The Magnetic Customer

Do you think you know who your customer is?

Ok great, but what if this customer you have in mind is not the best customer for your business?… And could you be speaking to a more aspirational customer? A customer so magnetic they would pull in the other customers as well.

Maybe your brand is talking to such a broad audience, it’s not actually getting noticed anymore, because you’ve watered your brand down so much now and become a ‘something for everyone’ kinda brand.

Your brand only has one voice, hone it through understanding your customer and use it. Understanding your Magnetic Customer can be the a crucial part to your brand getting back to who it really is. Once you know your customer and who your brand is, the rest is simply communicating between the two more effectively. This way you can connect with your customers on a deeper level and get your brand noticed along the way for all the right reasons.

A Magnetic Customer is a one person, an aspirational version of your current customer… one customer that pulls other people in… because they are more real and more interesting… and well, more magnetic than the others. I’ll talk you through a simple way of working out who your Magnetic Customer is:

Let’s start by trimming some years off your current customers age range. For example if you’re talking to a customer base of 25-55 years old, with a 50/50 male and female split… start by cutting it right back to at least a decade, 20-30 years old… this will make it a lot easier for you to imagine your customer, and also make it easier for you to talk to them… keep in mind – 40 is the new 30 after all and still a very aspirational age to someone at 50.

Now hone this 10 year customer gap down further, to one single customer, one that represents the ideal aspirational customer for your brand, rather than a mirror of who they actually are. We all think we are younger, better looking and funnier than who we are anyway, we should talk to that mindset, not the age.

For example, if we had a hypothetical brand of online Organic Macaroons (Roons.com) and we have a customer in mind being a girl in her mid 20′s, who is pretty time poor, works hard and looks after herself… Good start… but we could look closer and gather more details to get a deeper understanding of how she lives, this will make her more magnetic. Jess is a 25 year old girl, she works in IT in the city, lives north side (close to the city) with her boyfriend, she’s pretty time poor, shops and spends a lot of time online, rides to work, and much prefers the corner store over the supermarket. We have chosen her because we feel she represents Roons.com best, and she is an aspirational version of their day-to-day customer, these customers aspire to the idea of her. We understand her better too, which means wed can communicate to her more effectively. For example Apple would use a 26 year old Male Graphic Designer as their Magnetic Customer, you can see this in everything they do, from packaging to the products themselves. My mother has an iPhone, she is a lot older, but is still drawn to this mindset, that’s why this customer is magnetic.

Once you’ve been through this process, find a photo to match your Magnetic Customer, this really helps to you visualise them and keeps everyone on the same page. Get the Magnetic Customer right and they’ll make your business more relevant to those who count and the rest will follow.

Paul Findlay

Paul is the Creative Director at Brands to life® with over 25 years experience building brands. He has founded two of Melbourne’s most successful independent agencies with many highlights along the way including ‘BRW Fast 100’ and ‘B&T Agency of the Year’. Paul creates memorable and authentic brand experiences through engaging Strategies, Identities, Visual Languages and Brand Stories, whatever it takes to breathe new life into brands.