If there is one rule in marketing worth remembering, it is this: Target the right customer before you start selling the benefits. Let me share something I once saw at a café. A salesperson spent almost five minutes confidently pitching a coffee product to a customer sitting nearby. Premium beans, great aroma, better focus, convenience… ultimately, the whole package. I was sitting there thinking, This is actually a pretty good pitch.

Soon after he finished, he looked confidently at the customer and waited for a response. The customer smiled and said, “Your story was really Great… but I don’t drink coffee. I prefer tea.”And just like that, five minutes of perfect selling went straight out of the window.

The coffee pitch was convincing. Its benefits were clear. Yet none of them mattered because he had missed the most important question: Was he talking to the right customer?Indeed, he had started selling before understanding who he was selling to.

That small moment says a lot about marketing. Companies often rush into campaigns asking, “How do we sell this?” The better questions are: Who actually needs this? What matters to them? Why should they choose us?

This is not just a café anecdote. Research on market orientation and benefit-based segmentation supports the same idea. Even customers shopping in the same category may be looking for completely different benefits (Dalgic & Yeniceri 2013; Arunachalam & Kumar 2018).

1. Target the Right Customer: Start With the Market, Not the Ad

 

Before thinking about Instagram, Google Ads or the next creative campaign, start with the market.Who is buying? Who is not? Why are they buying? What frustrates them? What would make them switch?Demographics help, but they rarely tell the whole story. Two women of the same age living in Dubai may buy skincare for completely different reasons. One may want affordable everyday care. Another may look for clinically backed skin solutions. A third may want luxury, prestige and experience.

Different Customers, Different Reasons to Buy

 

Coffee is no different. For one person, taste matters most. Another looks at price or convenience. Someone else may simply want the experience of sitting in a comfortable café. Research shows that coffee buying behavior is shaped by personal preferences, economic considerations, product attributes, consumption context, and consumer characteristics (Samoggia & Riedel 2018). So, instead of collecting data for the sake of having another dashboard, marketers should connect surveys, CRM information, reviews, social listening, purchase behavior, and competitor intelligence. The point is not to know more about the customer. It is to understand “what the customer is trying to achieve.”

2. Segment the Market—Because “Everyone” Is Not a Customer Segment

 

Once you understand the market, meaningful groups begin to appear. Research in Oman, for example, identified practical value seekers, discerning shoppers, selective online shoppers, social brand seekers, and instant gratifiers (Belwal et al. 2025). Clearly, one generic message would struggle to convince all five groups.This is where targeting becomes a strategic decision rather than a media decision.

Let’s see how big brands put this into practice. L’Oréal provides a strong corporate example. Its universalization strategy combines global scale with local understanding of different beauty needs, desires, and traditions. Instead of assuming beauty means the same thing everywhere, local teams and research hubs help adapt products and propositions to different markets (L’Oréal Groupe). Beiersdorf shows the same thinking through portfolio architecture. NIVEA competes in the mass market, Eucerin in dermocosmetics, and La Prairie in premium beauty. Same company, same broad industry—but very different customers and reasons to buy (Beiersdorf AG 2026). That is the point: a large audience is not automatically a good target audience.

3. Choose the Right Target — Not Everyone Has to Be Your Customer

 

Once the market has been divided into meaningful groups, the next decision is more difficult: how do you target the right customer? A company does not need to win everyone. It needs to choose the customers whose needs it can serve particularly well.

4. Target the Right Customer — Choose the Benefit Before You Choose the Message

Let’s take Starbucks & Tim Hortons. Starbucks’ recent Back to Starbucks strategy has put renewed emphasis on coffee quality, service, human connection and making the coffeehouse somewhere customers want to stay. It has also simplified parts of the menu to improve consistency and service (Starbucks Coffee Company 2025). Tim Hortons took a different route with its Back to Basics plan. Its investment is focused on product quality, value for money, advertising, digital experience, and the Tims Rewards program (Restaurant Brands International 2021). Same category. Different emphasis. Different value proposition. The question is not, “Which strategy looks more impressive?” It is, “Which proposition fits the customer we want?”

