In this issue: Why ‘mid-market’ organizations especially need to find SuperFans. Why this isn’t principally a question of Marketing – but of ruthless focus across the whole organization. And how Marketers like us can make it happen.

Experience

Mid-market brands have revenues between several hundred million to a couple of billion dollars. Those brands are caught between Fortune 500 behemoths and mom-and-pop shops.

Such mid-market brands are fighting in a brutal, fragmented battlefield. There are 25,000 of them in the U.S. alone, each clawing for single-digit market shares in industries like insurance, credit cards or not-for-profit.

Jack Welch’s “be #1 or #2” mantra still applies. And while I don’t like Jack as a Leader (he could be a real wrecking ball), he wasn’t wrong here.

How do you get to be #1 in a market? Clarity. Clarity about your value prop, your customers’ problems, and your focus. You don’t have the deep pockets of the giants, so every dollar has to punch above its weight.

But first, you have to define the market you want to be #1 in.

So before you spend on ads and marketing, nail your product-market fit. If you’re not locked onto the right audience, you’re just making a noise. Your message is not getting through. You have to be ruthless.

You have to obsess over the customers who truly matter – your SuperFans.

Reflection

If you want to grow your mid-market brand, at a rate that exceeds the industry average, you need to find the right audience.

Think high-value SuperFans, mid-value ‘core’ customers and low-value ‘distractors’. Picture the classic bell curve:

• To the left: 20% Distractors – low-value, non-profitable distractions.
• On the right-hand side: 20% SuperFans – your highest-value customers.
• In the middle: 60% Core – active, profitable customers.

Your SuperFans are likely three times as expensive to acquire, but they have a lifetime value three times higher than your worst customers. And 50% higher than your average ones. So they’re well worth investing in.

This isn’t just a marketing problem; it’s a company-wide challenge.

Which means there’s a lot of work to be done before you start Marketing to them. To own your SuperFans’ wallets demands:

• Then – and only then – unleash Marketing to dominate your SuperFans. Otherwise, you’re just screaming into the void.
• Vision: Get relentless clarity on product-market fit at the CEO and board level
• Strategy: Tailor your offering to SuperFans
• Operations: Align customer journeys with their preferred channels
• Finance: Invest for the future, crush results today
• Technology: Think of adtech/martech as a competitive weapon, not a cost

References

Numerous pieces of research demonstrate that brands need to identify and dominate their Core and SuperFan audience segments, while actively suppressing their negative-value distractors.

In a recent study called Customer lifetime value, the customer compass, the authors explain:

“…it is crucial for success to invest primarily in those customers who are lucrative for the company in the long run.

It is important to understand these customers intimately, to engage them with the right channels, and to tailor offers to their context and needs.

This can only be achieved by drawing on customer-related metrics – of which customer lifetime value (CLV) is first among equals – and by interlinking them intelligently as the foundation for effective and efficient marketing.”

The authors conclude that: “In a nutshell, CLV offers both established and new players in the e-commerce space the opportunity to better understand, target, and serve their customers in order to engage them in an effective and efficient manner, and create value for them.”

If you’d like to discuss your career journey with me one-to-one, please feel free to email me at Greg@moveupfaster.me or message me on LinkedIn.

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