Seven: How Customers Buy
A customer's decision to purchase is seldom instantaneous, but represents a transition between a process of evaluation and the activity that results. The important thing is that decision-making is a process and not an event.
The mistake many vendors make is assuming that the customer has made a "final decision" before approaching them to purchase an item. At best, it is merely a tentative decision, and one that they can change at any moment before the sales transaction is formalized. (EN: While that seems rather tidy, it's not entirely true. Given that customers can void a transaction and demand a refund, a decision that seems final can be un-made.)
The buying decision process begins with the customer's recognition of a need, and they begin the search for a solution.
- If it is an unfamiliar need, then the search is broad as they consider the various courses of action that could be taken and the products or services that are required to enable them to take those actions. There is a great deal of uncertainty, research, and estimation.
- If it is a familiar need, one which has been solved to their satisfaction in the past, then the search generally ends in a decision to use the same solution (buy the same product)
- If it is a finial need, and one that was not satisfactorily solved, it is treated as if it were an unfamiliar need - but the course of action they took before is specifically excluded.
The focus for now is on the unfamiliar need, as it is the most intensive of the three searches in which the customer slowly comes to a buying decision through their consideration of alternatives.
Branding and the Buying Process
The goal of branding is to create a unique and specific identity, such that demand can be generated for your company's products, rather than a generic product of the same type.
Primarily, it was so that a customer who had enjoyed their experience would be able to seek the same brand again - but it also functioned as a proper name for the product when recommending it to others who had no experience.
Over the years, the role of brand has become diffuse, and even attempted to apply in a backward manner - as if the color, shape, and text used in branding would put the consumer in a specific frame of mind that would improve their perception of the experience.
Arguably, the elements of branding could give an inexperienced observe an expectation (the brand would imply the product had certain qualities), but ultimately their experience of the product would override the implications of brand, and not the other way around.
(EN: The same can be said of advertising in general - you can fool a person into thinking certain things about your product if they have not used it, but once they have, their experience overrides the image the brand projects.)
Articulating the Need, the Want, or the Problem
Before a customer identifies a product or service that he wishes to buy, he is aware of the goal he wishes to achieve - whether to overcome a problem or achieve a better state. That is to say, the customer realizes "I am thirsty" long before he arrives at the notion that "I would like to buy a soda."
The earlier your brand occurs to the customer as a solution to his needs, the more likely he will decide to make a purchase without further deliberation. This is the reason that a brand of beer seeks to associate itself to the need (thirst) rather than the product (soda), though the drawback might be for a product that suits multiple needs (for example, more people now purchase baking soda as a deodorizer or for cleaning than for baking).
The problem is not merely in matching a product to a need, but in matching the way in which a solution is described to the way in which the customer might describe their problem. This is far more obvious an issue in online marketing, where products wish to match the exact keywords that customers type to find a solution to their problem - but it's also a problem in traditional advertising because the customer tends to focus on exact concepts and ignore others - i.e., a customer who wants to remove a "spot" from their "clothing" might give attention to a radio advertisement that uses those key words, but almost certainly would (continue to) ignore a commercial if a product is described as a "fabric stain" remover.
The Information Continuum
There has been a lot of effort put into taxonomy of information, largely by insiders. This results in "compacted information" that become shortcuts to comparing products. For example, a book has a title, an author, a publisher, a genre, a language, and so on. A customer who is looking to purchase a book can search by any of these known identifiers to find the precise book that they want, provided they have a general idea in advance (they know they like a specific author, or books of a specific genre)
This is opposed to "non-compacted information" that has a much broader range. That is, a product such as a digital camera may have some compacted information such as its make, model, megapixel rating, optical zoom, and the like. But there are also factors customers consider that are not so easy to qualify, such as a camera that is good for sporting events, or one that takes better pictures outdoors, or one that enables them to upload images wirelessly.
To the customer, the non-compacted information is often more germane to their decision, and of primary interest: the number of cubic feet of trunk space is meaningless, but knowing it's large enough to hold fifteen grocery bags or three large suitcases is something he can understand, even if it is not very precise or scientific.
Handles and Angles in the Buying Process
While vendors see the information about their product as a direct line of communication to the consumer, the consumers are subjected to information by many vendors, such that it all becomes an amorphous "blob" of data in which the meaning of individual messages are lost in the clutter.
