Two things have defined how customers respond to marketing messages which are focused on features/benefits of a product- bored and very bored! Times are gone when one could send bombastic and creative messages down the customers throats and yet hope he will in fact buy the product. It is indeed a creative challenge as to how the marketer will reach the customer and hold his attention in this environment. I am sure that many of the readers of this blog have already lost interest in reading this any further! Short attention spans, you see.
Three characteristics describe today’s quintessential customers:
- Real shortage of time to make buying decisions
- Facing a barrage of choices and messages cluttering their minds
- A mindset to perpetually seek higher value
What this means to the marketer is that:
- She has very limited time to make an impact on the customer and yet not overwhelm with information
- Talk benefits and not price to tilt the value equation in the customer’s favor and
- Do all this in an interestingly way and stand out of the clutter
One of the ways of doing this is to help customers learn and understand themselves and the environment around them better and then position the product in that context, rather than look to intrude or insert messages into customers lives. Why?
- Customers are not often a 100% clear about the challenges they face
- Given executive performance pressures, they have limited time to study the business environment around them
- Customers are unable to differentiate between offerings and often look at direct comparisons with competing offerings with cynicism and doubt
- The inordinate delays caused in customers decision making in purchases are due to one or all the above factors
In this context, educating the customer about the following aspects would be useful:
- Broad context and competitive scenario
- Future trends, emerging business models and technologies
- Changing customer needs and emerging markets
- Changes that the organization will have to make to respond, capabilities building
- Parameters of comparison between competing offerings being made
- Weightage required for each parameter
How is educating the customer necessarily a better marketing tool?
- It positions your brand at a higher pedestal as an educator, not a mere seller
- It helps makes customers choices easy and fast
- Since you have bothered to educate someone, you can command a premium for your brand
Overall, it seems it is indeed a nice idea to Markeducate which is market through educating the customer. This is accentuated in the case of B2 B brands!
The Next Blog Post will be on What do Apple, Harvard Business Review, Lux and Oberoi Hotels have in common on the 20th Sep.
