 81 per cent of the market which is not profitable. In a simple waterfall chart like this example below, follow the three steps.

Step one: On the horizontal axis list out all your revenue generating activities (products/services), or use numbers to identify each like in the example.

Step two: Chart the profit for each as a percentage or a dollar amount on the vertical axis. Be honest and use profit as the indicator, not revenue.

Step three: Circle those revenue generating activities that are most profitable AND truly align with your purpose.

The customers who purchase these products and align with your purpose are your juicy red customers. This is where your marketing needs to focus as this is what your business needs more of. Imagine replacing those that aren’t, with these juicy red customers. How sweet would your business life be?

Do this three step exercise now, it doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be done.

Once you have brought your focus to these customers, pay attention to the interactions you have with them as it will be helpful for next week’s instalment where we will be focusing on buying motivations and how to leverage those for your marketing.

That’s all for this week. If you want to know more, we have a 4 Point Targeting Checklist which you can download for free. It will give you a bit more insight into the grand scheme of precision marketing.

Luke Faccini is the Director of Creativity at The Sponge, a Sydney based branding and marketing firm that assists businesses worldwide realign their branding for growth and profitability.

Apple pics: We Heart It

Originally published in Kochie’s Business Builders

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I am Luke Faccini, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Sponge, a branding firm in Sydney Australia.

I work with entrepreneurial minded business people across the globe to develop Story Rich Branding that is strategically designed to resonate in the hearts and minds of your ideal customers. Why? To make it easier for your business to succeed.

To find out what drives me, take a look at this post where I bare my soul and share my true purpose. If you would like your brand to tell a richer story, I would love to talk to you. +612 8586 0001 or info@thesponge.com.au
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Teaching my heart out…

Want to get more from your brand? I am hosting a free webinar on Thursday where you will learn how to Target, Storytell and Captivate like a megabrand. Here is the link: Free Online Workshop