4: Qualitative Relevance
Once you have determined which customers find your product relevant, you should further investigate the degree of relevance. That is, relevance varies and some customers find your product to be more relevant, or relevant in a more important way, than others.
Consider this: a person who is really "into" bicycling, who is president of a bicycle riding club, attends bicycling events, teaches bicycle safety classes, and otherwise makes bicycling part of his personal identity is much more enthusiastic about the brand of tires on his bicycle than is the average rider who uses a bicycle to pedal around a college campus.
It's also worth noting the affiliation people feel to nonprofit entities and charitable causes. There is a wide range of levels of attachment, from the person who donates each year because they have a vague sense of wanting to support the cause to the person who volunteers a lot of time and makes supporting the cause a major part of their identity.
This isn't quite as straightforward as demographic segmentation: One man may be a fan of golf and disinterest in soccer, whereas his neighbor (of the same gender, ethnicity, age, income bracket, religion, family size, profession, etc.) has the exact opposite interests. All of this makes qualitative relevance seem very subjective and "mushy."
Behavioral psychology can attempt to define the various reasons a person gravitates to a brand - but it tends to be the sum of a lifetime's experience, which may be included or excluded from a deliberate decision-making process.
Consider the customer who purchases a Sony television. He may have researched brands online and found it to have the features he wants. He may have received a sales promotion in which that brand was the best deal among comparable alternatives. He may have heard a friend or relative he respects speak positively about their experience with the brand. He may have heard the corporation made a large donation to a charity he supports. He may have seen their advertising in a sports match. He may have owned another Sony product (such as a walkman) and have fond memories of the brand. So which of these factors influenced his decision, and to what degree?
It's also mentioned that we are not purely rational creatures, and emotion and impulse also factor into the way in which we relate to brands, in a way that we may be unaware of - or loath to admit if we are. It's rare for an individual to recognize and admit that they made a purchasing decision based on irrational criteria.
In general, the author suggests four categories of things that influence our purchasing decisions:
- Thinking. This evaluation deals with the manner in which we apply logic. We seek out information and compare one item to another, or against a list of criteria. We are aware of the thinking we have done, and can suggest that a purchase was made for specific reasons: the product was cheap, it has a good reputation, it had the features I needed, and so on.
- Image. Evaluations based on image considers the way we expect others will perceive us for consuming or being associated with a brand. People consider how their friends, family, and peers might perceive them and in general attempt to influence those perceptions by projecting a self-image that corresponds to the way they want others to think of them. The way we dress for an interview or a date has nothing to do with the functional aspects of the clothing, but all about the impression we want to create. (EN: This is not always a factor, as some brands do not appear to others - or which we will intentionally keep hidden from others.)
- Values. Values are the ethical, moral, and religious beliefs that a person values (EN: or wants to be perceived by others as valuing - there are far more hypocrites and posers than true believers) that they will also apply to others with whom they interact. A person may refused to deal with a salesman who does not belong to his religious group, or she may refuse to do business with a firm whose practices are perceived as being cruel to animals.
- Sensory Appeal. This deals with the way things appeal to the senses: sight, touch, smell, taste, and sound. A person may buy a product that "looks good" or "sounds right" or "feels solid" regardless of whether it has the features and functions they need. Some goods (restaurant means, fashion clothing, and the like) are primarily sold based on sensory appeal rather than functional qualities.
(EN: My sense is that there are far more categories, particularly non-functional ones, that influence the purchasing decision, but this seems like a good start and covers the most significant ones for most shoppers.)