Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Of all the elements of your business, you brand may be the most important of all. It can be a great ambassador for you, but it can also be a great liability to you. The following contributed post is entitled, How Your Brand Can Influence Customer Purchase Decisions.
* * *
As an entrepreneur, the pressure to influence customers’ purchase decisions is inevitable. And according to reports, 71% of people are more likely to buy a product based on social media referrals. It requires taking proactive steps to strategically position your brand to ensure profitability. The first step in that direction would be to assess your brand’s health. After that, you can use the suggestions below to influence your customers’ purchase decisions.
1. Create a personalized product to satisfy groups of people
In marketing, sales and customer initiatives, there is a lot of focus on the individual or consumer of the product. While this is not bad, experts say it would be more useful to extend it to groups. In other words, think about your target market as categories in the marketplace. For example, plan your marketing activities to target groups of medical professionals, college students, media organizations or artists. By categorizing your consumers, you would be more aware of their needs to develop a product or service to meet them, so feel free to consider this.
In no time, your consumers will start to base their purchase decisions on how your product serves their category of people, so keep this in mind. The Coca-Cola beverage company made a huge global impact using this technique. With a brand built around sharing happiness with friends and family, the company started branding bottles with categorizations in mind. This was the period when their bottles had “Mama,” “Friend,” “BFF,” and other personalizations. After a huge success with it, the company targeted millennials and made a slight move from baby boomers in 2014.
2. Make the product stand out by intensifying tangible benefits
Making your product stand out requires creative thinking and effective marketing. If it is a tangible product, it will take a team of experienced and highly-skilled product designers. On the other hand, if it is an intangible product, you may want to concentrate on tangible benefits that are easily recognizable. For example, a car wash is categorized under intangible products because it offers a service. To get customers readily hooked on your car wash brand and services, you will need to make them see the tangible benefits.
For example, you must use authentic car shampoo that helps customers’ vehicles maintain their original color. And that is a tangible benefit that can be seen. As expected, customers will always consider a brand that offers ready-to-see, lasting benefits of its products or service. When you understand it from this perspective, it is easier to remain on the minds of consumers. This mental availability intensifies your brand’s category entry points – good news for future profits.
3. Be intentional about putting your product out there
It is already established that the consumer market is fiercely competitive. You wouldn’t be wrong to assume it is a dog-eat-dog environment. This is why you stand a chance to be seen by deliberately putting your product out. Your brand can only make waves when you devise strategies to get it to the consumer. Apart from accessing the customer, your brand or product must have enough reason to stay relevant to the target audience. Over the years, many companies have used this strategy and reaped great benefits.
One example is Hutchison, a Hong Kong-based mobile company. When the brand released its flagship mobile product, it had to up its game in the customer access department. The company used an intentional approach to put their product out there. They sent young people to train stations at specific times of the day, with the new mobile product in hand. Within a few weeks, people got attracted to the flashy appearance of Hutchison mobile products. This technique helped boost the company’s initial sales.
4. Make effective use of the urgency approach
The power to influence a customer’s purchasing decision is not handed to entrepreneurs on a silver platter. It would help if you worked very hard and smartly for it. The fact that your marketing activities are all checked doesn’t mean that customers will patronize your product. This is where a gentle push may be required. You can accelerate their decision-making process by using the urgency method. Global companies like Apple have successfully used this approach.
By creating a scarcity of a product, you increase urgency among consumers. Indeed, this has worked for well-established global brands like Apple, so how can it work for a yet-to-known name like yours? The trick is to release your products and let them flood a section of the target market only for a short period. When initial sales exceed expectations, you will be right to maintain this move. Once people hint at your product’s efficacy, they want to own one. In this scenario, you will be controlling their purchase decisions, so keep this in mind.
5. Create a customer loyalty program
These loyalty programs effectively retain old customers who have stuck to your brand for months, years and even decades. Chances are that you can already control or influence this group’s purchasing decisions. And the repeat business they give your business proves they have your brand in mind. However, it is important not to take their loyalty for granted. A strong competitor can easily sway old or loyal customers when you fail to maintain standards.
This is why you will need a customer loyalty program. By rewarding existing and old customers, you unconsciously encourage them to return for repeat business. Using this strategy keeps your brand on their minds, especially when they must purchase a product you create. Many skincare companies like Nivea, Dove and Clinique have successfully used customer loyalty programs. This technique would be useful for a brand with a huge existing customer base. But it can still work for growing businesses, so feel free to consider this.
It costs five times more to attract a new customer. So, you can safeguard the ones you have until you can fund activities to draw in new ones. For businesses, having control over consumer purchasing decisions is a necessity.
