| Many businesses bemoan the downturn in sales and | | | | Every time you draft a direct sales letter, or write |
| 'lack of customer loyalty'. (One of the terms for | | | | that award-winning copy for a glitzy brochure, you |
| these types of consumers is: 'brand tarts'). They try | | | | need to keep that little statement in mind. |
| to pinpoint the source of the problem with expensive | | | | Sure, you want to sell 100,000 of your nice, shiny |
| consultants or simply throw advertising dollars at the | | | | products, but what does your consumer want? |
| issue, only to end up bewildered (and jaded) when | | | | Customers who buy boats don't just want to get |
| they don't work. What's the solution? Believe it or | | | | from point A to point B. |
| not, the first step may just be to switch radio | | | | Home builders don't sell a house; they sell a lifestyle. |
| stations. | | | | Customers who need a web site don't (necessarily) |
| One of my first instructors in my marketing course | | | | want the most technologically advanced site in the |
| mentioned that we should tune into the WIIFM radio | | | | world. (Sorry, but this isn't just an exercise for folio |
| station as our assignment for the week. With no | | | | building!) They want a marketing tool that gets |
| small amount of confusion, we all looked at each | | | | results. |
| other and wondered if our instructor badly needed a | | | | As soon as you start picking up on the waves from |
| holiday. | | | | WIIFM, and creating marketing materials that are |
| When our instructor wrote down this acronym, the | | | | attuned to your customer's needs, the results will be |
| lights began to go on: | | | | music to your ears. |
| WIIFM = 'What's in it for me?' | | | | |