Consumers want to escape, or change

All of your consumers purchase for two reasons.

1. They want to escape reality.
2. They want to be a different person.

Escaping reality

 

Think about purchasing tickets to a movie, going to a theme park, buying a book, CD, DVD, getting that coffee at Starbucks, having a drink with some friends, etc. All done to get away from it all, to escape the clutches of day to day life (even if it's only for a little while). If you have a product or service that facilitates escape make sure that your offering:

• Needs the consumer to be fully focused and engaged, effectively locking all the white noise around them (reality).
• Changes the perception of time.
• Touches the consumer on an emotional level. 
• Is unique to the individual.
• Requires the consumer to engage and interact.
• Gives the consumer a sense of control over the outcome.
• Has a clear end goal.

By following these steps, your product/service will become an experience. An engaging happening that pulls the consumer away from reality and let them enjoy an alternate reality.

 

Transforming

 

Even the most basic of products are bought because consumers want to change, want to be a different (better) person. Let's examine the process of buying that Ralph Lauren polo.Ralph Lauren is all about preppy, american classic, Hamptons, boat shoes, sailboats, etc. etc. When people buy this they are not buying the lifestyle, they are buying the life. Essentially consumers spending money to change into the person they see in the advertisements. People do not buy the polo to have the polo but buy it to be the one wearing the polo. 

 

 

Purchasing clothing is one of the fastest ways to change, to be someone different and most often in the customers eyes, better. Let us make this buying process a bit broader.

• The customer needs/wants a new shirt.
• The customer scans the market for an appropriate shirt.
• The customer sees a shirt that they like.

What does it mean when a customer likes something. Liking something is to see the highest degree of change into the direction the customer wants to change to. A customer has a goal of who they want to be, and when purchasing an item will refer back to whether this purchase will help them achieve this goal. When a customer likes something they think: "This will get me to where I want to be the fastest."

• The customer buys the shirt with the highest perceived degree of change.
• The customer has the direct satisfaction of having transformed.

Keep this in mind when creating your product/service. Think about where your market is now, what are their financial means, what is their current life status? Then think about where your market wants to be, what does your customer want to achieve, what kind of life do they want to have? By asking these questions and answering them with your product/service you will create true and lasting value that your market will buy.

 

Be the solution and make your customers better.

 

Do you make your customers better? 

Seth's Blog: The factory in the center

And things like customer service and community relations were expenses, things you did in order to keep the factory out of trouble.

So...

What happens when the factory goes away?

What if the organization has no engine in the center that makes something. What if that's outsourced? What if you produce a service or traffic in ideas? What happens when the revolution comes along (the post-industrial revolution) and now all the value lies in the stuff you used to do because you had to, not because you wanted to?

Now it doesn't matter where you sit. Now it doesn't matter whether or not you're adding to the efficiency or productivity of the machine. Now you don't market to sell what you made, you make to satisfy the market. Now, the market and the consumer and idea trump the system.

Suddenly, the power is in a different place, and the organization must change or else the donut collapses.

via sethgodin.typepad.com

So where is the power now? It is with the consumer, the market decides everything. How important is it now to have a pulse on the market? To know what your customer really wants? It is the MOST important. Companies are realizing this, that is why we see the following:

- Companies are looking for customer service solutions, responding better to their market.
- Companies responding to social media, getting closer to the market.

How is your business design? Is your customer at the center?

Looking for customer service?

"Do I believe them?" - The PID method.

Do I really believe them when this store says that their service is an experience? More and more companies are using their product/service experience to differentiate themselves, and the consumer becomes more and more skeptical. Why should I as a consumer believe this pitch? Everyone is claiming an experience but who really provides one?

Three steps to experience pitching succes:

1. Pitch it - sure tell your consumer that you've got a great experience.

2. Interest me - give me some indicators that you can deliver the experience. This can happen naturally; a smiling customer raving about the experience, or make yourself more transparent; Have open windows to show that before the pedicure even starts the customer is brought a cup of tea, a connection between "pedicurist" and "pedicuree" is made, and the customer looks relaxed (this appeals to me, I want to have a relaxing experience).

3. Deliver it - So I have been lured in by your tactics. Give it to me and give it to me good. If you don't give me my experience, I'll never come back (and I'll tell all my friends too, which include facebook friends).

Pitch it - Interest me - Deliver it

The PID method.

Build your story and they will come

Most entrepreneurs have an interesting and highly personal story behind their decision to launch their business, but many forget to share that story with customers. On New Belgium Brewing Company's tours, visitors learn the tale of founder Jeff Lebesch, an electrical engineer with a home-brewing hobby. Lebesch traveled through Belgium on his mountain bike in 1989 and returned home with a plan to open his own brewery. The name of New Belgium's signature Fat Tire Amber Ale is a reference to his mountain bike. In the beginning, Lebesch's wife, Kim Jordan (now New Belgium CEO), handled marketing and finances, and his neighbor, a painter, designed the iconic label art.

"It's a romantic story of a young man riding his bike in a foreign country and a young couple who made a sort of scary entrepreneurial leap to make a dream into a reality," says New Belgium spokesman Bryan Simpson. "That story is key to who we are, so we think it's important to share it."

via businessinsider.com

A consumer can find out anything about your company, embrace this transparency and use it to your advantage. Transparency requires an authentic company, with character.

1. Find out your company DNA

What does your company stand for? What do you believe in? Who are your customers? Who do you want to be your customers? What is your benefit to society. As Guy Kawasaki says, have a mantra, forget mission statements but have a statement of purpose. Do all your employees believe in this? Do all your employees live this mantra?

2. Create the story

Once you know, make it easy to understand, is it an easily digestible concept? If not, make it easy. Easy to understand and easy to remember. Stories make people remember.Create a start, climax, end.

3. Communicate your story

Do not broadcast, communicate. Find people with a similar story, people who can relate. Talk with them and engage. These are the people who are/will become your consumer. These are the people who will spread your story.

Build your story. If you build it, they will come.