become interwoven . Private banks may have a small group of customers , but to those customers they are highly relevant .

Customer intimacy could also be construed more widely as a thorough knowledge of what a customer group is concerned with or what needs they have . For example , Live Nation is a market leader when it comes to organising rock concerts . All they do really is bring artists , venues and visitors together , but they manage to do this in such a way that many of the concerts are sold out .

I therefore propose to replace the terms focus strategy and customer intimacy with the term ' customer relevance '. Customer relevance is the extent to which you are important to customers , know how to appeal to them and to catch their attention . It is that attention that makes it possible to sell products and services . Because of customer relevance , customers opt to also buy standard products or services from you , instead of from your competitors ( Figure 10 ).

The big difference between customer intimacy and customer relevance is that the latter is argued from the perspective of the customer , and as such goes one step further . Today , a lot of businesses have a suitable range of products for their buyers , and they try to bring this to their attention . You will not be relevant until that what you promise is exactly in line with the needs of that one particular buyer at that time .

Brands are the carriers of customer relevance . This is owing to the various functions of a brand , of which recognisability is the most important . Users will attribute certain values and features to a brand , partly based on advertisements , and fill in the rest of the picture with their previous experiences with products and services offered under that brand .

Being relevant to a market is a sustainable competitive advantage , whether it is a small group to whom you are very important or a large group that values you for certain aspects . Customer relevance is linked to your business name or brand name and can be protected by committing your most important staff , by sharing customer and market knowledge in protected databases , and by translating this knowledge into the right combination of products and services .

If a business targets the market under various names brands , then you need to assess the relevance per brand . Thus , to most customers Unilever may not be relevant as a company , whereas brands such as Lipton or Dove may well be .

Figure 10 . Development of differentiation on customer focus

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