Customer Types
Learning Goal: Determine the mix of customer types you are attracting and their impact on the business model.
Whether a customer is spending time on a social network, buying a stick of gum, or purchasing a million-dollar telecom system, every sale involves a set of decision-makers. Thus customer analysis starts with an understanding of what types of customers to approach. Chances are several people in a number of categories have problems that your product can solve or needs or ambitions that it can satisfy. Customer discovery identifies and probes these different needs. Customer types include:
5 Customer Types
End Users
The day-to-day users of a product push the buttons, touch the product, use it, love it, and hate it. A deep understanding of their need and motivations is vital, recognizing that the end user may often have the least influence in the sales or adoption process.
Think about a child's toy. The child is excited to get the toy and to play with it. But the child needs mama to buy it.
Influencers
At times, the most powerful pressure on a customer's buying decisions may not be something the startup did directly but something done or said by someone who's uninvolved. In every market or industry, online and off, a select group of individuals are pioneer the trend, styles and opinions. Your generation knows this best through Twitter and Instagram. It only takes one celebrity to tweet or post a picture that sets off an entire movement.
Include a list of outside influencers and address how they'll be reached. Free product, payments, celebrity events, free computers and online memberships are among the many options.
Recommenders
They influence purchase decisions but differ from influencers because their opinions can make or break a sale. A recommender could be widely a widely read blogger raving about the new Call of Duty game, a spouse with a strong brand preference or department head who loves Apple.
Economic Buyers
They sit further up the decision chain and often control or approve the purchase or budget. They can be corporate VPs, office managers, spouses, principals or people respected in an organization for their expert knowledge.
Decision-Makers
They may be the economic buyers or reside even higher up in the decision-maker hierarchy. Decision-makers wield the ultimate purchase authority. Sometimes you call them the CEO and at other times they are simply mom and dad. Make sure you understand their motivations.
Saboteurs (Haters)
They can lurk anywhere and hold titles including CFO, CIO, child, spouse or purchasing agent. They can be found in strategic planning departments or in your own home, where their veto can slow things dramatically. Find them. Identify patterns that reveal where they're hiding in the decision process.
Lesson Information
Presentation
Customer Types.pdfVocabulary
Additional Reading
Student Activity
What if...
you were tasked with bringing the first, fat free, high protein, and nutrient packed ice cream to market? (It's a premium priced product.)
- What would the brand name and slogan be?
- What is the market type and customer segment?
- State the customer types that should be considered.
- How would you market the product?
Donut Project
Determine the Market Type, Customer Segment and Customer Types for the Donut Project.
