The human mind is an interesting thing. Sometimes rational, often irrational, it's been said it's the most complex thing on earth.
Marketers have classically been trained with an assumption that consumers are rational. Most business undergrads and MBA students are well prepared to draw diagrams on feature/functionality-based value propositions and how one brand compares to another. Our "SWOT" analyses (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) are analyzed to the nth degree on logical points.
Yet so many products and companies fail.
One of the reasons, I believe, is that most marketers fail to understand the full scope of decision-making criteria in their industry and regional scenarios. Just what drivers exactly do customers use in their busy, noisy lives to make decisions in a given time, place and set of circumstances?
Best-selling books such as Blue Ocean Strategy use a "Strategy Canvas" to help marketers assess where open space ("blue ocean") exists in the competitive landscape based on a deep understanding of customer decision-drivers. For example, in the airline industry, you could choose an airline based on a number of factors: price, loyalty program, travel amenities (meals, seating space, etc.), convenience of the departure time, etc.
A company like Southwest Airlines emphasizes some of these criteria over others, such as price and frequent departures, while a United traditionally emphasizes a different set of decision-factors.
However, the weakness of even this well-known model are that the selection of decision-criteria tend to be primarily functional and logical. Few, if any, models emphasize what is becoming to be the key driver in buying decisions - emotions.
Researchers such as Dr. Robert Passikoff, who runs the marketing research firm and consultancy called BrandKeys, provides an example of how of the four main decision-making criteria for fragrances, three of them are emotional. A competitor who enters the fragrance industry primarily on functional benefits is headed for disaster.
While this might seem obvious in a consumer category like fragrances, it's surprisingly true for business-to-business categories. If your firm does not fully understand the foundational decision-making criteria for your market space, including the emotional drivers, you could be in for a difficult challenge to grow market share and become a dominant player.
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