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Matching Your Target Market – A Lesson From Mexican Entrepreneurs

February 16, 2010 by Sue Painter

How to reach your peeps is just about always on my mind – it comes with the territory of being a marketing therapist. So here I was, two days ago, lounging around on the public beach in Puerto Vallarta. And I ended up, no big surprise, watching the vendors who sell up and down the beach. It is a great case study of how to figure out what to sell to a specific target market.

In the space of two hours we were visited by quite a number of beach vendors. Here’s a list of the items we were offered:Rug vendor

Cooked skewered shrimp, topped off by one of the limes hooked onto a separate skewer.

Heavy blankets in various colors that could be used on the beach or as a rug at home.

Brightly colored large pitchers that looked like ceramic but were actually wood.

Toys and gum from a basket.

Tuba-tuba, which is a chilled coconut drink served into a cup from a huge hollowed out double gourd.

Lace shawls.

All sorts of jewelry – silver, shells, beaded.

Elaborately carved cold fresh fruit, your choice, from a head-balanced platter.

Music from a 3-group band, complete with voice and instruments (including a bass fiddle)

Music from a two-person steel band percussion group, a 4-foot long instrument that unfolded and sat on a table, complete with sound system (battery operated).

Sunglasses

Bracelets hand-woven with your name on it

Straw hats

Large silver and mother of pearl fish which are jointed throughout the body so that the fish “swim” when wiggled.

I’m not quite sure this is everything, but the list covers most of the vendors we saw drifting by.

OK, let’s say that your job is to be a beach vendor on a warm Mexican beach. Some of your potential customers will be sitting in chairs under palapas, some will be already sitting in restaurants along the beach. Your job is to sell as much as you can from what you are offering. Can you name the top two things to sell? Can you name the bottom two things to sell? Remember that your target market is beach goers, some of whom are foreign, some of whom are locals, all of whom are on the beach, and some of whom are eating or drinking in restaurants. What are your picks for the two best things to sell to this market, and the two worst things?

Keep in mind, too, that you have to carry what you sell, walking in the sand, up and down the beach for miles and hours a day.

My two picks for the worst? The brightly colored large pitchers, which look like ceramic but are made of wood. They are awkward to carry, the vendor can’t actually carry more than about 4 at a time, and who on the beach wants one of these pitchers right then? Even if a potential customer was not on the beach, the pitchers are too large to easily carry home if you are a foreigner, and more than likely the locals don’t even use them as they don’t hold liquid. I think the guy who chose to sell the pitchers needs a few marketing lessons!

My second choice for the worst to sell, although a close race, is the steel band percussion. The instrument was huge to carry (requiring both persons) up and down the sand, hard to set up, and had to be hauled along with a fold-out table and the battery-operated sound system. That’s a lot to set up and take down for just one song, even if you had good luck selling the music to a lot of people. Plus, many people besides the one person who paid for the music can hear it, so you aren’t exactly going to sell music to the next person, are you? And frankly, most beach goers are busy sleeping, reading, riding the waves, or walking up and down the beach…..they don’t really have hearing live music on their minds.

My two choices for the best things to sell? Straw hats, because lots of beachgoers get to the beach thinking they won’t need a hat. But when they get there, they realize they do! The hats are relatively light to carry (I saw one vendor with a stack of about 50 straw hats on his head). As I watched him sell to someone on the sand, I realized he also had an upsell! He took leather braided bands out of his pocket and offered to add one to the hat for just a few more pesos. Smart guy – beach goers need hats, and they didn’t wear him out to carry.

My second choice for the best thing to sell is the cold, fresh fruit. It both gives a beach person something to eat and quenches thirst. It’s colorful and appetizing, and very noticable since most of the fresh fruit vendors carry the trays on their heads. It’s not expensive, it’s healthy, and even the kids seemed to like it. It’s probably one of the easiest things to carry on the beach, and the tray actually gives the vendor a little shade as he walks.

