As time goes by and as we grow older, we realize the beauty and comfort that comes with not only peace, but equally self-acceptance as well as the need to liaise closely with the few authentic people within our circles. Life is just too short and too precious to let it go down the drain being in the wrong places and with the wrong company. Everyday is a beautiful day to celebrate a new promise of Hope. And how would one best celebrate if not with the right target and positioning?
Celebrated, not Tolerated!
I love business and its universal principles that have stood the test of time. While studying Business French (French Diploma in Business Administration) some years back at Alliance Française, Nairobi, the unit I enjoyed the most was Human Resources (Les Ressources Humaines), but I would like to highlight something that we learnt under the unit, ‘Le Marketing’. Under Marketing, there’s something that we call ‘le positionnement’, which when contextually translated from French, means positioning.
Imagine you just invented a product that you need to sell to the world. Many factors come into play that will influence the marketability of your product: target audience, the appeal of the product (packaging, presentation), originality & uniqueness of the product. However, in marketing, there are some other factors that would drive the market value of a product upwards that are not necessarily directly linked to the product itself but directly to the person marketing it or selling it who equally bears the image of the company to the world at that moment. E.g. the level of loyalty the marketer bears towards the company and the personal attention he accords a prospective client, not just a one-time show of interest, but genuine clientele relationship, yet without infringing into their personal and private ‘space.’
Target
Who is your target? This one plays a huge role in the marketability of any product.
Before anything else, one must always define their target. You can not take a product that is meant for an old person and give it to a toddler, neither can you take a product meant for 6-12 years old and give it to a teenager. They may not accept it and even if they have to, they will not consume it with the same ferocious appetite. Their taste buds are clearly not within the same frequency and was not intended for the product. The product could be intended for them but their taste buds are not intended for the product. I have nieces who love gummy bears but imagine giving jawbreaker candies to a toothless baby or having a store that sells such a product strategically within a neighborhood full of old retirees.
Let’s go!
However much original, authentic, classic, exquisite your product is, not everyone will see its value. And no one who deeply understands the worth of their commodity wants to give it to the dogs who will trample over it and disparage its value. Your target audience will always matter and if you are able to locate the right target for your specific product, then they will acknowledge its value and it will sell. No product will ever miss its consumer as long as it is positioned in the right place. On the flip side, ever seen an authentic product that lacks target clientele? How about the many a times counterfeit products selling like hot cake despite its wanting or ‘close-to-none’ value? Well, it is because unlike the former example, the marketers of the latter product learnt a secret that we are yet to grasp – ‘le positionnement’. As someone passionate about business and authenticity, I sometimes get so angered by the rate of low-quality products in downtown Nairobi markets. That is not to say that everything there is low quality or an imitation of the original. Look for instance at the quality of products that China imports into the Kenyan market – to a large extent horrible and pathetic! Doesn’t mean that China doesn’t produce quality. In fact most products of incomparable quality designed in the US are actually manufactured in China. China just learned the distinct difference in their target clientele and to each, they accord what they ask for.
We don’t need to go any further. Get down to River road, Nairobi and you would be mesmerized by the magnitude of dilution of quality into the market. You would be stranded with endless questions with no answers to ascertain if the Kenya Anti-counterfeit Authority just as the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission are still needful bodies in this country. You would wonder if the Bureau of Standards that certify product qualities issuing the Diamond Mark of Quality are up-to-standards and still need to operate within the confines of this land? Am I the only one who silently wonders if the operation of such bodies ought to undergo a thorough review? I would relate endless personal stories in my business encounters while I was doing business in interior décor of the quality difference of the various business products I have purchased in Gikomba, Nairobi and those I have purchased for instance, in Arusha Tanzania or Garissa Lodge, Eastleigh.
Still on target, sometime awhile back when working as the PA to the Trade Commissioner in the Trade Commission’s office of a certain European Embassy, I remember this local Building and Construction company from Belgium that sent samples of glass window products for sale in the country. A local sales agent of Asian origin in one of the LEADING Building and Construction companies confided this to me over the phone, “Their products much as high-end in terms of pricing, are no-doubt exceptional quality. I don’t think we will work with them for now.” And just like that, after contacting several other leading local companies within the same sector unsuccessfully, the products were returned to their country of origin.
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As I was going through some of my photos in my phone’s gallery, I stumbled upon this one below, which has hugely informed my writing today and I believe, addresses what most people are silently yet traumatically going through.
Who is your target? The right target will always acknowledge your value.
You as a child of God with the mindset of Christ are a product sent from Heaven to the world.
A story of Jephthah – (Judges Chapter 11)
Jephthah was a mighty man of valor who grew up in a polygamous setting in Gilead. At a time in his life, he was due for his inheritance from his father though his step-brothers denied him of the inheritance because his mother was a harlot. He later fled for his life, and lived in a place called Tob.
Over a duration of time, the Amorites attacked his people and their existence was threatened. It’s then that the elders of his clan went looking for him since apparently, he was the only person who could save them. He agreed to help them though laid down a condition of being made their overall head. He subsequently made a vow to God in exchange for His help.
Jephthah had to intentionally come to a point and place of re-defining his target client and reviewing his positioning.
Just as Jephthat did, we too must thereby come to ‘a moment’s date with destiny’ where we define and clarify our target clientele, leaving no OPAQUENESS or ambiguity to our clarification.
Here’s the secret: Never sell your ideas or product to the wrong target audience.
You are bound to win sooner or later
Jephthah led the battle against the Amorites. He knew he couldn’t win it on his own therefore, he trusted God to help him out. In the same way, you must trust Him to help you win your battles as well. (2 Chronicles 20:15).
