Consumers (and corporate buyers) go through a mental process before finally deciding to buy something. This process is called the buying process aka buyer journey, buyer cycle or buyer funnel. To successfully perform their job of encouraging leads and customers to (eventually) buy their offering, marketers and sales people analyze their customer's current stage within this process.
Knowing the market's current stage within the buying process, as well as the associated barriers to purchase, aka sales objections, allows marketers to strategically influence customers to advance further through the buying process.
Uses
- Marketers use this knowledge when deciding on appropriate communication messaging through social media posts, product packaging design, your brand tone, the focus of the sales pipeline and so on. It is a matter of adaptation to avoid wasting time or losing the lead. Example(s).
- If a pre-launch survey discovers customers are at the 'evaluation of alternatives' stage but would need to know your brand better to feel more trusting of it, you will know that you must pay special attention to generating pre-launch product and brand reviews.
- If a survey discovers that your market is in the 'information search' stage but perceives your products to be technical and hard to understand, you may focus on instructional or demonstration content, perhaps using videos, labels, handbooks and so on in ways that your target market can understand.
- Marketers use knowledge of the process to prepare a set of appropriate responses for each phase. That way, they enter into any sales situation well prepared.
- Marketers can use the knowledge to remove business friction. In this context, business friction refers to anything that prevents or dissuades prospects from buying or advancing naturally through the purchase funnel. Examples of friction include insufficient information, untrustworthy presentation, long wait times, products being out of stock.
- Assuming that you have already figured the normal number of engagement touchpoints required to convert leads, you can predict customers' conversion time and plan accordingly, perhaps aligning them with tentpole events. BTW, As a rule of thumb, more expensive and B2C products require more touchpoints.
The consumer's stages of the purchase decision.
- recognizes the problem / need
- searches for information about solutions.
- Evaluates alternatives
- Decides to buy
- Evaluates the quality of the purchase decision after the purchase.
Stage 1. Problem / Need Recognition (Awareness)
This stage relates to customer's recognition of the existence of a problem and their consequent need for a solution.
Some problems have clear triggers that force your target to recognize their problem. For instance, when someone becomes ill, the discomfort of their illness is a clear trigger that they need to resolve a health problem. They can be anything, like; emotional states (sadness, joy, jealousy, guilt and so on) which are 'internal triggers'; ad advertisement or other forms of marketing or 'external triggers'; a car breaking down; an acne breakout; plans to have a wedding, seeing the experiences of others that somehow peak one's interest and so on. Marketers often take advantage of predictable triggers. This is the essence of tentpole marketing like seasonal or other events that include back to school preparation, wedding anniversaries, Christmas and so on. In short, marketers should get to understand customer triggers.
However, sometimes, marketers can even generate needs in the minds of consumers. Marketers can encourage consumers to see their current product solution as inadequate by showing how a newer product can fill a gap of an unconsidered need. In other words, marketers create the need and trigger customers. Example(s)
A consumer who already has a pair of pants may be shown an advertisement in which a more modern style of pants feature strategically positioned pockets that add convenience and security in ways that the current product solution does not.
Skilled marketers do NOT consider their products as solutions for only functional problems / needs. Specifically, marketers often appeal to Maslow's hierarchy of human needs with very emotionally-triggering forms of marketing. For example, luxury products are commonly used to fabricate needs include of feelings of belonging to social groups, sense of actualization, respectability and success. Needless to say, triggering emotional needs are stirred with the use of techniques like the principles of influence and lifestyle marketing. While not necessarily the case, this is a likely approach for marketing products whose attributes alone are unlikely to make it strong in the market.
B2C Case(s)
- Brands like Coca Cola is a classic example of the use of emotional marketing because the focus of communication does not even relate to the drink. Marketing focuses instead on human emotional needs for connecting with others socially as a means of happiness. Read the full case study about Coca Cola's emotionally-triggering advertising.
The same applies to B2B customers. In other words, know the business needs to which you can offer a unique value proposition (UVP) through your careful brand positioning. Spend time to study and create a profile to intimately understand your target market. To think of your offering to them narrowly in terms of products a and b may be as uncompetitive as discussing features rather than benefits to B2C customers. Since products are only means to an end, they have hardcore business needs like 'sales velocity' aka 'pipeline velocity' (Sales velocity relates to how quickly your products can move through the retailer's sales pipeline / process while generating revenue within a set sales cycle period (commonly 1 month). Its measurement involves 4 key variables, namely 1- number of qualified leads aka 'opportunities', 2- average value of sales, 3- the conversion rate of qualified leads and 4- the length of the actual sales cycle ). Wherever possible, offer retailers opportunities to enhance as many of the 4 elements of the equation to in turn enhance their overall sale velocity. Sales velocity relates to internal drivers. Most common external divers include technological changes in operational processes like online ordering and payments.
