Why Buyers Buy – Or Not

What motivates a buyer to buy?

When you approach a prospective customer, he wonders what you have and what you want of his busy working day.  He is more interested in what you can do for him, at first, and, if this is interesting enough, your name and company assume importance because it tells him who is going to do it for him.

Selling is not a battle of wits and those who approach it as such usually are the losers.  The true salesman recognises basic fundamentals and buying motives and uses them logically to give his presentation all the power he can muster.  When selling to a retailer your appeals to buying motives must be directed through him to his customers.  A retailer wants what his customers wants plus a fair measure of profit.  Thus your approach will be aimed in a slightly different manner to show him what it will do for his business and how and why it will appeal to his customers.  Selling to retailers is on a more personal basis, as you call on the same man with some regularity and know his habits, his preferences.  But if you want to increase your share of his business, or approach a new customer, sell to him, do not just tell him, and hope for the best.  The hardest distance for your goods to travel is from his shelf to the other side of the counter.  Constantly give him help and guidance in appealing to his customers’ buying motives.

Value – Profit or Economy

To most of us these means much the same thing.  We can profit by making economies or we can improve economy through greater profits.  Depending upon your product you must decide which aspect will appeal more to your type of customer.  A retailer is more likely to be interested in profit through greater discount, or he could profit through more economical or balanced stocks.  An accountant may be more motivated by the word economy, as usually it is his task to save money.  He saves money to ensure increased profit but thinks more of saving money than making it.

Design or Appearance

The value of design or appearance is far more important than we tend to think.  People who buy houses, cars, furniture and appliances on appearance or design are buying with their eyes.  Whenever possible appeal to the eye with a visual presentation or paint the picture in your customer’s mind with words.

Comfort or Convenience

Does a furniture salesman sell just the wood, springs and covering? No!  He sells comfort.  All of us gather about us those things that make life more comfortable or convenient.  Look around your home and ask yourself how many things have to do just this for you.  Refrigerators are more convenient than ice chests, radiators more than log fires.  The list is endless.

Comfort and convenience apply to a man’s business life too.  What you offer may give him convenience by removing a process or clerical problem that recurs at regular intervals.  He has the mental comfort of dismissing the problem from his mind.  Insurance has security, such as knowing money will be available at the time of retirement.  You see many instances of comfort or convenience being the primary buying motive.  Think about what you sell and weave this aspect of buying appeal into your story.

Performance

Take two rival cars, both of similar size, finish and price.  One does twenty miles to the gallon, the other thirty.  Which would you buy under these conditions?  Performance can be the manner in which your product does its work; it can be the extra production it gives in a given time.  Where practical, stress the value of performance in easily understood and demonstrable terms.  For many products, performance is the feature above all else.

Safety or Security

Unit trusts, shares in large public companies are attractive because they offer gain and security.  The risk is minimised and this appeals to all of us.  Seat belts are sold for safety or security, so would you really be concerned with what their materials look like, if you were assured they would stand up to the stress of an accident?  When your item has a safety or security factor highlight it, whether it be physical safety or mental security.

Dependability

This is an important buying motive but its value is somewhat different.  Your name or your company name can spell dependability.  You business history with a client can give him this feeling about you or the lack of it.  You have always done all you said you would, your company has unfailingly backed its products.  So much of the value of dependability as a buying motive rests on you and your selling behaviour.

Those qualities you may feel are important in your proposition, may not necessarily be as important to the prospective customer.  Your job is to dig out what is important to him and be able to convince him that what you offer has those qualities for which he is looking.  How can you do this?  Let him tell you why he will buy.  Find out by careful questioning and listening.  He could well call it turnover, where you think of the benefit as profit.  They amount to the same things, so sell him increased turnover.  Whatever he calls it, however he states his/her buying motive, sell it to him in his terms Perhaps Mr. Brown says: “I’ve heard this system gives trouble!”  Sell him reliability, sell him service; quote other installations to verify your statements, but sell what he asked for, reliability.

No salesman achieves anything for himself or his company until a sale is made.  You influence these decisions that lead to success or failure, so always remember that people buy for six basic reasons.  This will become part of your selling strength.

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Do you use social media to communicate with your staff?

Do you use social media to communicate with your staff? How do you do it?

 

New plans, announcements, organising, leading, controlling, updates, recognition, sending memos, conveying news. Communicating instantly and effectively within your organisation can make the difference between smooth sailing or chaos, between performance success or failure.

Communication is your company’s life line.  Benefits of bettering your communication:

*Better communication will play a big role in altering an individual’s attitude, because being better informed translates into a better attitude than being a less-informed individual.

