The $100,000 impulse purchase
March 19, 2012 —
All buying decisions are based on emotion.
This assertion deeply offends people, especially B2B marketers who believe in their own rational choices. They will concede that while They (artists, voters, teenagers, televangelists) are driven by emotions, We right-thinking folk (you, me, actuaries, rocket surgeons) are certainly not.
But the evidence is stacked the other way. Customers buy from people they like, and by extension, from brands they like. That uber-rational government purchasing officer who’s impressed that you shaved a penny off the price will, after you tell an offensive joke, decide that delivery time outweighs price, and the bid goes to your competitor.
Consider college choices, a considered purchase by reputation, since it often has a 6-figure price tag. No impulses permitted. A year, maybe two, of research to whittle 3000 schools to 25 to 10 to 3 seems like the most rational, careful make-a-list-with-check-marks kind of selection process. Ever so left-brained. But what happens next? College visits are planned, and the prospective student sets foot on Campus A. If it’s a positive experience, the odds are better than 70% that Colleges B and C will never even get visited. Emotional commitment made; search over.
What’s the takeaway for marketers? Your planning, whether you’re selling B2C, B2B, causes, candidates, law firms or falafel shops – must not focus totally on content. Devote plenty of attention to making the ad campaign (or website or catalog or email or brochure or skywriting) likable, credible and unexpected. Being the first examined in the selection set is vastly more important than establishing differentiation, or what we used to call a USP. Then, making the first experience of encountering the brand positive (think: the atmosphere of the Apple Store, the front desk of the Ritz-Carlton, a Pez dispenser, the goofy announcements on Southwest Air, Nike advertising) forge a lasting bond.
Is this radically different from what we call Salesmanship 101? Yes, indeedy. But old-school sales is dead.
We just bought a used Honda from a Ford Dealership, because the saleswoman is a friend of a friend and we liked her.
We didn’t want to go through the ordeal of interacting with other used car salesmen. We payed more than we had planned, just so the unpleasant car shopping process would be over!
Posted by Joseph Fischer on Dec 22, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I agree with the entire sentiment behind all of this. And 9 times out of 10, you probably will buy the product or service based upon an emotional decision. But before you get to that stage, those choices are going to be influenced by the advertising that will be a mixture of the emotional engagement you have with that brand and the rational – “UCB”, or unique customer benefit?
Posted by David Nute on Jul 6, 2011 at 7:04 am