Courting the New Consumer

Rick Stanton, President/Creative Director

Overwhelming choices, lives so busy that there’s barley time to think much less retain information, media coming at us in every direction, seemingly non-stop, and then wham. Our economy gets sucker punched.
As if it hadn’t gotten hard enough to get through to consumers, add in the worst recession in our lifetime and now you have an even different challenge to hurdle.

For far too many companies, the solution has been to stop advertising, lower prices and cut back on service, all very bad ideas.
This was-is the perfect opportunity to maintain or get market share, while putting your foot firmly on the throats of your competitors. Another article for another time.

So, how do you persuade the new consumer operating in this new financial reality to choose you?
It’s all about your brand, more so than ever before.

Consumers are starting to spend again, all be it cautiously.
Yet they will still make decisions the same way they always have, emotionally and back-filled with logic.
But now they expect “something more” when making their buying decisions.
Companies need to decide what their “something more” is, define it clearly, and make sure it’s brand appropriate. But add value, don’t just resort to lowering prices.
That is a slippery slope that businesses hardly ever recover from, for many reasons.

Your “something more” can be in the form of better and or added services, like free shipping, free upgrades. Or for restaurants, free dessert, free valet parking, or a frequent diner’s card. Do you sell cars? Put an espresso cart in the showroom, give a percentage of each sale or lease to the food banks, up grade the wheels for free, treat people better.
Make your place of business more fun to be in, be sustainable, support a cause, give back, not because it’s feel good marketing trick but because you believe in something other than making money. Remember, consumers are making emotional decision. Do something to heighten the process.

Just because people will weigh their decisions more closely, they will still be looking for the best total experience, and an added value proposition that is authentic and honest will be a deal maker. Not just price.

Meaningful, honest brands with a relevant set of values, will build relationships on loyalty.
Better understand your key consumer, invest in research, and focus on what matters most to them. Your research will tell you it’s not just about price.

At the end of the day it always comes back to one certain truth regardless of the economy.
People do business with people they like and trust. Do things that contribute to this fact. It’s how we choose and keep friends … and brands.