I’ve been thinking more about the fact that marketing is the process of influencing opinion to ultimately sell a product. An important part of selling a product is trying to understand why customers need it. Why should someone buy the product that you are offering?
Today I bought a pair of $100 pants that are completely organic and environmentally friendly. That’s the lead selling proposition, all of the marketing around the product is in regards to the fact that it’s made with hemp, easily renewable, blah, blah, blah, a lot of granola eating, tree hugging stuff.
But the motivation behind the purchase had nothing to do with the marketing. I finished my run at the gym this morning and had the horrifying realization that there were no pants in my bag. It was the adolescent nightmare of going into the workplace and realizing I had no pants on, come to life.
The only place to buy pants at 8am is at the Whole Foods grocery store. So I bought them. Anybody looking for a slightly used pair of green hemp pants?
Remember that marketing is an art, some people will like your work, others will hate it, some will buy because they want to, and some will buy because they have to. Your job is to get creative to maximize your effort and return, but don’t get too caught up in the guys with no pants who will mess with your ROI calculation.
One reply on “Motivating to Buy”
That’s classic!
In an emergency, I once had to wear pinstriped suit pants with leather sandals and a polo shirt to a 9am court hearing. Luckily, there were no suspenders involved.
I’m sure there’s an “emergency clothes kit” market for the just-in-case shopper. Maslow would probably lump them in with the same consumers who buy milk before a hurricane.