The point to this is that there are many things to consider when you are deciding what and how to sell to your target market. You do have to consider the pound of flesh it takes out of you, the costs you have in obtaining the product, and, of course, what you believe your market will want.

This doesn’t apply to the beach vendors as much as it does to you, but one way to quit guessing what your market wants is to ask them! Use a brief survey, talk to a subset of your prospects now and then, keep your ear to the ground. You’ll be more apt to design something that is wanted and needed than if you just put something on your back and start walking.

(c) Sue Painter

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Filed Under: Marketing and Business Development Tagged With: Focus in Business, Picking a Target Market, Small Business Tips

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Comments

  1. Trudy says

    March 1, 2010 at 2:39 pm

    Lucky you being on vacation! Enjoyed the post and what you say makes so much sense – survey and ask instead of guessing or giving what we think our target market wants.

  2. Terry Monaghan says

    February 26, 2010 at 6:13 pm

    Well – duh! And how much time and effort we would save if we just remembered “ASK THEM” what they want!

    Great post!

  3. Phil Dyer says

    February 26, 2010 at 1:32 am

    Sue – What a fun post and what great observations! It is amazing how you can tie almost anything back to marketing…thanks for sharing!

    Phil Dyer
    America’s Entrepreneur Strategist™
    http://www.totalbusinesstransformation.com

  4. Goals Coaching says

    February 25, 2010 at 10:33 pm

    Sue, I was transfixed throughout the entire article. You really got my attention with the questions! Wooden pitchers? hmmm. The last thing I would want to do is carry a heavy load of hot blankets all day long. Good lesson, I love it!
    Lynn Moore

  5. Anita says

    February 25, 2010 at 4:36 pm

    Sue…after reading your post I was craving some “bottled water”!! I think it was your clear description of Mexico, beach, sun, umbrella’s etc. Well, written and very true of the beach & vendors.

    I just did a SURVEY with my “list” last night and I am still taking in all of the GREAT information. It is an amazing way to stay in touch with what your clients really want.

    Anita

    • suepainter says

      February 25, 2010 at 4:48 pm

      Anita, thankfully in Bucerias and Puerto Vallarta we don’t have to use bottled water for the most part anymore. Glad you enjoyed the article, and glad you surveyed your list!
      Sue

  6. Sue Painter says

    February 25, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    LOL, Lisa, I wish you had been there, too. I think I might have to go down and do a few more “case studies” before long, 😉
    Sue

  7. Lisa Manyon says

    February 25, 2010 at 1:13 pm

    Sue,

    This post really struck home with me. I’ve been having a lot of conversations with clients about offering what their clients really need not what they want to sell them.

    Interesting how it can be a challenge to get people to shift their thinking but your examples are perfect. My choices were the food and beverages, too. I kind of scratched my head about the pitchers and instruments — unless the vendors really thought locals would buy?

    Thanks so much for sharing. Wish I could have been a part of that case study. 🙂

    Write on!~

    Lisa

  8. Christine McIvor says

    February 25, 2010 at 11:22 am

    There are so many lessons that we can learn from the Mexicans. They have to be one of the best sales people on earth. I agree with the hats….. so easy to carry and something everyone needs. Even though Jewelry attracts a lot of people, hats are something a beach goer needs right then and there. What’s even better is that the sales person can actually see who needs one. This was a very enjoyable post to read : )

  9. Jessica Eaves Mathews says

    February 24, 2010 at 5:19 pm

    Great post, Sue! I love that you took note of all of this and turned it into a great lesson about knowing your target market! I can’t seem to help myself — I do that same kind of thing all the time. But there is so much wisdom in here about how to decide what to sell and how to sell it. And the visuals from your post make it easy to understand an apply to our own businesses. Thank you!

  10. Mitch Tublin says

    February 24, 2010 at 9:42 am

    Sue,
    Your post was enjoyable to read. Nice observations on marketing at the most basic level while in vacation mode!

Sue Painter

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