 

When Research Gets the Customer Wrong: The New Coke Lesson

 

One of marketing’s most famous mistakes makes this point beautifully. In 1985, Coca-Cola changed its famous formula and introduced New Coke. Interestingly, this was not a decision made without research. The company had conducted taste tests involving almost 200,000 consumers, and the new formula performed strongly. Yet something important had slipped through the cracks.

Consumers were not judging Coca-Cola only by taste. They had an emotional relationship with the original brand. The research measured preference for the new formula, but it did not fully capture what the original Coca-Cola meant to people.

The backlash became so strong that the original formula returned as Coca-Cola Classic (The Coca-Cola Company). That is a powerful warning for marketers. Data can tell you what people choose, but good marketing research must also understand “why.” Otherwise, you may have plenty of numbers and still be barking up the wrong tree.

5.Position Yourself Against a Real Alternative

 

Once the target and desired benefit are clear, positioning answers another question: why should this customer choose us instead of someone else?Let’s consider Tesla as an example. Its original master plan deliberately started at the premium end with a sports car and aimed to use that base to move progressively towards more affordable vehicles. It did not attempt to serve the entire car market immediately (Tesla 2006).

Toyota has taken a broader multi-pathway approach to electrification, recognizing that technologies and market conditions differ across countries and customers (Toyota Motor Corporation 2023). The important lesson is not whether Tesla or Toyota has the “better” strategy. Their approaches reflect different strategic choices, and strategy without choice is usually just a very long wish list.

Beauty Brands Prove That Positioning Needs Discipline

 

Shiseido makes the same point through its prestige beauty portfolio. Rather than giving every brand an identical promise, its 2025 integrated report identifies distinctive value propositions across SHISEIDO, Clé de Peau Beauté, NARS, and ELIXIR. The company then connects those propositions with science and innovation (Shiseido Company, Limited 2026).

Meanwhile, L’Oréal’s wider portfolio allows it to compete across mass beauty, luxury, dermatological beauty and professional products without asking one brand to be everything to everybody. A brand cannot realistically be affordable, ultra-exclusive, clinical, youthful, luxurious and “for everyone” all at once.At some point, marketers have to choose who the brand is for, what it should stand for, and which benefit it wants to own.

Fujifilm: When the Market Changes, Look at What Customers Need Next

 

Fujifilm offers one of the most interesting examples of adapting strategy when an entire market changes. As digital photography grew, demand for traditional photographic film declined. Fujifilm could have spent its energy trying to convince customers to keep buying more film. Instead, the company looked at what capabilities it already possessed and where those capabilities could create new value.

Photographic film requires sophisticated knowledge of collagen, antioxidants, light, and nanotechnology. Fujifilm realized that many of the capabilities developed for photographic film could also be applied to skincare. After entering the cosmetics business in 2006, it launched ASTALIFT in 2007, drawing on its expertise in collagen research, antioxidation, and nanotechnology originally developed through photographic imaging (Izumi et al. 2009). (Fujifilm Corporation). That is what good strategy looks like. Do not become so attached to what you currently sell that you stop noticing what customers may need next.

6. Build the 4Ps Around the Customer—Not the Other Way Around

 

Only now should product, price, place and promotion really come together. The product should solve the selected customer’s problem. Price should fit the value they perceive. Place should make the product easy for them to access. Promotion should explain the benefit in language that matters to them.

P&G provides a very practical example. Its strategy connects product, package, brand communication, retail execution, and value. In the UK, Ariel’s “Big One” was developed in response to changing washing habits: larger loads, shorter cycles, and colder temperatures. Consumer insight therefore moved directly into product design and value creation (Procter & Gamble 2025).

Unilever follows a similar integrated logic. Its brand-superiority framework assesses product, proposition, packaging, place, promotion and pricing instead of treating advertising as a strategy on its own (Unilever 2023).

And that is the point: promotion may grab attention, but it cannot do all the heavy lifting. If the product, price or experience is wrong, advertising may create interest for a while, but it cannot paper over the cracks forever. At the end of the day, marketing strategy is the whole package. Promotion is only one piece of it.

