,

If there's anything you should get ingrained at the back of your mind as a business owner/marketer,

It's THIS simple truth.

And though this truth might hurt your feelings.

It may put a little dent or maybe even a huge crack on your fragile ego.

Heck, it may go against everything you have ever believed in before now.

But it doesn't make it any less true.

And I'll reveal THIS simple truth in a bit.

But first, I want you to do a little something for me.

Personally, I like to be very practical with my teachings.

That way, you can easily grasp the concepts I'm trying to teach.

Have you ever experienced a situation when a brand whose product you liked made one or two changes to their product...

...that made you stop liking their product or even stop buying their product entirely?

Yes?

Okay.

How about this...

Have you seen a situation where a brand went out of business because they did something their market/audience didn't like?

Or because they refused to do what their audience wanted?

Here's a real life example.

Some years ago, Nokia phones used to rule the GSM market.

And Blackberry?

If you owned a Blackberry Bold 5 back around 2013 to 2015, you were a proper big boy.

Just around a decade down the lane, and both those brands are nowhere near the top 5 or even top 10 GSM brands in Nigeria.

Blackberry doesn't even exist anymore (to my knowledge).

What do you think went wrong there?

A number of things.

First off, those brands refused to evolve with the changes that were happening in the GSM space.

But more importantly, those brands failed to realize that simple yet important truth that I mentioned at the beginning of this email.

And what is that simple truth?

It's this. ⤵️

Marketing is NOT about you. It's about your market.

Sounds so simple.

And it is highly underrated.

But this simple truth is the reason why some brands last for decades and even centuries...

While others fade away into silence over time.

Marketing is all about giving your market what they want — NOT what YOU THINK they want.

When other brands like Infinix and Tecno started making android devices and Apple started making iPhones...

...Nokia and Blackberry failed to realize that people were getting more accustomed to using phones with little or no buttons.

In fact practically everyone (aside from old folks) loved button-less phones.

I know I did.

They failed to spot the trend early enough.

Nokia later got the gist some years after though.

But by then, the other brands had taken over the market already.

And it became hard for them to break into a market they once dominated.

As a wise man once said...

"I won't wait to make mistakes before learning. I'll learn from other people's mistakes..." (paraphrased)

So as a business owner, get it into your head that you're here only because a market exists that you want to serve.

Without them, you won't be here.

And since you're here, and ESPECIALLY if you want to remain here, and for long enough...

Then you should learn to center your marketing around your audience.

• Make it all about them.
• Put out the kind of content they like to see.
• Manufacture the kind of products they like to use/buy.
• Solve problems they are going through and are actively looking for solutions to.
• Use the marketing strategies that you know they respond better to.
• Tailor your products and your marketing to suit your audience's needs.

Let the market decide.

Don't try to force your product or solution on the market.

Instead, find out what the market wants, and make it available to them.

Do this, and you can never go wrong with your marketing.

Refuse to do this,

And well,

You will see the results yourself.

But something tells me you may not like what you see.

Do with this information what you will.

I'm just here to do the Lord's work by playing my own part.

I'm rooting for you.

Yours for "market-centered marketing",

— KD™