*Improving communication will quicken the decision-making process as it helps identify and assess possible alternative courses of actions.

*Using today’s social media technology is also a wonderful way to inspire your workforce’s attitude about their work.  Helps you “guide” the organisational culture

*Socialising your workforce improves your organisational community and culture.

*The controlling function of the management process is improved when communication improves. Levels of hierarchy and certain principles are guidelines that your employees, your team must follow. Guidelines that can include organisational policies, job roles, work problems and grievances to superiors.

What are your thoughts and Ideas?

 

The Benefits of Socially Responsible Branding

Adding Cause to Branding

The benefits of being perceived to be socially responsible are varied and many. Understandably brands want to be perceived as socially responsible. Being associated with a good cause is a quick way for a brand to be gain the tag of being seen as ‘socially responsible’. This shows the brand to be responsible and caring and these are indeed good qualities for a brand to have. While some brands are inspired by a genuine sense of social responsibility many brands look at the image of being socially responsible as helping in building brand stature. The conscious employment of resources by a brand to aid charitable causes in order to develop image, associations and identity benefits is called cause related branding.

There are 5 main reasons why brands associate with charitable causes other than from a socially responsible perspective:

Builds brand preference: Marketing sense states and some research studies confirm, that ceteris paribus, consumers would prefer buying a brand that is associated with a good cause than from other brands.

Justifies a premium: Consumers often do not mind paying a premium for a brand that is known to be generous to a well-known charity as consumers feel that the brand deserves the premium. The knowledge that a part of the money paid to a brand is going to a good cause adds to the positive emotional component of the brand.

Reduces negative connotations associated with the brand: Liquor and tobacco brands often associate themselves with causes as a means of negating a part of the disrepute associated with their industry.

Provides the brand with desirable values: Brands that are seen to possess a very commercial and greedy image may wish to develop a softer image by showing a softer nicer side by donating to charitable organizations.

Useful for raising money: Brands that plan to approach the money market for raising money from the public often show the warm side of their personality by publicly supporting charitable causes. Investors who are not doing extensive research on the brand may invest because they believe a brand with good intentions can be trusted.

As is obvious from the advantages mentioned above, cause related branding has a lot to offer brands and therefore this route is being used by many brands. There are several successful examples cause related branding working wonders for brands it must be understood that a poorly developed cause strategy will lead to no little or no benefits for the brand. The days when a brand could merely tie up with a well-known charity and earn brownie points are over and the intricacies involved in making cause related branding work are worthy of careful consideration.

In branding, adopting a strategic perspective is critical. In cause related branding it becomes even more critical as the process of establishing an association with a cause takes significant investment of time, effort and money. Reaping the benefits of the association takes time and delinking from a cause can have strong negative repercussions for a brand and the involvement of the highest echelons of management need to be involved in decisions involving cause related branding.

There are three levels of decisions that brands need to look at and the implications of each category of decisions is to be understood before planning for any kind of cause related branding:

Deciding the category: There are a wide range of categories of causes ranging from care of deprived children to restoration of dignity of seniors. Categories are wide and can encompass a wide range of sub categories. Within the cause category of care for senior citizens there are sub categories addressing issues such as care for abandoned elders, medical treatment of senior citizens, etc. It is important to choose the right kind of category and sub category as a prelude to deciding a relevant issue to back within this category.

Deciding the specific issue: Categories of causes consist of different issues. Issues are specific such as programmes to aid restoration of dignity of senior citizens that feel deprived of dignity following their old age. Focussing on specific issues is important for brands as it helps fine tune the values that flow from the association.

Deciding the specific institutions: Unless the brand is willing to create a trust that handles the responsibilities of the cause it will have to depend on institutions to run the operational aspects involved in the execution of cause related activities. Aligning with an institution that caters to a specific cause can provide a brand with strong associations however there are times when brands need to ensure that they are not overshadowed by charities that are stronger brands than their sponsors.

These are some of the aspects that need to be studied before a brand decides to associate with a charitable cause.

What is the relevance of the cause to the brand’s consumer segment?: Association with a charitable cause does not immediately mean that consumers will immediately hold the brand in high esteem. Consumers must find the cause relevant to their value system before the brand receives any approbation. For example: Not all consumers may be equally supportive of a cause that looks at providing food and shelter to immigrants/refugees. These consumers may be more supportive of causes that benefit their countrymen.

How different is it?: Many people are inured to causes and even associations with a good cause like Cancer Care may neither draw much attention to the brand or to the cause nor would the association be very memorable. Finding a cause that is relevant and yet different would help in enhancing the memorability of the brand and cause. For example: A trust that looks after veteran entertainers suffering from terminal diseases can be seen as a worthy cause to support as it appreciates people who once entertained and gave others happiness.

