How to get YOUR APPLE CHOSEN – Art of influencing consumers’ “wants”
One of the objectives of marketing is to influence the want to create demand for your products and address the need sought by the customer. As a marketer, I start my day by asking, how have my actions today helped achieve this objective? The key motive here to ensure the prospects make a “decision” that is in our favor. A lot of these activities take inside the right part of the brain but the evolutionary need, however, comes from the left rational brain.
Customers would buy your apple, if you give them enough reasons why they should buy it or not buy other apples. You NEED to communicate it. They would, of course, only make a repeat purchase if the product met their expectations. If you do not have a reason for them, then FIND ONE.
Let’s imagine you have started a ready-to-eat oats business in a growing market and you plan to market it as the best oats for that segment. You get a feeling that the market is already too crowded and it will be difficult to place your “apple” (i.e. oats) in a unique way.
“Marketing is about knowing the endless boundaries in a customer’s brain (left rational and right emotional) where multiple cords take you to the purchase. All you have to do is to strike that right cord, which is not yet taken by a competitor, and influence the want by “Trust Enhancers”.
Let us try on how we can strike that right cord to gain the trust and acquire the customer.
1) Strike the rational cords of left brain:
- Our Oats are made from fine grains that are grown through organic farming
- Our Oats are made by special X process that ensures each oats granule retains the power you need
- Our Oats are chemical free and contain ingredient X that will help boost your energy by 20%
- Our Oats are sourced from Y country which gives you the power you are looking for
2) Strike the emotional cords of right brain:
- Our Oats make you feel happy and confident every morning
- Our Oats keep you energetic and fresh
- Our Oats help you reach your goals, everyday, so that you excel in personal and professional life
- Our Oats keep the nature green, every single morning
- Our Oats help farmers live their dreams, everyday
3) Strike the MIXED cords (Best approach):
- Our Oats are chemical free and contain ingredient X that will keep you happy entire day
- Our Oats are made from fine grains that will help you achieve your goals, everyday
- Stay all day confident because our Oats are made by special X process that ensures each oats granule retains the power you need
For a market research firm, who has been appointed to unravel what does a customer want, discovering these “wants” become absolutely crucial.
A customer’s brain has multiple cords that will take to purchase. Different companies plan to strike different cords to reach the same goal – Purchase and repeat Purchase. Coke focuses on happiness while Pepsi focuses on Youth.
To BRING the customer on your DESIRED “Cord”, a company can use a mixed set of following 7 “influence buckets”
1) Senses: Smell, Touch, Sight/Brand Imagery, Sound and Taste to bolster brand relevance (From Singapore Airlines’ trademarked fragrance to iPhone and Xiaomi’s ringtones)
2) Exploiting the evolutionary need of a human i.e. Fear of losing out: Sense of Power, Money and Control on life (From Insurance products, Anti-virus to Axe Deodorants)
3) Power of followers (Herding): Very common on online marketplace; we happily prefer to stand in a queue outside a restaurant instead of going to a place that is empty and spacious or others follow when we show them the leaders are using this (MedTech Influencers)
4) Sex and Procreation: Using new-born/babies and opposite sex to sell the product (From selling toilet papers, clothing to Ferrari)
5) Third-party recognition: Brand awards and recognition (Medical Technology, B2B firms, cars like Tata Nexon etc.)
6) Brand active in social well-being: Dettol and Harpic (campaign at MahaKumbh India 2019)
7) Showing experience: Since 1886 or More than 100,000 happy customers
Influence buckets work as “Stimulants” or “Trust Enhancers” that not only bring the customer on-board but also accelerate the journey of a customer towards purchase, once they have chosen to FLY with you on your rational cord, emotional cord or mixed cord.“Purchase” is a customer journey and you have to constantly engage them at interval till they reach “Purchase” and “Repeat Purchase” stations.
Through a strategic mix of Influence buckets (Trust Enhancers) and Brain cords (Sharing what solutions you have for their wants), we can achieve, what we call “INFLUENCE” for the purchase. Now they can confidently yell, I want a Medtronic product or a Coca Cola product or a Caterpillar product, etc.
This article was first published on https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-get-your-apple-chosen-art-influencing-consumers-lakkshay-bussi/
