Let’s face it, we’re all consumers. We all buy.
We’re scanning, swiping, clicking, liking, and sometimes sharing and tweeting. We are moving so fast that we don’t even have time to think let alone process all the information we encounter. Some of us save our ideas to Evernote (use this link to create a free account) or archive email messages for future reference. However, many choose to ignore all the information unless it grabs their attention or is pertinent to the moment.
Therefore when it comes to buying decisions, because of how we consume and use information, isn’t it less about facts and more about feelings? We buy because of immediate needs or wants and how something makes us feel.
So what does this mean for your business?
It means, if your customer says “I need to think about it” you’ve more than likely lost.
Following are some thoughts to think about:
- You must help people feel if you want them to act.
- Create compelling stories that engage people to want to learn more. Following is a good example from Lucky Brand: their email marketing message which leads to their landing page. They tell a story associated with their product.
- You should be strategic with your marketing message so you are top of mind and easy to find when your customer is ready to buy.
- It’s about feelings . . . In Martin Lindstrom’s book, Buy-ology he says, “Researchers demonstrated that brief exposure to images of smiling or frowning faces for sixteen milliseconds… affected the amount of money test subjects were willing to pay for a beverage. When subjects saw flashes of smiling faces, they poured significantly more drinks from a pitcher — and were willing to pay twice as much for it — than when they viewed angry faces.”¹
- “A recent study conducted by German brand and retail experts, Gruppe Nymphenberg, found that over 50 percent of all purchasing decisions by shoppers are made spontaneously — and therefore unconsciously — at the point of sale.”
- Every successful brand has stories connected to it. Think of Harley-Davidson, Disney, Whole Foods, Chick-fil-a, etc.
Resources and References
¹Martin Lindstrom, buy-ology – Doubleday, 2008
B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, The Experience Economy – Harvard Business School Press, 1999
Robert B. Cialdini, Influence – Allyn and Bacon, 2001
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