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IN THIS ISSUE:
| Bulletin Archive | |
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FROM THE EDITOR
Thanks to those of you who responded to the mini-survey in last month’s issue of the Bulletin. You’ve helped guide the content of future issues. I appreciate your suggestions. Summer Reading
Do you think I’m curled up on the beach with a good novel or an
intriguing mystery? Think again!
For marketing-obsessed people like me, the summer reading list contains intriguing titles like Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need (2002) by Pamela Danziger, president of Unity Marketing. Her firm consults with consumer product businesses that sell luxury and discretionary products. In tight times like these, her advice is relevant to many of us. Let me share a few insights from her book. Necessities sell themselves; discretionary purchases don’t. Consumers need reasons to buy things they don’t need. Danziger calls these reasons “justifiers”. It is the justifiers that give consumers the illusion they’re making their decisions reasonably. But in reality, they remain driven more by personal desires and emotions. As marketers we need to understand how to meet our customers on an emotional level. We need to give customers sufficient justifiers to overcome barriers and doubts about a purchase. Salespeople do this in person, interacting with a customer. But marketers must achieve this through our written communications, advertisements, and so on. That means anticipating the range of objections customers may present, and developing justifiers to counter them. The book describes research conducted by Unity Marketing, revealing the justifiers consumers believe to be driving their purchase of products they don’t need. Tops on that list is quality of life. People buy products to improve and enhance the quality of their lives, in every aspect. Quality-of-life factors can be intellectual, physical, spiritual, emotional, or social. Danziger’s chapter on quality-of-life justifiers by itself justifies the purchase of this book. Demographics of Discretionary Spenders Danziger’s research suggests that the demographic group most driven to make discretionary purchases to enhance quality of life are those aged 25-34 (immersed in career and family-building). Other demographic attributes associated with high scorers on Danziger’s survey include moderate income levels (more so than low or high-income households) and completion of education. Interestingly, Danziger finds correlations with completion of education, not just participation, whether at high school or college level. Apparently following through on the effort to gain education is a marker of individuals who are motivated to improve their quality of life. Justifiers Inspire Positioning Strategies The challenge for marketers of discretionary purchases, Danziger concludes, is to figure out how our brands and products figure in making people’s lives more meaningful, more satisfying, more convenient...in other words, of better quality. When we figure that out, we can present and reinforce our messages about enhancing quality of life through the products and services we sell. An in-depth understanding of how our products enhance quality of life guides us toward positioning strategies that reflect our customers’ beliefs and values. Now if you’ve followed my writing for very long, here and elsewhere, you know I’m a big believer in positioning. And if that idea is new to you, check out our articles on branding and positioning on bCentral. And be sure to consider adding Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need to your summer reading list. Resources Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need “Your Unique Selling Proposition: Use it or lose it” “Branding: a key strategy in the age of parity” TOOL BITS
Demographic Data Helps You Make Advertising Decisions
As a marketing consultant, my client projects almost always begin with a phone call. About half the time, somebody launches into a tale that reveals poor media planning, and almost all the time, that story ends with the same question. “Can you help me get out of this mess?” There was the dentist who bid $200 at a charity auction and got an advertising “hole” in a local business magazine but didn’t know what to do with it. There was the cleaning service that bought a radio station’s package to get a booth at a business expo, but didn’t know how to fill the thirty-second commercial spots that came bundled with the booth. Take note. Neither of these people were using their noggins when it comes to when and where to advertise. How do you find a good match between your prospective customers and specific advertising outlets, like local newspapers, or billboards, or radio commercials? The Market Research Tools from Third Wave Research will help. First, you’ll need a profile of your current customers. (See last issue’s Tool Bits if you’re unfamiliar with this concept.) Profiling your customers should reveal what attributes set the best apart from the rest. Base your advertising decisions on that profile and you’ll be aiming your ads at people who have a better-than-average probability to become good customers, not just tire-kickers. If you haven’t yet profiled your customers, you will want a Household Spending report to help you understand the purchase behavior of your target prospects and customers. Second, you need a demographic profile of your trade area. Why? To discover whether the local media outlets reach people who are reasonably similar to the prospective customers you
Media planners look at demographics, psychosocial traits, life stage and lifestyle characteristics, all in hopes of matching available media to the desired target market. If the dentist who bid at the charity auction had looked at these factors, it’s doubtful he would have chosen a business magazine as the appropriate match of media to target market. For the cleaning service the fit of media to target market was better, but there was a catch they failed to see when they signed the contract. Both businesses made commitments that required more dollars than just those written in the advertising contract—after all, each required additional production services to fill the time or space. But even worse, both businesses wasted every dollar they spent, through a failure to generate enough frequency in their advertising. A Failure of Frequency Frequency is just one of the factors a media planner must take into account when assembling a plan. (“Frequency” is the number of times an audience is exposed to an ad message.) The goal of advertising is to change beliefs and behaviors—and that requires learning. Repetition is the key to learning. If you cannot afford to advertise often enough for your message to sink in, save your cash for other, more focused marketing strategies. When you make your advertising decisions, you’ll find that an estimate of market potential, based on the Demographic Profile and Household Spending reports, will help you quantify how much you can spend on advertising. With your ad budget in mind, you will be well prepared to evaluate the other factors, including frequency and audience demographics, and to choose the best strategic option for your particular situation. Resources “To Grow Your Business, Profile Your Customers” Market Research Tools “Find the right media for your message” “Develop an ad plan that hits the target” | |  | |
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