I'm in a marketing class. it's called marketing 350- principles of marketing. did you know that i was once upon a time going to be a marketing minor? anyway that didn't pan out.
but i'm in this class with a professor named Dr. Linda Pettijohn, she's very chic and trendy and dresses very well. She's obviously quite successful.
anyway i'm in this class learning about businesses and business relationships. which, you guessed it, are a lot like people relationships. i'll explain.
one interesting thing that we learned about in marketing 350 in the concept of core competency. A business' core competency is essentially what they do best. For example the core competency of Starbuck's is their ability to make a good cup of coffee. Coffee is what they do best.
Once you determine your core competency you can determine your market. Your market is the group of people who want what you have to offer. The market for Starbuck's is people who want a good cup of coffee.
Core Competency defines your Market.
Now, intially when I thought about this i immediatly applied it to personality. Who are you at your core? What's the one thing that you do best? And in relation to that one thing who is your market? Who wants, or needs, the best you have to offer?
I asked myself. And the one thing that I think I do best is listen. I am a good listener. Which I know a lot of people would say about themselves. But I feel like I listen intensely. I am genuinly interested in every word that anybody has to say. Listening is my core competency. And my market?
Anyone who wants or needs to talk I guess.
I think I'm going into the right profession.
Then I started to thinking about a friend of mine. A young woman, very attractive and exceptionally spirited. This friend of mine is a "dater". She dates, and meets, and mixes, and mingles with what seems like a new guy all the time. Young men seem to really like her. A little too much too soon one could argue. And she always has a new "stalker", or new guy in her life. Although none of these relationships never seem to get off the ground, or last very long at all. Now as much as I like this friend of mine and think that she's lovely, I couldn't help but wonder:
What do they love so much about her initially? And how come it never lasts?
Because let's face it don't we all those people? The guys or girls who are always dating someone new. Always meeting someone new. Always finding themselves romantically involved with what seems like an endless parade of people all marching proudly, smiling as they wave, down the main street of this person's lovelife. All the while this guy or girl that we know is dressed as the parade grand marshal throwing candy down to us from their float as we sit alone in a lawnchair watching from the sidewalk.
Then I thought about something else that I learned in marketing.
It's very important to stick closely to your core competency. Be exclusive to your market. If you're Starbuck's and you make a good cup of coffee and you are doing really well with your market of good coffee drinkers, if you start offering too much, like hamburgers suddenly or soccer balls, people who just want good coffee maybe aren't going to feel so welcome at the coffee house. While you may think that the market will increase and you'll get more customers. The opposite is true. Those who once felt that you catered especially to them will think that you don't. And they'll go to someone who does. People want to feel that you have what only they need. Someone who doesn't want hamburgers or soccer balls may begin to feel out of place at a Starbuck's that sells them.
Because when you try to market to everyone, you end up marketing to no one.
Those people we all know, the ones with the parades, the reason the line of people seems so endless is because they manage to interest everyone. But the reason that so many people are always coming and going is because these people get uncomfortable with so many others in the line. When you appeal to everybody you appeal to nobody.
And I think that the reason so many people want to appeal to everyone is because they are a bit unaware of who they are at their core. Or maybe they know completely and they're scared. My advice to them is this:
Never fear the person you are at the center of yourself. Because there are people in this world who want and need what only you have to offer.
For every core competency, the market is vast.
