Nuts 4 Nuts: Why is Customer Profiling Important?

Who is your ideal client? Do you know who is buying from you? Do you know why they are buying from you? Do you know what to say or do to help build a relationship with your ideal client?

The first rule for marketing is: Always know who your target market is, so you know who you are talking too.

Walk along Portobello Road

Like hundreds, if not thousands of people, this Saturday I walked along Portobello Road. As my feet leisurely strolled down the hill, my eyes turned from the looming grey rain cloud, to one of the stalls, which could have been blown away at any moment due to the Great British weather. I couldn't help but look at the small stall with a little jealousy from a customer profiling perspective.

The sign simply stated 'Nuts 4 Nuts. Portobello Fresh Honey Roasted.'

There it was. Simple.

Or so it seemed.

I thought, the 'ideal customer' would be on Portobello Road on a Saturday and like nuts. Surely that has to be it? Right?

Never that simple

Then my mind started to spiral. Recognizing that I have been working in marketing far too long, that a simple walk along Portobello Road had now become another excuse to think about customer profiling once more.

On the surface the only psychographic customer profiling which really matters is that the person likes honey roasted nuts and is feeling a bit hungry.

However, I remembered, there are other factors to consider. If we look at product, price and place, we can see that this is a high end product, at a premium price, in a place with lots of other food stalls, in an affluent area of West London.

Suddenly, Nuts 4 Nuts isn't just about finding people that like nuts.

The price of the product, the location where it is sold, would suggest that maybe the ideal customer values quality and wants to support the local community rather than buy from the big chains. Nuts from Nuts 4 Nuts are much more expensive than those found in the Sainsbury's, or Poundland, located just meters away. Yet, look at the quality of those nuts; those nuts are huge and there is so much choice. You can't get them that big in the supermarket or the variety.

Now the customer profiling for the regular cliental looks much more like the affluent households on Notting Hill or Holland Park, who host dinner parties or drinks with fabulous nibbles. It doesn't matter if they spend £10 or £20 on nuts, after all, they just have to be amazing and the very best.

I of course would love to do a survey, just to check out my hunch and see if I am right. However, as always, what looks to be so simple, with customer profiling, is usually just the tip of a very big iceberg.

Customer profiling helps build relationships

Understanding human behavior, buying patterns and how that links into people's demographics and psychographics, I have always found fascinating. The more we can understand those who buy from us, the more empathy we can give our customers, the better our relationship is with them.

Nuts 4 Nuts I am sure will be in business for years to come. However, if they did want to grow their business and promote their stall, I would suggest getting to know their ideal customers more, so they could do more promotional events or helpful content to help these people.