Can the cause be owned?: It is normally difficult to own a cause as this would require immense investment of resources. A niche cause like the one mentioned in the above example may not require huge investments and may not see many other brands supporting this cause. The task of guarding the cause associations may not be very tough nor may the cost of running such a trust be very high.

Will it hold enduring relevance with this segment?: Some causes are contextual. These causes appear to touch a sensitive chord with consumers and then suddenly seem to lose their appeal. Often charities in India catering to cyclone victims suddenly find their support waning in the wake of a fresh new tragedy in a different part of the country. Public sympathy often veers towards the more current tragedies.

How will the relationship be positioned?: The nature of the brand’s relationship with the cause can influence consumer perceptions of the brand. A brand that extends it relationship beyond the financial support to also provide investments of time and talent would most likely stand to gain greater credibility from the relationship than would a brand that only provides money. Brands that appear to only offer financial support may be seen as ‘forced’ or ‘insincere’ and this could in some cases prove counterproductive.

Controversial issues: Brands need to be careful while handling causes associated with controversial issues. For example: A ‘euthanasia’ support foundation campaigning for change in legislation towards euthanasia may be seen by some as a worthy cause but association with this cause may lead to the brand supporting it being embroiled in controversy at some stage of its association if public opinion suffers from the occasional mood swing. While some brands court controversy through short term associations with controversial causes this could be risky as well as counter productive as the issue could turn ugly and taint the brand or it could grow far bigger than the brand.

Cause related branding works best when it is driven by the core values of the brand. Like anything else that is forced, cause related branding could prove counterproductive if it is not a ‘natural’ facet of the brand. When it is not ‘natural’ to the brand then the cause related activities are de-prioritised and lose focus often with corresponding effect on the brand.

In an increasingly cynical world, the value of genuinely sensitive acts is extremely high. There are several cries for brands to show greater responsibility and to share a small part of their wealth with the less privileged. The current economic strife created by schizophrenic brands that show dissonance between their different actions has led to lower levels of consumer belief in brands. Cause related branding performed with genuine intent can help restore consumer trust and build brand equity

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George Orwell’s writing rules Good thoughts for Social Media

George Orwell suggested 5 golden rules for effective writing:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

Does the phrase “Low hanging fruit” mean something to a layman? Can’t it be better written as “non-performing employee”?Now, how many people recognize the words and the sentiments behind them?

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

“In the entire world, XYZ is selling like hot cakes and gathering a lot of revenues for the company”… Imagine if we write this as “XYZ is the company’s universal best-seller”. Many writers adopt the beating round the bush approach to increase word count or achieve the desired keyword density. This is a strict no-no as it insults the reader’s sensibilities.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

Well, same as above (yea that’ a shorter one. No need for another example!)

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

“The man who was old was bitten by a cat”. While there’s no rocket science behind the logic, still this is an oft-disregarded adage. You can always replace the longer sentence with a shorter and effective “The cat bit the old man”

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Keep your content easily accessible to the average Joe. Readers will simply block out the content if they come across a lot of technical jargons that they can’t comprehend

 

What Good Political Leaders Need

Most people have a poor view of “politicians”.  Many think that business people would do a better job.  I recently said to someone, that it is important to have political leaders who understand the realities of politics.  Very few business people do and would need to learn on the job.  Do we want to pay these learners big bucks while they learn?  And few will succeed.

 

Of course what we need are “good” politicians, but how do we determine the right qualities?

There are three qualities that Weber (1919) said that all politicians should have.

Passion

Politicians should have a clear commitment to a cause, for which they can sustain necessary passion. It is often based on faith, where the politician has a vision for the future and seeks to make it come true.

Politics is not straightforward and the road to change may be a very crooked path. Passion provides the energy to keep the politician moving and overcoming obstacles.

Passion is also a great persuader. If you are passionate about a cause then others may be infected with your enthusiasm. Impassion and lack of care seldom sells.

Being able to feel passion is not enough. Passion without responsibility can lead to revolutionary fervor and crime. Passion without judgment can lead to ineffective or dangerous decisions.

Judgement

Politicians make decisions that affect many lives, including their own. A poor political decision can be professional suicide.

Political judgment includes when to keep things secret and when to go public. It is also important to be able to judge the hidden self of other people.

Judgment alone is not enough. Judgment without passion gets nothing done. Judgment without responsibility does not serve the politician’s constituency.

Responsibility

Politicians serve a wider community and so should always consider others and have their best interests at heart. It thus needs an understanding and adoption of of social values.

