The Most Important Consumer Is Your Consumer
“In the last decade, what was a simple process of good/better/best has migrated to the retail experience. The traditional furniture store is battling and trying to serve all consumers while lifestyle retailers, such as Restoration Hardware, are focused on a narrow band of consumers. The first step is profiling the consumer that you are selling, or more importantly, those you are not selling.”
- “What Does Today’s Consumer Want?” Home Furnishings Business
Amber Engine understands the time and care you put into selecting products for your furniture store, but try selling these products to the wrong customer and you’re not going to get the sales revenue you need.
Likewise, try maintaining a selection of products that appeal to all tastes and price points and you’ve got a recipe for an over-full warehouse and unfocused in-store merchandising.
Instead of trying to please everyone, we recommend buying products that resonate with your core clientele and allowing those customers who don’t fit your aesthetic to take their business elsewhere.
The most important consumer is your consumer, and if you’ve been in business for a while, you probably have all the information you need to create a customer avatar (also known as a buyer persona) that will bring clarity to both your buying process and marketing efforts.
Knowing how to identify your customer avatar is one of the few skills that apply to every aspect of small & medium business marketing and sales. When you get clear on the characteristics of the person who is going to buy your products and services, it’s a lot easier to find them and present them with a message that gets them into your store or onto your website.
Here are the steps needed to create a useful customer avatar. Download our free customer avatar worksheet HERE and then jump right in!
1. Details, details, details
Hopefully, you already have a detailed account of your existing customer’s characteristics, but if there isn’t yet, now is the time to create one! There are several different questions you need to ask yourself when putting together a detailed description of existing customers.
Keep your best customers in mind when you’re answering since you want to attract more of them, right?
Who are they? (College students? Parents? Professionals? Older, younger?)
Where do they live? (Be specific. Think about the areas in your town.)
What do they do? (Job, hobbies, church, gym)
How much money do they make? (Do they need financing? Are they paying cash?)
What are their problems and how can you help fix them? (Redesigning an entire house? Furnishing a college dorm? Moving into their first apartment or house?)
2. Who & what are they reading/watching/listening to?Which websites, pages, blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts do they follow? Where do they get design inspiration? Which influencers do they follow? If possible, determine the kinds of keywords and keyword phrases they are using to search.
3. How do they make purchases?Put yourself in the shoes of a typical customer who needs your product or service. Walk through the steps and phases they’d go through to make an informed decision.
4. What do your current customers have to say?Ask existing customers for specific reasons why they chose to purchase from your business so you can understand what brought them to your store. Also, ask them why they continue to shop with you.
Use the info you’ve gathered by going through these four steps to create a list of the characteristics that make up your ideal customer. You can make other customer avatars to represent smaller portions of your target clientele! Once you have a detailed understanding of who you’re selling to, you can purchase items that resonate strongly with the customers you’re trying to attract more of.
For comparison, here is a completed customer avatar based on the ideal client for Amber Engine.