More Money for Shoes author Melissa Browne urges retailers to take stock before rolling out the new year.
At the moment I’m away from the office on what I call, Think Week.
This is a strategy employed by successful entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates which allows you to stop, think, dream, read and strategise.
It’s a critical part of my year and one which allows my business to remain innovative and exciting.
One of the themes that has continued to surface for me throughout 2013 and again this week is Why.
Traditionally we’re told to ask Who. Who is your customer, where do they live, what do they look like, how much do they earn, what do they spend and how do they spend it.
It’s an exercise on geography and demographics and generally leaves you with a basic understanding of who a typical or even a preferred customer is.
Instead the question that more and more researchers, authors and analysts are suggesting that we ask is not Who but Why.
Why are consumers shopping, what is driving them online or to stores, why do they spend what and how they do and why are they loyal or disloyal to stores or products?
I think Why is a much better question.
It allows you to find new growth opportunities and potentially to find new clusters of consumers that you hadn’t thought of before as well as new ways of engaging with these consumers.
It also allows you to identify the profit pools within these groups and make sure you are talking their language and meeting their demands.
Let me explain. If someone was to analyse my spending habits both offline and online they would come up with essentially the same Who when it came to age, the amount I spend, where I live, my potential income and my fashion choices.
However if they analysed my Why there would be two very different answers. My Why for online shopping is budget: plain and simple. It is all about finding sites that give me great information to buy designer clothing as cheaply as possible. End of story.
My Why for retail bricks and mortar store shopping is the opposite.
It is to find stores that will help me look fashionable, interesting and different from the crowd.
So I seek out stores that have interesting, well-made clothing made from great fabrics that won’t be seen on everyone in the street but most importantly who have in-store help that is second to none.
That’s because I almost always shop by myself & I value a stylist’s opinion. I’ll almost always buy more in-store if the store employs well-trained, talented stylists. Always.
That’s because while I read Vogue, I’m not a stylist in the same way that you can read an accounting text book each month but not be an accountant. Sure you might have a greater degree of knowledge than the average person but you still value a second opinion from a well-trained expert.
Why bother with Why?
Because it allows you to identify new ways of talking with your customers and potentially new profit pools that your competitors aren’t talking to yet.
Years ago the pet-food industry was all about the size and breed of the dog until a US company decided to focus on the Why and identified that consumers could be identified by the relationship they have with their dog.
Once they identified the most profitable relationship it meant they could change their offering, change how they talked to that group and lead the market.
Why not start 2014 by taking the time to ask a different type of question. This year why not change how you are looking at what you do and who you are servicing and instead ask Why.