Ever wondered what a tomato has to do with your marketing strategy? I’m going to let you in on a little secret!
I want to talk to you about a real-life example of effective marketing that I came across when I went to the supermarket. Yes, Publix, the supermarket that I go to, they have a HUUUUGE marketing division, but they follow THE SAME BASIC PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING that any small business owner can follow.
That is, know who your ideal client is, address pain points, and understand the customer journey that takes them to conversion.
So… Have you ever heard my story about the tomato?
This story came up in a digital marketing class that I was teaching as I was talking about sales funnels and the customer journey.
There are THREE stages of the customer journey, this is the process that customers go through to make a decision to purchase a product or service. The three stages are:
Awareness
Consideration
Conversion
Now, think about the process you go through to purchase a tomato.
You know a tomato exists, so you don’t need to spend much time in the AWARENESS stage.
You typically know where to find a tomato in the supermarket, so you don’t spend much time in the CONSIDERATION stage.
Once you get to the store, you pick up the tomato, decide if it’s a good one, maybe look at the price and put it in your cart…. In total, it’s probably a 5-10 second decision.
The customer journey is VERY short for the tomato, so supermarkets know they don’t need to spend their marketing dollars educating you on tomatoes.
They spend marketing dollars to talk about the QUALITY of their products and their COMPETITIVE prices in general, this covers the longest part of that very short customer journey, the conversion stage.
So back to my story about my trip to the supermarket….
Publix identified that although their target audience knows most of what you can get at their store, they may not be aware that they offer pet medication at their pharmacy.
What are the pain points when it comes to pet medication:
You either have to order online and wait to receive it or pay a premium at the vet.
What did they do? They set up a large display for customers to see on their way out of the store saying that you can get your pet medication here while you’re doing your everyday shopping and had they also had small bifolds with the prices of common pet medications.
This approach to marketing was targeted towards the consideration aspect of the sales funnel.
Their audience already knows that pet medication exists, so they don’t have to spend much time in the awareness stage.
Therefore, they built a marketing effort around getting their existing customers to CONSIDER them for this purchase.
As a pet owner myself, I had never stopped to think that Publix offered this at their pharmacy, and I wasn’t actively looking for an alternative.
Publix identified this was the case for most of their shoppers and dove right into the consideration stage of the sales funnel.
They led their customers to CONVERSION by addressing the top two pain points that most pet owners face!
Guess who took a little bifold with them? Guess where I will be getting my pet medication next time? This girl.
Like I said, I wasn’t actively looking for an alternative, but they addressed my pain points and CONVERTED me because they understood my journey to that purchase and built their efforts around it.
The takeaway here is to consider your ideal client, consider their pain points and their customer journey as you’re developing YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY.
Are you looking for help with your marketing strategy? Have you considered a MARKETING ROADMAP and what that might do for your business?
