The Marketing Why

Why did you pick up that brand of olive oil from the shelf of your supermarket versus the other sitting next to it? 

Why did you notice and open only one of the emails that came to you over the last 24 hours from someone you didn’t know? 

Why did you open that one piece of snail mail that came to your mailbox when you discarded all the rest without even opening them up?

Why did you stop zipping through the commercials on a favorite show and replay that one commercial?

Why did you make a reservation at one restaurant for your birthday versus the dozens of other choices available?

In the Moment

Can you catch yourself at your own moment of choice or decision?  Can you find clues about your reaction to marketing messages that can help you understand your decision? 

I know it isn't easy as there are irrational and difficult to articulate reasons why we buy things or pay attention to one message versus another. But there are clues to understanding your response to marketing efforts in those moments of heightened awareness.

Take This Challenge

During the course of the next week, see if you can focus your attention to the tsunami of messages and marketing communications coming your way.  Notice what catches your attention and stay present with it to judge what made you stop. Keep a running list of what led you to open, buy, reserve or choose one thing over another. 

If you are standing in the wine aisle with 1400 choices, notice how you made your choice to select two wines from that large set of choices. Was it familiarity? Was it color? Was it the name or country of origin? Why did you grab it and place it in your cart? Did someone just grab that same bottle and give you ‘social acceptance’ for your decision?

Often we can’t answer this question even if we are fully conscious of the moment illustrating how irrational and deep seeded decision-making may be in our brains. Don’t fight it but recognize that sometimes the most logical approach to marketing makes perfect sense on paper, but in the end it’s hard to know why consumers behave as they do.

Understanding that consumers behave irrationally is also a reason to experiment. 

Conducting an A/B test to try new and inventive approaches allows us the chance to see what happens in the real world versus our PowerPoint distorted view of life. There is nothing less accurate than a business plan without a series of real world tests of an idea or a hypothesis. Which package design? Which pricing offer? Which place to sell your product line.  

The consumer can’t tell you why they acted. However,  I am certain that if we see a pattern of behavior in the marketplace, we can hypothesize about why they acted. The real world experiment helps us gain insight into why. 

Why does your consumer buy your product? 
Don’t expect a consumer to tell you why they buy from you. Better to observe and measure what they do. This allows you to keep testing your hypothesis of why constantly. 

There is a big difference. Just don't ask me why. 

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Need a little help figuring out the why for your brand? Connect with me through Clarity and let's discuss your challenge.