The customer buys the benefit - be his BEST CHOICE

"Stand out or die" is the famous title of one of the most popular books on survival strategies on the market in a time of murderous competition. Although at first glance, the slogan seems quite aggressive, it should not be associated only with extravagant marketing and branding campaigns and causing artificially blown confusion around the brand. How to distinguish a brand from the advertising noise of your competitors? What do such differentiators really mean for the average customer?

Help me make a choice

You know what the modern world of products and services looks like (both online and offline) - information overload, banner blindness and problems with capturing the customer's attention for just a few seconds. On average, a modern person is able to fully concentrate on a given marketing message for no more than 3-5 seconds! This is called attention span, in which people were even surpassed by ... fish. An average goldfish in an aquarium can focus on the reception of a given information for a long 9 seconds ... 

Do you know what your customers need the most? To make it easier for them to choose the product / service they want to buy. That you send them a clear signal in the flood of information, which they can react to without much thought, and be sure that they have made the right choice. It is such a simple and at the same time unimaginably difficult task, because in order to sell effectively, you have to stop praising and try to find out the true depth of your client's NEEDS.

Nice smell, it's just appearances

During the consumer research on hair shampoo, the respondents agreed that one of the most important criteria determining the choice of a specific product is its SMELL. Great - you think - fragrance is a great customer benefit! "Beautiful, fragrant hair, every day!" It is enough to present a given shampoo to consumers with such a language of benefits and you can put up another production line in response to record sales successes. Such advertising strategies often fail miserably ...

The language of benefits is important, but more important is discovering the REAL motives that make a given feature of a product so important to the customer that he will want to buy it. Constantly asking the question "WHY?" is a technique called laddering. It should be used in developing absolutely every advertising message. Dig deeper, circle around the benefit constantly to get to its core:

WHY did you choose such a hair shampoo? - "Because it smells good."
WHY is the scent of the shampoo important to you? - "Because I love it when my hair smells beautiful all day long."
WHY do you like your hair to smell beautiful? - "I like it when my husband presses his face against them and says that I smell good."
WHY is what your husband says then important to you? - "Then I feel close to my husband, I love how he does it - I have a feeling that he still loves me."

After these questions, do you still think that clients buy hair shampoo only for a beautiful scent? They really care about specific EXPERIENCES. By buying your products or services, customers try to meet their needs, but treating them superficially will make your advertising message ineffective! The feeling of being loved, the need to feel belonging to a given group, the desire to be attractive to a partner ... these are just some of the real reasons for which customers buy products and services (of course, after satisfying all their basic needs, which he hierarchized in the form of a pyramid) Maslow). Perhaps you are thinking now that it is nothing new, but today many companies still focus only on the advantages of their products / services, forgetting a bit about the customer in all this. About his REAL needs.

Try to use a simple laddering technique in the context of at least one product / service you sell. Is your marketing message ostensibly or really CUSTOMER-CENTER?

Give away the experience

If you have already delved into the real needs of the client and thought through your advertising message, it is worth starting to build a sense of loyalty to the brand among consumers. Of course, the quality of service, products and services offered is the basis, while modern consumers want something more from brands. They want to feel noticed, appreciated and taken care of. In building a well-thought-out marketing message around the brand, carefully selected advertising gadgets with a logo can be very helpful. They can be a gift for selected "VIP" customers, be an addition to special promotional campaigns or be a permanent addition to the products / services you offer. Well thought-out corporate gifts tailored to the current industry trends and the characteristics of your target group will help you stand out from the competition. If you are looking for the best gadgets for your business, be sure to visit the Macma Polska website. We will prepare an offer for you along with free visualizations of personalized advertising articles. 

 

Natalia Tkacz-Brodacka

Marketing specialist at Macma Polska