The best marketing advice I have ever had.

Colleen Backstrom – Online Marketing http://www.kscope.co.za

The best marketing advice I have ever had was from Colin Adcock, the then CEO of Toyota, who changed the face of the marketing of cars in South Africa. “Marketing is easy” he said. “Simply find out what your customer wants. And give it to him.” And then he proceeded to tell me the story about how Toyota in the early days captured the new taxi market.

“We sent people to all the taxi ranks. They stood about and rode in the taxis and… listened.” Soon a problem became apparent. In the early days any old mini-bus became a taxi; the most common problem being that the door broke down. Certainly the door of a mini-bus designed for family transport was not going to withstand the constant opening and closing demanded of a taxi service. Colin ordered that the doors of all Toyota mini-buses leaving the factory had to be reinforced. The result. The market perception became that Toyotas were better made than the other mini-buses on the market. Toyota soon became known as the best mini-bus to buy if you are going to run a taxi service.