conwy.co

across the board, campaigns targeting new customers outperform campaigns targeting existing customers. In terms of the average number of business effects reported, the former are three times as effective as those targeting existing customers

This contrasts with the Silicon Valley concept of “1,000 true fans”.

However maybe the above advice is true specifically for Valley-style early-stage high-growth startups, which need to prioritise growth over all else. Early on, they want to achieve any customers at all. At that stage of the business lifecycle, a small number of passionate fans that are key. The early PC era's small fanatic hobbyist fan-base was probably a good example.

These product-based category definitions can blind managers to their true competitors and prevent them from understanding how customers actually buy.

Amazing how much all-too-human biases can affect supposedly rational business decision-making. Here, user experience / customer experience and user research can be key. We need to understand things from the customers' point of view, in order to market properly to them.

The duplication of purchase law can be used to find partitions and, therefore, to understand the structure of a market. The law can provide a consumer-buying based guide to define the product category . This can be extremely useful, if only to reduce the debates between managers about category definition. Importantly , it can help prevent the blinkered, production-oriented vision that comes from category definitions based on product features or production processes. These are rife, and are typically too narrow. For example, the chocolate market can be divided into dozens of sub-markets – block, bars, pieces, individually wrapped, candy coated, chocolate coated candy , and so on. These product-based category definitions can blind managers to their true competitors and prevent them from understanding how customers actually buy.

This is a fascinating example of how being "too close" to product can actually harm business. Also a case for bringing in outside perspectives, especially customers via user experience / customer experience research.

In general, perceptual maps often suggest more market segmentation than really exists (Sharp 1997b). This is partly due to the underlying statistical methods, which are designed to highlight differences; these methods are also sensitive to outliers in the data set.

Lies, damned lies and statistics!

But maybe a more perceptive approach is is: understand statistics well and ensure you apply the correct statistical methods to the specific field you're studying. Qualitative understanding is an important foundation for quantitative measurement.

Decades of testing preferences and quality cues has taught us that when a single cue is introduced into a study respondents react strongly to it. This is probably because subjects feel they are supposed to react to the cue.

Interesting. Maybe similar idea to "System 2" (Thinking Fast and Slow) and "Authority" and "Commitment and Consistency" in Influence. This demonstrates how important it is to understand the methods by which a finding was reached and not just trust the stated outcome. One can see also how political agendas can impact advertising and branding – perhaps this explains the "woke" politics infiltrating marketing of Gilette and Nike in the early 2020s.

First, it's hard to get people to change their habits.

One way to generate startup ideas: look at common habits among people generally or a specific demographic and see if there’s a business opportunity there.

Another thought: as an investor, perhaps this makes a case for buying and holding "consumer staple" and similar stocks, which are perennial, having as part of their business moat peoples' natural habits.

There are two criteria that make some branding assets worth more than others. These two criteria are:

• fame - how many people associate the brand with that asset

• uniqueness - of those people how many only associate that brand with the asset

Again, principles from Influence apply: linking of celebrities to products is another way advertisers cash in on the association principle.

To build strong, distinctive elements the brand must be consistently communicated to consumers across all media and over time.

And the consistency emphasis has been too much on the brand's message and positioning, rather than to the visual, verbal or style of branding elements.

Highlights how interdisciplinary marketing and advertising should probably be. Branding could benefit from integration into product, engineering, design and more.