Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

You can have the best product or idea since in-door plumbing…but if your target market doesn’t see you as different (and different enough), to not only get their attention but their loyalty - you’ll fail. Here’s some data to keep in mind - from the Quality Institute International Inc. - More than 40% of customers who claimed to be satisfied switched suppliers without looking back. 89% of people who owned cars from a certain manufacturer said they were very satisfied and 65% said they intended to buy another car from that manufacturer. But fewer than 20% did so. And, whatever you do to differentiate - even if you’re successful, it’ll have to change over time. Nordstrom, the king of service, learned this in the late 1990s. As Bill Nordstrom publicly stated, “We have not been able to keep up with the changing needs of the customer.”