Each customer sees the blob from a different angle, and as such has a different impression of what it means. Some customers can even consider more than one angle of perception. This angle determines their perception of their needs and solutions in general, and ultimately determines the degree to which they perceive your brand.
Customers approach this nebulous cloud of information with equally nebulous needs. A customer who is dissatisfied with the appearance of their home has a vague notion of a solution: a fresh coat of paint, furniture, lamps, wall hangings, new carpet, or a combination of these and other things - or perhaps an interior decorator to help them understand their own vision. They may not be clear on their needs, or they may have a great deal of focus on a solution that won't achieve them. As such, an advertisement for paint may or may not speak to their needs.
The authors' system, called "Persuasion Architecture," begins with a sense of the need and attempts to identify all the angles from which a customer might seek to solve them by purchasing products and services.
Speaking to what customers need, in the exact vocabulary in which they need it, is the first step: when the two match, a brand has a "handle" on the customer that gives them a vague sense that your product might be a solution to their problem. But this is only the entree, the hook that gets initial attention.
What follows from there are additional questions to help the buyer define their needs, and feel certainty that your brand is the best solution. It also requires causing the customer to think about their needs in a more comprehensive manner, to discover features they may not know about or have difficulty describing, to assess whether their budget is adequate, etc.
Working with the customer to understand their needs may lead some to conclude that your brand is not at all a good fit - and doing so may lost you a one-time sale. But for those who come to understand that your brand is an excellent fit, it will gain you a lifetime of sales as well as word of mouth. This considered, it's well worth the risk.
The authors return to the notion of language: a customer who wants a "big-screen TV" is going to use those exact words to find one, whether in the direct and literal manner of using a search engine, or the indirect manner of having this phrase in mind and giving attention to commercial messages that match. That is, if you insist on using an industry term such as "projection" rather than the more colloquial "big-screen," you will be ignored by potential customers.
A fatal mistake in marketing is to expect the customer to learn your preferred language. For example, auto dealers who use the phrase "previously owned vehicles" in a vain attempt to change the customers' perception of the quality of their product miss a lot of sales from customers who are looking to purchase a "used car."
(EN: In some instances, though rather few, a brand has been able to change the vocabulary of customers, to its own advantage. When the customer says "band aid" instead of "adhesive bandage" or "coke" instead of "cola" then the brand has top-of-mind consideration to the exclusion of other brands. So the insistence on "teaching the market" has potential to counter the risks.)
AIDA+S
The authors refer to the classic marketing acronym of AIDA - attention, interest, desire, and action - by which marketers sought to accommodate the behavior of customers through the buying process, to the final "action" of making a purchase.
The authors don't dispute the model, but suggest adding a "S" to the end, to represent 'satisfaction," which should be the ultimate goal of marketing rather than merely a sale. Satisfaction is the different between firms that pursue a one-time sale and those that get repeat business.
A satisfied customer is more likely to associate their need with your brand each time it arises. A dissatisfied customer is likely to exclude your brand the next time the need arises.
Micro- and Macro-Actions
Another shift in focus is necessary, to shift from the macro action of purchasing a product to the micro actions that occur along the way.
Traditionally, marketers assumed that once the customer was motivated to perform the macro action, then the micro actions were unimportant: the customer would suffer through the firm's desired selling process in order to accomplish the goal of buying their product.
In fairness, they were justified in thinking this in traditional commerce, where a customer who had undertaken the effort to visit their store, gather the merchandise, and proceed to a checkout had invested considerable time, and walking away would mean repeating the same process with a different merchant (if one existed within driving distance), so they would be willing to tolerate intrusive questions at the check-out counter.
In the present market, particularly with ecommerce, the customer does not feel a sense of time-investment and is very quick to click away to a competitor when any part of the process seems suspect or uncomfortable for them. That is to say that the little things mean more now than ever before.
The Internet experience provides a model for the buying process: each click is a micro action that brings the prospect closer to the sale - and the decision to proceed from one link to the next is bade on how customers feel about their experience. In terms of motivation, each click reflects satisfaction with their experience, whether it meets their expectations and increases their confidence in their progress toward to the goal. On the other hand, each click represents a decision to remain engaged, with the potential that the customer will choose not to do so.
The click-trail of the Internet is easily measured and traced - but in the offline world, each click has an equivalent, and presents the same opportunity to engage or disengage along the path to the sale.