B2B Case(s):
- Wholesale buyers (retailers of your FMCG). They are unlikely to be passionately interested in your products. So do not focus on simply selling products. Rather, do several things; illustrate how your products are a good fit within their market; as part of your sales pitch to them, share market research on your product that suggests additional creative placements (aka 'increased sales opportunities, an element that improves sales velocity). For instance,
- share with the retailer that female respondents to your market research reported an unexpected use for your product to remove makeup. You can then offer regular or, appropriate size for bundling with or placement next to a market leader's makeup (to increase opportunities of qualified leads). To do this effectively, seek out alternate placement opportunities by studying your customer's retail website catalog collections or brick & mortar planogram.
- Perhaps several of your products can be volume bundled together or you can recommend cross selling options (to increase the average 'deal value')
- Perhaps you can create differently colored seasonal variants that, in addition to going in its usual boring aisle placement, it can make it to coveted end cap presentations, thereby increasing number of opportunities).
- Offer an additional size for your consumer who has the pain point but with less frequency and not to the same degree as the target for whom the pain point is urgent and persistent (to increase the number of opportunities).
- Offer shelf talkers that communicate effectively, thereby freeing up time of the retailer's sales people. (This essentially reduces the retailer's sale cycle).
- Offer your wholesale customers to use reviews from your research or earlier sales. They can display these on their websites and or as part of the POP display.
- Avoid stocking out your wholesale customers. Otherwise, the 0 sales will lower your overall sales velocity.
Your response:
- Find out your market's (internal and external) triggers. Find out your target's needs, not only as they relate to your specific product or service offering but also in terms of your 'extended offering'. For instance, after establishing all the decision-making roles within B2B customer organizations, find out the needs or pain points of each role. Specifically ask something like, 'What attribute(s) do you use for selecting suppliers of [__name of your product or service]". In other words, you may be able to tip the scale in your favor in multiple ways. Similarly, also survey your B2C to also know how to improve their sales velocity.
- Perhaps Coca Cola asked consumers open-ended questions about the life events that encouraged them to buy soft drinks. They likely also asked about the positive benefit consumers got from those experiences. While everyone would have worded the benefits differently, Coca Cola's researcher likely saw lots of positivity, observed many faces turn to smiles as respondents reminisced and then concluded that the common thread could be summed up in one word; 'happiness'. I imagine that, at first, some non-marketing professionals not yet understanding the power of psychology in marketing scoffed at the idea, saying, 'but it's just a sugary drink!' Today, Coca Cola continues to be a global leader against the odds of strong trends towards a healthier diet. Their Christmas tentpole marketing is an example of how this brand 'increases opportunities of qualified leads' who are thinking of love and reunions with family and friends at that time of year.
- If your target does not recognize its need, seek to inform your market of its existence. Needs are arguably the most important step because needs create the interest and will to act. (B2C & B2B)
- Address sales objections as a means to make sure the (perceived) need can stick. To this end, find out any biases your target may have (that may become sales objections) like being used to a specific brand, specification type and so on.
- Qualify leads (in a fully designed sales pipeline). If unsure, do not shy away from asking B2c and B2B leads directly about their greatest challenges. B2B are likely even more articulate than consumers. Remove non-qualifying leads as they will encourage you to waste time and lower your overall sales velocity.
- B2C case(s)
- Products announce their qualification criteria with statements like 'children from 5 to 12 years old'. 'sexually explicit content, viewer discretion advised' and so on.
- B2B case(s)
- One of my B2B clients has a webpage contact form that asks consumers qualifying questions as a condition to initiating a live chat call or leaving any type of message.
- Introduce your brand with its clear UVP. This essentially qualifies or disqualifies you to leads.
2. Information Search (research)
After customers recognize their problem, they seek information. This often simply involves seeking out solutions. However, in some cases, a remedial approach also involves seeking deeper insight into the problem, especially if it is one that is technical.
In either case, this research most commonly takes the form of internet searches and asking people within their circle (for details about their experiences and advice). Example(s)
- If a customer's car broke down, he may learn more about his car to know what car part was problematic. He may also begin to learn that cars can be repaired with new car parts, replaced with new or second hand ones, public transport, car pooling, biking or walking might be possible options.
Your response
- Create advertisements that provide enough information that peaks the interest of consumers. Also consider that the product benefit may not be the focus of the messaging but subconscious needs. The expectation is that leads are likely to then dig for deeper details in the next stage.
- Coca Cola provides information not about the product but of \happiness' and what it looks like when consuming the drink.
- A car manufacturer's advertisement may focus on showing how reliably their car functions, perhaps showcasing how owners of their cars are always on time for social events (social needs for belonging), work (self actualization and esteem needs) and so on according to the motivating needs of the market.
