Anyone Remember Dolly Mixtures?

| 4 minute read
DollyM
The all sorts of the sweetie world, Dolly Mixtures even preceded Liquorice Allsorts. They were a Saturday pocket money treat for us as young boys, with lots of different colour, texture and flavour. I don’t even know if they are still around, perhaps they went the way of Spangles. What’s important about Dolly Mixtures, other than they are a Pterodactyl – type confectionery?

Well, the answer is, that in amongst all the different Dolly Mixtures, we always had our favourites. So, when we had our packet of Dolly Mixtures, we would take out the ones we really loved and save them till last, eating up the others in any particular order.

I met up with a reasonable-sized business earlier this week. They had substantial revenues, not huge, with a good product, good team but ordinary at growing their business. They could grow a really significant business if only they would get out from the Dolly Mixture approach to marketing. Let me explain.

When I asked them who their customers were, there was stilted silence. Any ideas? Lots of general responses, such as ‘small businesses’ or ‘not too large and no startups’. Another question, ‘which type of customer provides most of your income?’ Clueless.

Dolly mixtures are how far too many businesses view their next customer. A mix of all sorts. As businesses embark on growth through marketing, the approach is almost always about the media. We’re doing Facebook, social media, television, website, flyers…and so on. Not a thought about who they want to talk to, and how that person would like to be spoken to.

There seems to be a paranoia that somehow, we can’t afford to miss out on anyone, so we try everyone. You will never be all things to all people so stop trying. The beginning and the basis of all marketing it to know and understand your customer, in amongst the hundreds and thousands of others out there who won’t ever be your customer. No matter what the offer, or how you approach them. You need to singularly take out your favourites, those who matter most to your company, those whom you would like to find more of, lots more of.

My suggestion is to go out and buy a packet of dolly mixtures, take out all your favourites and throw away the rest. Just one favourite mind you, no more. Then look at those favourites as the single type of people that you would like to build your business around and for the rest of 2015, just focus on them.

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