Without responsibility, the politician becomes selfish and interested first in their own careers and goals. Vanity and narcissism tends to reduce responsibility, although it can also lead to the politician needing to appear responsible.

‘Power politics’, in which the acquisition and use of power is a distracting end in itself, is typical of a lack of responsibility. Beyond this, the ‘politics of violence’ justifies war and other acts against the body to achieve desired ends. Politics encompasses many paradoxes and dilemmas, making it easy to justify acts of power and aggression. This makes a strong sense of responsibility even more important.

Responsibility without passion does not lead the change. Responsibility without judgment leads to ineffective or dangerous decisions.

I would add:

Political knowledge and ability

Politics is about the art of the possible.  None of the above will work unless the incumbent knows how to be an effective politician and get things done

It is not enough for a leader to know the right thing.  They need to know how to make that thing work.

 

Weber, M. (1919). Political Writings, ed. P. Lassman and R. Speirs, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Locating Products in Their Life Cycles

The easiest way to locate a Product (including services) in its life cycle is to study its performance, competitive history, and current position and match this information with the characteristics of a particular stage of the life cycle.

Analysis of past performance of the product will include:

1. Examination of sales-growth progression since introduction.

2. Any design problems and technical bugs which need to be sorted out.

3. Sales and profit history of allied products (those similar in general character or function as well as those directly competitive).

4. Number of years the product has been on the market.

5. Casualty history of similar products in the past.

The review of competition will focus on:

1. Profit history

2. Ease of entry (with which other firms can get into the business)

3. Extent of initial investment needed to enter business

4. Number of competitors and their strengths

5. Number of competitors which left the industry

6. Life cycle of the industry

7. Critical success factors in the business.

Additionally, current perspectives may be reviewed to gauge whether sales are on the upswing, have leveled out for the last couple of years, or are heading down; whether any competitive products are moving up to replace the product under consideration; whether customers are becoming demanding vis-a-vis price, service, or special features; whether additional sales efforts are necessary to keep the sales going up; and whether it is harder to sign up dealers and distributors.

The above information on the product may be related to the characteristics of the different stages of the product life cycle as discussed above; the PLC stage with which the product perspectives match will indicate the position of the product in its life cycle. Needless to say, the whole process is highly qualitative in nature, and managerial intuition and judgment will bear heavily on the final placement of the product in its life cycle.

Listed below are steps which may be followed to position a product in its life cycle:

1. Develop historical trend information for a period of three to five years (longer for some products). Data included will be unit and dollar sales, profit margins, total profit contribution, return on invested capital, market share, and prices.

2. Check recent trends in the number and nature of competitors; number and market-share rankings of competing products, and their quality and performance advantages; shifts in distribution channels; and relative advantages enjoyed by products in each channel.

3. Analyse development in short-term competitive tactics such as competitors’ recent announcements of new products or plans for expanding production capacity.

4. Obtain (or update) historical information on the life cycles of similar or related products.

5. Project sales for the product over the next three to five years, based on all the information gathered, and estimate an incremental profit ratio for the product during each of these years (the ratio of total direct costs – manufacturing, advertising, product development, sales, distribution, etc. – to pretax profits).

Expressed as a ratio – e.g., 4.8 to 1 or 6.3 to 1 – this measures the number of dollars required to generate each additional dollar of profit. The ratio typically improves (becomes lower) as the product enters its growth period; begins to deteriorate (rise) as the product approaches maturity; and climbs more sharply as it reaches obsolescence.

6. Estimate the number of profitable years remaining in the product’s life cycle and – based on all the information at hand – fix the product’s position on its life-cycle curve

 

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A brand is…?

A brand is a..

Customer or user experience represented by images and ideas, often referring to a symbol (name, logo, symbols, fonts, colours), a slogan and a design scheme. A perception of an integrated bundle of information and experiences that distinguishes a firm and/or its product offerings from the competition

Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product (good or service), both from its use and as influenced by advertising, design and media commentary. Brand is often developed to represent implicit values, ideas and even personality. A brand is a mixture of attributes, tangible and intangible, symbolised in a trademark, which, if managed properly, creates value and influence. “Value” has different interpretations: from a marketing or consumer perspective it is “the promise and delivery of an experience”; from a business perspective it is “the security of future earnings”; from a legal perspective it is “a separable piece of intellectual property.” Brands offer customers a means to choose and enable recognition within cluttered markets. Established product name, wholly of a proprietary nature. A name, sign, symbol or design, or some combination of these, used to identify a product and to differentiate it from competitors’ products; consumers learn to associate the satisfaction’s derived from products with the name, sign, design or symbol, thereby allowing the marketer to use the brand image creatively and strategically. A brand is a mixture of attributes, tangible and intangible, symbolised in a trademark, which, if managed properly, creates value and influence. Brands may be used in different ways.