- Use search keywords in online communications (website, social media, advertisements and so on).
- Provide only relevant information. Extraneous information can be a distraction and turnoff.
3. Evaluation of Alternatives (consideration)
At this stage, customers compare and contrast competing solutions on the basis of attributes they subjectively consider important. At some level, your target is engaging in product or brand positioning. (See how you business can engage in branding positioning very strategically).
Needless to say, a strong influence is the lead's attitude towards his or her 'level of mental involvement' into the evaluative process. Specifically, this relates to the time and effort spent comparing numerous products or brands versus evaluating only alternatives within one company or immediately in front of them.
- New ventures should showcase positive reviews whenever possible to build consumer trust.
- I think that it is wise to use POP displays that are as persuasive as possible for low involvement leads. Given the fact that they arrive at the store without much or any prior knowledge, they rely heavily on the in-store experience to complete this stage of evaluation.
- Cosmeceuticals. In my personal experience, consumers with lower levels of involvement are sometimes not among your most valued target market. For instance, if you sell acne products, low involvement persons includes those with 'normal' skin who experience the acne pain point only once in a while as a relatively mild form of acne. Furthermore, the breakout may even last for a shorter period than average. In such cases, their demand can be described as 'irregular' (ie only when they have a breakout or 'seasonal') or the demand may be 'negative' (in that there might be resistance as the perception of it is similar to that of medicine). Consequently, you must rely more heavily on product packaging, POP displays and maybe advertisements that keep your brand in people's minds during their 'off-season' periods. Communication must consider that such segments are likely to have not even established their own personal set of must-have attributes for comparison between brands, product or brand preferences and so on. They might either decide against worrying with getting a solution or, if they do not have a secondary pain point like price-sensitivity, would evaluate alternatives based on something like size because such consumers need a smaller size for the relatively short-term breakout. In short, findings like this may motivate you to provide variants in product sizes or advertisements.
- People going to buy soft drinks, especially in large volumes, usually do so for social gatherings. It is therefore a stroke of genius on the part of the Coca Cola branding managers to have fabricated a strong association between the drink and social connections as a doorway to happiness. Ultimately, at some subconscious level, shoppers may consider Coca Cola for fitting (than Pepsi) for making their party more enjoyable. Shoppers mentally replay scenes of the joyful events in advertisements but , at the point of purchase, inserting themselves and friends into the scenes.
Your response.
- Know the key product attributes on which customers compare and contrast brands. Also know where your competitive brand position. Stress that unique selling proposition / unique value proposition as the better option over your competitors.
- Reviews on home page and product pages.
- Community Q&A forums.
- When dealing with B2B customers, be proud of your premium prices. In fact. a good strategy is to offer the following 3 price tiers. If you present your brand as worthy, you may get the surprise premium sales.
- low-cost level for the most basic offering
- the mid-level option that you think they are likely to accept and then
- the premium option (that you are unsure whether they will take).
This is the point of conversion, aka the point at which the prospect finally converts him or herself into a paying customer through a purchase.
Your response
- Make the transaction as easy as possible.
- Use selling tactics. For instance, use images of people whose eyes are visible, use editorial images of people enjoying the product and fulfilling even subconscious benefits ie versus images with white backgrounds. These techniques trigger emotions. Emotions are essential in enhancing conversion because they trigger action. (Emotionless transactions run the risk of indifference to the offering).
- You have a process for recapturing abandoned cart cases.
- Eliminate distractions. For instance, do not have links away from the checkout.
- Some sellers show reviews of the business' site and customer experience. There may be important assurances like of tracking services.
- Be as transparent as possible with the price and additional costs like shipping and taxes.
5. Post-purchase behavior / evaluation
- Reinforce the purchase decision, especially for high ticket items like a personalized 'thank you' card congratulating customers for having bought the product and reiterating the benefits. This is intended to minimize potential customers' cognitive dissonance.
- Request feedback from customers. They are more likely to actually give reviews if you ask.
- Include promotional items in order packages. Customers are highly likely to repurchase from the brand.
CONTENT RELATED TO THE PURCHASE DECISION
- Point of purchase (POP) displays should be informed by the consumer's buying decision.
- Tribal branding is the ultimate level of brand affinity that your customer can have with your brand. This type of branding ensures that your customers make favorable purchase decisions based on an emotional bond with your brand.
- Social media management
- Sales funnel 101.
- Sales objections
- Sales pipeline
- Map your customer lifetime journey
- B2B and B2C 'customer personality' traits that you should consider when selling.
- Social media 101 - Social media is the ultimate means for customer engagement
- Unique selling proposition (USP)
- brand positioning
- Wholesale payment terms
- Customer relationship management
- B2B
- B2C
- Abovementioned case studies in other content
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