By Wendy Maynard • December 15, 201

By Wendy Maynard • December 15, 2010

WHO is Your Core Customer?


You have a strategic asset that is hidden and underutilized. It can become your inside advantage. You already have it and it doesn’t cost anything.

Now, your task is to discover it and to use it as a key asset that will drive your company’s growth. This “secret” asset is your remarkable, differentiated brand. Kinesis calls this your Brand of Attraction. It has several components. The first aspect is your WHO.

WHO: Your WHO is profitable. Your WHO is loyal. Your WHO is easy and fun for you to work with. Your WHO hangs out with like-minded folks and tells them all about your company.

Here’s the words to a recent Apple ad. It shows how well the company has intimately defined it’s WHO:


Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits, The rebels, The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.


You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.


About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.


They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.


Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?


While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

WHO is your core customer? Fully and clearly define the person most likely to buy and get the most value from your services and products. This is your ideal customer. You already have one. Visualize him or her. This is just ONE person. Imagine you are sitting across the table having coffee. This allows you to get can intimately familiar with him or her.

Describe this person in full detail from demographic details to their emotional make-up. Write down their desires, needs, and aspirations. What kind of clothes does he have? What kind of car does she drive? What does he value and appreciate most in life? What does she do on her days off? What is he going to get fired for – what is the pressure on him? What nightmares is she having at night? Where does she hang out on the weekend? How many kids? What is his hobby?

Determining your WHO, and making this person the central theme of all of your marketing is one of the foundational components of good marketing strategy.