know your customer better than anyoneI have never met a marketing manager or business proprietor who did not want to reduce marketing costs or increase the return on the dollars spent on marketing. With this in mind, I have started the year with 10 THOUGHTS on how to maximise return on investment in marketing. This […]

know your customer better than anyoneI have never met a marketing manager or business proprietor who did not want to reduce marketing costs or increase the return on the dollars spent on marketing. With this in mind, I have started the year with 10 THOUGHTS on how to maximise return on investment in marketing. This is the seventh. Venture capitalist, Mark Cuban, once suggested that the three most important rules of business are: (1) target the smallest possible market; (2) demonstrate a strategic competitive advantage; and (3) recognise that the ‘customer owns your arse’. This THOUGHT addresses the second of these rules. It would be no surprise to readers that IKEA is the largest furniture retailer in the world. Total revenue for IKEA is now approaching 40 billion euros per year. As it happens, I hate IKEA and will never enter an IKEA store again. Interestingly,  IKEA doesn’t care where…