What is that consumer buys?

Yesterday I was talking to one of my friends who was pretty disappointed by the ruthless behavior of one of her friends. I said to her not to worry about such people in life because the existence of these people in life is transient. Such people would come and go but the only person who would be with you is your own self. I may sound like a narcissist, but this the fact of life. Human beings love themselves the most, more than their most valuable possessions.

Lets apply the principle of self love in consumer marketing. What do you think a customer buys every time he purchase your offerings? If you say that a customer buys your product or service, then you need to get into the depth of the consumer psyche. Superficially it seems that they buy your offerings but actually, they buy the benefits you offer to them.

Consumers generally ask a question to the marketers "Whats in it for me?" If you are able to answer this through your offerings, you are successful in meeting the objective of your business. Here lies the concept of augmented product. Your offering is termed as the core product and the benefits offered by the product make the augmented product. Marketers generally get caught with just the core product, which is referred to as marketing myopia.

Anyways, enough of fundas, the crux of the post lies in the fact that customers don't care what your product is. They care only about the benefits it offer and that is what can be used to as a Point of Difference (POD) to attain Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA).

Subliminal Advertising...Demystified

In my previous post, I have introduced Subliminal Advertising to you, but as I have already mentioned, this subject has got a lot of supporters as well as critics too.

Some people think that subliminal advertising has opened an entirely new horizon of reaching the customers. In today’s era, customers are bombarded with all sorts of products and brands. A customer cannot pay heed to all of these advertisements, and as such, the process that dominates is what is called Selective Perception. The later has a sequence including selective exposure, selective attention, selective comprehension and selective retention. This is the way consumers protect themselves from getting overloaded with products and brands. Now, here lies the essence of subliminal advertising. It doesn’t give consumers a chance of implementing selective perception as they are unaware of their exposure to any subliminal message. So, this is actually a great way to register in consumers’ psyche without their involvement.

Now, the critics have a point too. They feel that it is unethical to use subliminal advertising as it compels them to know something, which they may not want to.
A classical example of subliminal advertising is its usage by Republicans in US Presidential campaign in year 2000.

Well, the discussion can go on and on, with no conclusion. What we need to understand is that it’s not always white or black, but there are shades of grey too. It’s all a matter of perception. Each one has his/her own take on everything and so do the supporters and critics of subliminal advertising.

Marketer or Consumer !!!

What do you think the “Marketers” are? Well, a part of answer lies in the question, that is, they are the ones who tend to serve the customers. Looking from a broader perspective, a marketer is the one who caters to consumer need and he can understand those needs only if thinks like a consumer. To find the gap in the market, a marketer has to place himself in customers’ shoes.
Well, you all must be familiar with Mattel’s BARBIE. It’s a fashion doll, manufactured by Mattel Inc. in 1959. Prior to Barbie’s birth, the dolls were the illustrations of infants. One day, Ruth Handler saw her daughter, Barbara giving adult roles to her paper dolls. Handler realized that most kids see adults as their role models and as such, there is a gap in market, wherein they can fit-in adult bodied dolls. She gave the idea to her husband, a co-founder of Mattel Inc. The doll was named after their daughter Barbara. The dolls and the idea were a great success, and till date, they rule the toy market.
The birth and success of Barbie is a lesson for all fledgling marketers like us. We have to remember the stoned fact, "Customer is the King" and we have to give them what they want. Now, the customers won’t ever come to us to tell us their needs, rather we have to identify their wants, but how do we do that? The answer to this complex problem is simple. Marketers have to think like consumers, recognize their problems and come up with solution to their problems in form of their products.