Who is your customer?  A common question to ask but possibly the wrong question… according to Roy Williams in his latest Monday Morning Memo.  I would recommend subscribing to it as he brings great insights to get your week started right.  In the latest one (today), he discusses the possible misconception of marketers attempting to pinpoint the exact average or perfect customer.  He discusses the strength in proper wording of such introspective questions and the value that may be garnered by reworking them.  Roy gives a great quote regarding these issues from Dr. Neil Postman:

Dr. Neil Postman, the celebrated Chair of the Department of Culture and Communications at New York University, has this to say about it:  “We must keep in mind the story of the statistician who drowned while trying to wade across a river with an average depth of four feet. That is to say, in a culture that reveres statistics, we can never be sure what sort of nonsense will lodge in people’s heads… A question, even of the simplest kind, is not, and never can be unbiased. The structure of any question is as devoid of neutrality as its content. The form of a question may ease our way or pose obstacles. Or, when even slightly altered, it may generate antithetical answers, as in the case of the two priests who, being unsure if it was permissible to smoke and pray at the same time, wrote to the Pope for a definitive answer. One priest phrased the question ‘Is it permissible to smoke while praying?’ and was told it is not, since prayer should be the focus of one’s whole attention; the other priest asked if it is permissible to pray while smoking and was told that it is, since it is always permissible to pray.”

Roy concludes by discussing an alternative to the typical “who is your customer?” question: Why does my customer buy my product? What does it do for him or her? He states:

Create your marketing plan around the question, “Who is my customer?” and you’ll soon bump your head against a very low ceiling. The true profiles of “your customer” are like the characters in a Fellini movie; an unimaginable circus of people with conflicted personalities and unconscious buying motives.

Proponents of hyper-targeting are quick to say, “You’re using the shotgun approach. I believe in putting the customer in the crosshairs of a rifle.”

But we’re not hunting just one customer, are we? Hyper-targeters believe in fishing with a hook. But for best results, I suggest you find a net.

If you want to grow your business, don’t target age, sex, income or education. Target according to buying motives. The question isn’t, “Who is my customer?” but rather, “Why does my customer buy my product? What does it do for him or her?” The answers to these questions will tell you exactly what to write in your ads.

Congratulations. You found your net.

Thanks for the thought Roy… What do you think?  Is this strategy too unfocused?  or is it focused on the right areas?