NOT political – it’s about marketing
Good marketers consider the problem to be “How can convince people to buy what we sell?”
Great marketers take a different approach.
This post was inspired by the most recent article by Cedric Chin. If you like deep, thorough, articles about various aspects of business you should be following his work. The piece is about understanding customer demand. That basically means people pay for things they want – but often what they want is a step removed from what you sell. As the saying goes, nobody wants a quarter-inch drill. People want quarter-inch holes.
Understanding customer demand in a way that’s divorced from your product or service is very hard for most entrepreneurs. But it’s what great marketers can do. We entrepreneurs tend to feel like our business is our baby and everyone should love it – even more so if we’ve started the business or invented the product. This attitude colors our perspective of what customers really want.
In the piece, Chin goes into great detail about how to understand customer demand and explains a rather grueling process called The Sales Safari Technique which comes from Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman (their offering is HERE) But read Chin’s piece before you embark.
In this post, I want to cover only one aspect of demand that Chin explores and go a little deeper than he does: people’s worldview.
Worldview is More Important Than Demographics
It’s relatively easy to segregate by demographics. The example Chin uses is “Hispanic office workers between the ages of 30-40” But that’s not how people buy. People buy to help them achieve their goals and alleviate the pains they feel. But the pains they feel and the goals they have are embedded in their worldview.
What’s Your Worldview of Pets?
The way many people indulge their pets these days is astonishing to others who think that level of pampering should be reserved for children. Then there are those who think that pampering even children leads to moral decay. These are differences in worldviews which drastically affect purchasing habits.
People who call themselves dog moms or cat dads have a worldview that has become more popular in the last twenty years. The pain they’re willing to pay to alleviate for their pets is incomprehensible to those with a different view of what a pet should be. If you don’t subscribe to this view, you can look at many of the offerings in your local big box pet store (or even farmer’s market!) with astonishment. However, if you sell to pet owners, understanding that worldview – even if you don’t share it – will get you further than demographics.
Homeowners’ Worldviews
People hire plumbers to fix a leak. But who they hire is influenced by their worldview. Some have the view that “I want my house to just work. And I don’t want to think about it.” They will probably be willing to pay more but be put off if the technician makes a mess or shows up late. Others have the view “I could probably do this myself but I don’t have the time so I’ll grudgingly pay someone else.” Which one do you think will be more likely to respond to your offer of a monthly membership offering annual maintenance visits?
$20,000 Diamond Jewelry
You can spend $20,000 on diamond jewelry at Costco or at Tiffany & Co. I suspect people shopping for diamonds shop at one or the other (but not both) depending on their worldview about not only diamonds but shopping. Disclaimer – I haven’t looked at Costco’s diamond prices in a long time, but that number stood out because it shocked me when I saw it. Thankfully, my wife and I share the same worldview about the value of jewelry.
Do Horses have Square Eyes?
Clotaire Rapaille is a French psychiatrist turned marketing consultant. His work with autistic children led to the belief that culture is imprinted into the “reptilian brain” and elicits an emotional response to (among other things) marketing. He uses psychological techniques to ferret out the “code” or archetype associated with various products.
In the 1990’s he discovered that Americans associated cars with freedom and riding into the unknown. Similar to how they perceived horses. In the 1990s he recommended Chrysler change the square headlights on the Jeep Wrangler back to round ones because “horses don’t have square eyes.” Sure enough sales went up.
He also discovered that in France food is seen as pleasure but in America it’s seen as fuel. Hence the success of the rebranding of Dunkin – from Donuts (indulgent and fattening) to what America runs on. I’ll leave it to the reader to think about why Howard Schultz’s vision of bringing to America the Italian coffee bar culture has morphed into selling coffee flavored milkshakes containing 400+ calories.
Worldview is the Essence of Branding
Business success means satisfying customer demands. Even the demands they can’t articulate. Consider that Dollar Tree, Walmart, and even Costco are considered discount retailers (despite the $20,000 diamonds) but appeal to people with different worldviews. Branding allows you to resonate with people’s worldview in a way that convinces them you can fulfill their demands.
This Is True for Employees Too
Employees have a worldview about work and about working for your company. It may or may not be the same as yours. This is why I suggest that when you talk about company culture and values, you determine what that means in visible, behavioral terms and talk about it that way. The concept of “professionalism” for example, doesn’t mean the same to everyone. Some people actually bristle at that word. But everyone knows what it means to show up on time, put your tools away at the end of a shift, make eye contact and smile.
If you’d like to explore your employees’ or customer’s worldviews, sign up for a free coaching session HERE
And check out my book: Output Thinking
