Many companies begin—and many continue—without a clear sense of their target customer. Some resist clarifying the target; they want to appeal to as many buyers as possible, and defining a target implies excluding some customers. Others are unable to describe in more than a cursory way who does or will buy their offerings. We have to serve the entire market, runs one common belief. Or sometimes: We can’t afford to focus.
Asking customers what they want, with no constraints, doesn’t always help: Customers typically respond that they want “more” and “better.” Sometimes that leads companies to conclude that more is the same as better.