From the MAANZ MArketing Glossary http://www.marketing.org.au.

For more detail and information about this term, see MAANZ MXpress Courses and Marketing Ideas and Skills Notes

Doing Business in China – Face

The worst thing to do any foreign country or with foreign people is to assume you understand a situation or the person thinks (or should think) just like you.

Dr Brian Monger

Face

In Chinese and Chinese based cultures, if someone has “good face it means they have  a good reputation in front of their peers.  Face in Chinese culture is even more important than “reputation” in Western cultures.

Having face in front of one’s business colleagues or within a community is  a statement of that person’s value.

Losing Face

In situations where someone  has made a mistake or done something wrong, and the error is attributable to that person in public, then that one person has “lost face” – their reputation in the eyes of their peers has been reduced. Losing face is an experience no-one wishes to happen to them. So, even if the one losing face is clearly “wrong”, some folks will go to great lengths to avoid the appearance of losing face.

In any case, when face has been lost, the losing party leaves with “bad face”.

Saving Face

Saving face implies a situation where someone’s reputation is under question, or has already been lost, and is undergoing restoration. Saving face is an action whereby one is able to prove that they were not wrong, or show that the degree of their wrongdoing was only very small – not such a big deal.

This restoration is usually done with the help of someone else with good face, usually by making some kind of announcement before one’s peers, exonerating or endorsing the person who had lost face.

Giving (or Lending) Face

In a case where a person has no face or no recognised reputation within certain circles, this person may be required to seek out and “borrow” a certain measure of face from someone willing to “lend” it to them.

When dealing with Chinese do not make people lose face in public, you will likely make an enemy for life

Learn to not always state your opinion in public (especially about Chinese things), especially if it is contrary to a Chinese person’s opinion, this could cause them to think you are attacking them, which might make them feel they are loosing face, which leads to the first situation. Avoid arguing with Chinese people about things that are not critical. You will just piss people off. Many people are more emotional and think much more about face and often less empathetic about others (outside their social group), and not very direct/straight forward in many social relationships (which to Westerns can appear dishonest at times, but Chinese do not mean it that way, they are often trying to save themselves or you face)…keep that in mind and you will be okay.

Would you like a free copy of the MAANZ International eBooklet “Doing Business in China”?  Just send us an email to info@marketing.org.au and we will send you a copy.  We wont harvest your information or give it to any other party

 

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Measuring Customer Satisfaction

Measuring Customer Satisfaction

The most common means of measuring client satisfaction:

* asking customers;

* investigating complaints;

* evaluating service attributes;

* asking customers what will increase their satisfaction;

* asking what is wrong or could be improved.

The difficulty that researchers have with measuring client satisfaction is that customers are not always able to define their satisfaction levels.

Moreover, customers more often than not do not know if they are satisfied. They can assume that they are satisfied because they use the service frequently, but this may not be the case.

Check out the main article in http://smartamarketing.wordpress.com

Distributing Services

Dr. Brian Monger

Service Product Distribution

Some would have it that services are intangible.  That is technically right, but logically if a Service Product was completely intangible, how would we be able to transfer it?

All organisations – whether producing tangibles or intangibles – are concerned with place decisions.  That is how to make their offerings available and accessible to users.  Even where a service or other intangible is marketed there are physical problems.  All are associated, somewhere or other, with tangible elements requiring physical handling, storage and transportation

The subject of place decisions for services is confused as people grapple with the concept of a ‘distribution channel’ for items which are intangible, often inseparable from the person performing the service and perishable, in the sense that inventory cannot be carried.  The subject is further confused because the generalisations made about services (e.g. no inventory carried) do not always apply in specific situations.

Methods of distributing services

A distribution channel for services is the sequence of firms involved in moving a service from producer to consumer.  The usual generalisation made about service distribution is that direct sale is the most common method and that channels are short.

Direct sale certainly is common in some services markets (e.g. professional services); but many service channels contain one or more intermediaries.  It would be incorrect to suggest that direct sale is the only method of distribution in services markets.

Intermediaries are quite common.  Some of these intermediaries assume ownership risks; some perform roles that change ownership (e.g. purchasing); some perform roles that enable physical movement (e.g. transporting).

Like this short article on services and distribution (Place)?  Please comment.  And have a look at another article on Distribution in our sister blog http://smartamarketing.wordpress and checkout the smartamarketing posts on SlideShare.