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).

Ponder for a While...

Marketers know how to tap in each and every emotion of consumers. One such powerful emotion is that of parents' inability to say no kids' wishes which marketers refer to as pester power. 

Parents are well aware of harmful effects of burgers loaded with  fats or chocolates loaded with calories, but still they fall helpless before young kids. They finally give them whatever they want. Marketers do understand the force of kids in buying certain products and they have well capitalized on it. All they did is allured these young kids and thereby used pester power to sell their products.

Let me come to the crux of this post. I was thinking of a strategy to reposition Rasna which has almost enervated in terms of its image and also sales. You must be thinking why Rasna. Actually Rasna came to my college a few days back for placements. The profile was that of sales. Sales can be enhanced by sales promotion, otherwise there is no differentiation in the product. Kids do not want it anymore. So I was just thinking what can be done to enhance sales.

Well, here the primary target are kids and secondary target are mothers. The product is meant for kids and as such they are the primary target. Mothers are the buyers of the product but may not be consumers of it, hence they are the secondary target.

Now how do you think pester power would work for Rasna? The major point is there is no Point Of Difference (POD) for the product. As such, product must be differentiated to lure kids and then use pester power.

Can you suggest some ways to differentiate the product to gain Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)? Your comments are awaited and would be much appreciated.