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Recent experience from
America shows that these lifestyle categories are now themselves
too wide: a TWINK may be a keen gardener, a member of the
operatic society and an enthusiastic Liverpool supporter.
We have entered the age of the ‘chameleon consumer’.
The customer remains
a complex paradox, buying an Audi car from the best garage
in town, he or she then buys new tyres from a discount
warehouse. Buying a suit from Jaegar she will buy ‘blue
stripe’ tights from Tesco. Offering the family only
Birds Eye fish fingers, he will always buy the brand of
toilet roll on special offer.
It is no longer possible
to target an individual customer, but rather only a part
of that person. Increasingly manufacturers need to put
themselves in the shoes of their customers. Are their customers
relaxed at the point of sale, have they got time to read
the small print, or are they in a hurry, and so buy the
cheapest/the usual etc.? The new targeting challenge is
to accept that there are contradictions in an individual
and to target them appropriately.
As brands become more
and more difficult to differentiate, it is service that
is becoming the deciding factor. Having found your ideal
customers, they should be nurtured and cherished so that
there is no need for them to move to the competitor waiting
patiently in the wings.
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