You wouldn’t walk into a room and not turn on the lights.  If you did, you wouldn’t know where you are in relation to everything that surrounds you.  Marketing without benchmarking is like venturing into a room with the lights off.

bench·mark [bench-mahrk] – noun: a standard of excellence, achievement, etc., against which similar things must be measured or judged

As marketers we have a plethora of buzzwords to measure our performance; words like Return on Investment (ROI) and metrics. But are you using these measures to evaluate success based on an arbitrary preset goal or are you using this information to become the standard of excellence?

Benchmarking is not just a metric. A metric is a comparative number, whereas a benchmark is a standard for the best. Benchmarking is a key to evaluating the performance of your efforts and processes.  Ask yourself; are your efforts the benchmark?  If your answer is NO; then whose are?

Don’t have a benchmarking procedure in place? Don’t know where to start? That’s our job. Stop back shortly for a best practices post.

Act. Perform. Do. Move. Execute. Commit. Pursue. Participate.

At the end of the day, most brands are trying to accomplish these things. Most want their target consumers to act: to try a new product, buy the newest version, tell a friend. Whatever the case may be, it is forever the challenge of marketers to mold the actions of the audiences we market to. And by challenge, we really mean challenge. But there are a few things we’ve learned along the way that make it easier and more worthwhile to get our audiences to act.

Knowing Your Target Audience

Everyone knows this, right? WRONG. Sure, we might know the demographics of our target audience, but we’ve got to know more than just an abstract picture of their life and more of why and what makes them who they are.

The Environment

In an ideal marketing world, we could blast out one message that would subscribe to all people, everywhere. And for a while, the ad world prescribed to that. But its not a top down environment like that anymore. Brands can’t simply rely on traditional media along. Nor can they forego traditional aspects of traditional marketing in favor of jumping on the social media bandwagon. Each are important, but work best together, in a combination of “old” and “new.”

What You Say

It’s not just being in the right places, but saying the right things. You can know your target audience inside and out, place your ads in all the right places and still fall short of creating action within the target audience. This is where applying knowledge about the target audience really comes into play. Brands that understand their audiences and create campaigns with ad messages that really resonate with them are almost always successful. And if you can say the right thing to the right people in the right space, well, you just might be succesful, too.

I think everyone wants to be unique and different to a certain extent. Not “weird” different, just individualistic. I think its human nature to want to be perceived as an individual and not just another person in the crowd. It’s the reason we all make the choices we do. From the clothes we wear to the way we speak to the career path we choose. We’re stickin’ it to the world by saying, “Hey, I’ll do what I want, thank you very much.”

It seems that this sometimes falls on deaf ears. Brands can forget that their target audiences are made up of real people – people who go deeper than demographic categories. It is one of those inherent Ad 101 principles we all learn, but somehow forget in the midst of briefs, proposals, and campaigns.

I almost feel foolish even writing about this. It seems like such a given that everyone knows the importance and value of understanding psychographics. But the fact is that everyone doesn’t. They weigh demographics (Women, 25-54, with a household income of $75k, living in urban areas), but do they weigh what makes their target audience who they are? The demo listed above could include crunchy moms that are outdoorsy, family oriented, bargain hunters, interested in green products and like to buy from brands that they believe in… OR… it could be single working professionals that are on-the-go and career focused, with a lot of disposable income looking for status brands and products that offer convenience. The way you approach the demographic group might be the same. But the way you approach the psychographic groups is entirely different.

I, for one, want to be marketed to for who I am; not my age, sex, marital status, and household income. Let’s make it the marketing golden rule: Advertise unto the consumer as you would have a brand advertise unto you.

Over 50 years ago, a CD from the agency that represented Mobil Oil was on-site at their headquarters. He took a tour of the plant and discovered that a small amount of detergent goes into the gasoline. The tagline “drive your Engine Clean” was born.

In todays digital world, we rarely take time to actually know a product or consumer personally. When it comes to primary research, we send off a survey via the Internet.

My favorite way to do primary is through trial and observation. Go visit or buy your product. Try it. Smell it. Taste it. Give it to your family and friends. Watch them use it. Go to a store and observe customers. How much time do they spend looking at your product? How many additional services do they take advantage of? Do they look at the price tag and frown or buy it in bulk?

Firsthand experience gives you important insights that may lead to the big idea. But remember, firsthand experience alone may cause you to think that others may think or behave the same as you. Therefore observation of others is also a critical component of this research method.