7. Reach the Right Customer in the Right Channel, at the Right Moment

 

Digital targeting adds another layer: the right message must also arrive through the right channel and at the right moment.Research on retailer apps demonstrated stronger incremental sales effects among distant customers and people who had previously shopped only offline (van Heerde, Dinner & Neslin 2019). Similarly, a large field experiment on mobile geo-conquesting found that push notifications increased coupon redemption by 6%, although results varied according to consumers’ app experience and local store density (Molitor et al. 2025).

Why This Matters in the UAE

 

This is particularly relevant in the UAE, where consumers move easily between physical stores, apps, marketplaces, and social platforms. A Dubai study of mobile-first university students found that food quality, restaurant choice, e-service quality, delivery time, advertising, and promotions influenced satisfaction. Importantly, those results describe that particular segment—not every customer living in Dubai (Dsouza et al. 2025).Good targeting therefore does not mean sending more messages. It often means sending fewer irrelevant ones.After all, there is not much marketing glory in delivering the world’s most perfectly timed burger coupon to a vegetarian.

8. Deliver the Experience and Build Loyalty

 

Getting someone to try the product is only one stage. The real test comes afterwards.

The First Sale Is Not the Finish Line

 

Did Starbucks deliver the experience promised in its advertising? What about Eucerin—did it provide the credibility expected from a dermocosmetic brand? And was the delivery app actually on time? Research involving Starbucks customers links brand image with satisfaction and trust, while satisfaction, trust and emotional attachment contribute to loyalty (Song, Wang & Han 2019).

A simple way to look at the customer journey is this: first, understand the customer. Then segment the market, choose who to target, decide how you want the brand to be positioned, and shape a clear value proposition. From there, build the right marketing mix, encourage trial, and focus on delivering an experience that leads to satisfaction and, eventually, loyalty. But loyalty does not happen after one good purchase. It grows when the customer receives a consistently positive experience, begins to trust the brand, comes back again and is willing to recommend it to others. That is when a first-time buyer starts becoming a long-term customer.

It all connects. Your marketing may attract the right customer, but the real test begins after they try the product or service. If the experience does not live up to the promise, the cracks will soon start to show. Clever advertising can bring people in, but it cannot cover up a poor experience forever.

Turn Customer Insight Into Company-Wide Action

 

This is where many beautiful strategies quietly disappear—somewhere between the strategy presentation and Monday morning.Market orientation requires customer information to move through the organization. Marketing needs to speak with product teams. Sales needs to feed market reality back into strategy. Finance needs to understand willingness to pay. Operations needs to deliver the convenience being advertised. Digital teams need to test what actually converts.

Research on market orientation therefore places strong emphasis on market intelligence, cross-functional coordination, management commitment and continuous response to changing customer needs (Dalgic & Yeniceri 2013). Finally, measure the whole journey: awareness, consideration, trial, conversion, acquisition cost, repeat purchase, satisfaction, retention, and customer lifetime value. If something is not working, do not simply increase the advertising budget. Go back and find out why.

My Final Thoughts: Find the Customer Before Selling the Benefits

 

Great marketing is not about making everybody want your product. Starbucks does not need to become Tim Hortons. Tesla does not need to copy Toyota. L’Oréal does not treat every beauty customer as identical. Shiseido and Beiersdorf create different propositions for different needs. Fujifilm did not spend forever trying to save photographic film; it found new customers for capabilities it already understood. By contrast, New Coke reminds us that even very large research budgets can miss something when marketers misunderstand what customers truly value.

Therefore, the process is actually quite straightforward: “Understand the market. Find meaningful differences. Choose whom you can serve well. Discover the benefit that matters. Position the brand clearly. Build the marketing mix around that promise. Deliver it properly & in the end measure what happens. Then learn and adjust.”

In other words, target the right customer, and the benefits become much easier to sell. After all, “even the world’s greatest coffee pitch falls flat when the person across the table has already ordered tea.”

 

 

By

Munazza Zareen Fahad

 

References

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