Life is too short and too precious to waste it or your concepts, ideas and dreams with a multitude who don’t recognize their value. Find the one or few genuine clients and work with them. With the few strategically buying your product, you won’t have to chase. They will come back again and again because they believe in its value hence see its quality and they will subsequently give referrals. That will simply work when you clearly define your target plus employ the other different business strategies, a formula that is not in any way exempted in Kingdom business and Kingdom transactions. Simply put, there’s a hidden secret and beauty in being specific on matters pertaining to your target clientele and observing ‘le Positionement’ as a critical factor in marketing.
What am I trying to say in all these business-coated words, stories and examples? You as a child of God with the mind of Christ are a product to the world. You need to learn your positioning. Don’t go where you are tolerated. Always choose to be where you are celebrated, even if it is by just a single one person. That one single influence will be able to help you re-strategize, re-calibrate your mind, re-view yourself in the light of God’s perception and ultimately re-package yourself before being re-introduced to the world and hence being of help and a change agent to the world.
Who is your target? The right target will always acknowledge your value.
Product appeal/ Packaging and presentation
I believe that the 1st two things that will get a product rolling in terms of sales is the clear definition of target clientele and the warmth with which one gets received at the entrance then opts for one store over another selling that exact same good/ service.
Now that target and strategic attention to client has been achieved, after the client walks in, maybe they are looking for some classy and elegant fragrance or aftershave, before they even experience the scent or taste or feel of anything, I believe display will be the first thing that will attract the eye (true especially for women). Have you ever realized that a beautiful elegant fancy dress adorned by a dummy of the right size, accentuating the curves or just the right fit displays a different flair as compared to the same dress displayed on a hanger? There you go.
As a product, your positioning in terms of presentation matters – where exactly and how.
Originality and uniqueness of the product
Once your product has been received in the market, then your consistency in terms of its target, presentation and uniqueness will count a lot. I for example love mint products. After walking around Nairobi city and being a faithful mint milkshake client for a while back in 2018, I one day pop in to find that the employee who used to prepare the milk shake was no longer there. The milk shake tasted as different as the new employee that had made it and that was the last day I stopped by. Explains why established companies guard their patent rights so jealously. Imagine stepping in to purchase a L’Oréal, Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser (Dettol), KFC, Coca Cola or Popeyes product that you have religiously consumed for years only to find its quality watered down and it tasting, smelling, feeling and instantly looking second-rate or just simply different than usual? Clients won’t think twice to leave.
Uniqueness of the product and consistency in producing it with quality and dedicated standards purely means that with changing circumstances, the product equally evolves and its inventiveness in terms of its mode of display and delivery equally change, while reserving its quality. Think of the companies that refused to change and to be inventive (while maintaining the authenticity of their products) while their counterparts and rivals dealing with similar products did just that with the unexpected change of circumstances? Think of how covid19 changed the mode of doing business?
Evolution.
As a product, your consistency over time and your flexibility in inventiveness as well as in the mode of ‘doing business’ count if you still want to retain your feasibility in the market and attractiveness to your clientele.
Start seeing yourself as a product.
As you do all these, you will be able to LIVE. I mean life is not in the ‘breath’. It is in you fully activating the gifts that were given you by the Creator then serving them to the world as opposed to ‘slowly dying’ in a place that doesn’t offer conducive environment not just for their growth, but even merely for their germination. Living means you define your: who, why, how and by a large extent your where. Living means you can smile every single morning and be ecstatic about the day ahead because you have re-structured your perspective and are now recalibrating your entire life. Living means you know your niche – target clearly well, are comfortable in it and are no longer conforming to places or people who tolerate you. There’s always that one someone who celebrates you, it’s so loud you can’t miss or mistake it. Find that one person even if they are the only one and a few others. And by using the term ‘celebrate’, I must reiterate that it doesn’t necessarily equate looking for human applause or approval but simply being in recognition of one’s worth as a Kingdom product and absolutely refusing to fit-in by all means possible!! You don’t need a whole bunch of people to celebrate you; you only need the right ones even if it’s one. I write from experience. Living on the flip side could still mean discovering and re-discovering your strengths then quitting doing things that you are not any good at; living is capitalizing on your strengths. Living is learning how not to capitalize on a single weakness for no one is ever void of one, but drawing strength from and focusing on your strengths. Don’t chase or plead the wrong target – that’s disaster in the waiting; rather when you position yourself rightly (within the right target market), be resourceful and produce quality products, check your product appeal (presentation), originality and uniqueness and are willing to be flexible in evolution with time in terms of ‘the mode of doing business’ in the event of unexpected change in circumstances, clientele will chase and plead for the product and your relentless loyalty to them will with time produce their irrevocable loyalty to you.
Living by all means is essentially finding your target and defining your ‘positionnement.’
When you have the mind of Christ and know your value, then you don’t have to strive all by yourself. All you need to do is Yield to Him (the Holy Spirit) and He will Position you.
QUOTES:
“Go where you are celebrated – not tolerated. If they can’t see the real value of you, it’s time for a new start.” ― Unknown Author
“He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.” – Raymond Hull, Canadian playwright & screenwriter
I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby
“Check out your environment this week and listen to what people are saying about you. If there needs to be improvement in your life, then make it. But, be sure to hang around with people who edify, encourage, lift you up and let you know they believe in you. They are the winners in your life and will help you to be a winner, too!” – Dr. Robert A. Rohm
“One of the greatest challenges that all of us will face during our life is knowing where to spend our time. As you well know, all of us are allotted the same amount of time – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year (and 1 extra day on Leap Year). But, what we do with that time is up to each of us individually. How we spend that time and who we choose to spend it with is important. Our choices can make a huge difference in our life and in the lives of those we interact with, as well. Since that is the case, my suggestion is to go where you are celebrated…not just tolerated.” Robert Rohm
Call me, ‘Hephzibah’ – His delight is in her
