Lose Focus, Lose Customers

12/10/2011 by Ann.

One of the main things you need in your business is focus and that applies to your customers. You have to know who you are speaking to and what they want or else you could be heading out into choppy waters. Take a look at the example below:

Max Factor produces make-up and Twinings make tea. These are two very different markets and two very different sets of customers. It would seem though, that Max Factor has a better understanding of its customers than Twinings!

The make-up market is fast moving: barely a week goes by without a new mascara or foundation coming out and Max Factor has probably produced more foundations than most other companies over the past five years.

Max Factor realises that they are selling the beauty ‘dream’ and that the technological innovations in skincare can be used to their advantage. Their customers want the latest developments in the laboratory in their hands as soon as they can, because they are all about looking and staying young and youthful; by default that means that time is not on their side. Their customers get excited by the newest foundation and cannot wait to try it. Their products are directly connected to the latest fashions and trends so they have to keep moving forward and updating their offering.

Twinings is a UK company that sells tea. Tea is a tradition and various blends have endured throughout the years. That’s not to say that new blends have been ignored: they can be introduced alongside the traditional teas, but it is the core teas that form the loyal customer base and, for most of these people, they want to consume a product that delivers time after time (or cup after cup) with no deviations.

Twinings unpublicised changes to one of their most popular teas, Earl Grey, has turned into a marketing disaster. Most customers are asking ‘Why change something that is much loved and needs nothing done to it?’ It is being likened to the ‘New Coke’ debacle. Sure, introduce variations (Lady Grey, Lavender Earl Grey, Decaffeinated Earl Grey) but don’t mess with your lead product. To make matters worse, it is only in the UK that the new blend was introduced, thus annoying its most loyal customers even more. Hundreds of comments on their website leave you in no doubt that the new blend has not gone down well with the palates of those who have drunk Earl Grey for years, and that customers are voting with their taste buds and switching brands. Twinings is a premium brand and people are not going to pay a premium price for a product that they now consider sub-standard.

Understanding the profile of your customers and what they value is key to your product development strategy and to maintaining your brand image. Max Factor seems to have understood this far better than Twinings and, like the other Earl Grey fans, I have binned the new blend and voted to take my money elsewhere. After twenty-five years, Twinings have managed to destroy my customer loyalty, and that of many others, in one disastrous decision.

It doesn’t matter if it is a product or a service you are supplying: the same principles apply and you need to be sure you fully understand what motivates your customers in order to maintain a profitable and rewarding business.

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