Celebrity Apprentice: Right Guard proves the buying process

Last week on the Celebrity Apprentice, the folks at Right Guard got asked a pointed question.  They first  instructed the celebrities that the Right Guard target market was young, sporty males and thus their advertisement needed to reflect that. One of the Celebrity Apprentice team members asked, “Should we market to the mom’s and wives who may actually be the ones who buy the deodorant?”  And like they should, Right Guard knew the answer.

That’s one of the things we drill in our local marketing workshops – the buying process. If you don’t understand how your customer comes to buy your product, how do you market to that customer?

So their answer was, “Mom’s and wives may buy our product but we’ve found the males in the house influence the decision”.

That goes directly to the effectiveness of your e-mails, your headlines, your blog posts and your in-store advertising. If you don’t know who your real customer is, what are building upon?

Imagine an entire campaign laid out in Woman’s Day Magazine, in Oprah Magazine and in People attempting to educate mom’s on the benefits of Right Guard for their sons. Do you then marry the message with the look? Do you take away the sporty, edgy feel and give it a more wholesome “good for you” quality? And are your contests then loaded up with “mom” prizes?

. . . Only then to find out that your repeat buys are next to nothing because the boys want the edgier, more heavily celebrity-weighted “Arm & Hammer” – the next time? Because in the end, the mom’s and wives want their men to actually wear the deodorant. “Good for you” or not, if they don’t wear it – they won’t rebuy it.

Don’t begin the process until you look deeply at your own customer. Ask yourself these questions:

1. How does my customer first hear of my existence?
2. What is my customer doing moments before they buy my product?
3. What is my customer buying? (In the case of Right Guard, the name of the scent? the look? the brand?”
4. What stops a similar person from becoming a customer?
5. Finally, what does my customer overcome to become my customer?

Have you figured out the buying process of your customer? How did you come to that conclusion?

And; if you’re interested in learning more about the buying process, check out our other buying process posts.