Category Archives: Trend: Considerism

Trend: Considerism

Supreme homage to value, redefined; every action an investment, whether time or money; the death of impulse / birth of comparative study; choice as a primary concept

posted by Cathy

Apr 28, 2009 @ 8:39am

The Power of Need

The first in a series analyzing seven new economy trends

In homes and businesses across America, decisions are being made with a heavy emphasis on “need” rather than “want.” This dynamic is impacting the marketplace so significantly it should be the first consideration in any strategic business decision, be it product development, realignment or marketing. What does this really mean? Begin every conversation in your organization with this question:

What does our customer need from us?

The answer must come from your customer’s point of view, which is—quite honestly—180 degrees from a corporate point of view. And if you haven’t conducted consumer research since—say, January—you can’t know the answer because I promise you, it has changed in the last four months.

Spend the money to work with a good researcher. It’s one of the most important investments you can make in your marketing program. Today’s great researchers engage the right people, and they do it in an environment or a circumstance that results in truly meaningful (and potentially differentiating) intelligence. (The days of relying on focus groups and telephone surveys are over, thank heavens.) This rather tall order requires working close to the ground, using new methodologies that result in honest and open communication uninfluenced by preconceived ideas or peer group dynamics. And it needn’t take months and cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Once you have hired the researcher, mined the insight(s) and put them in the proper context, begin every meeting with those realities in the forefront. Write them on the wall; make them a part of your organization’s vernacular. Then use the insights as your North Star as you develop new products/programs/promotions. You’ll wonder how you ever made a good business decision without them.

Up Next: The Power of Simplicity
The second in a series analyzing seven new economy trends

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posted by Kevin

Apr 06, 2009 @ 2:29pm

Tell Me More

It’s hardly news that everyone is spending less. There is a new normal, and it involves each of us being more mindful of what and how we spend. From vacations closer to home, to house brands, to buying locally grown food, we’re making more deliberate, smarter choices about what and how we consume.

These more informed choices require more information.

Recent legislation requires that grocers tell us where our produce is grown. Yet the smartest most successful supermarkets go much further. They tell us not just where our asparagus comes from, but how to prepare it. Recipe cards are offered alongside samples cooked at a station in the produce aisle.

Whatever your business, you need to do the same. Far too often, service businesses —healthcare and banking in particular — fail horribly at this. Few HMOs or hospitals offer adequate information about the doctors in their networks. Although research clearly shows the most important component of healthcare delivery is not what, where or how, but who is delivering their care. Banks push rates and products despite the fact that their customers crave relationships, advice and counsel.

This is an easy fix. Don’t shy away from explanation, particularly on the web. Instead of mortgages at 4 percent shown alongside a banker’s contact information, include something personal or philosophical about the person offering the mortgage. In the past, a doctor’s office wall filled with diplomas told us something about the doctor. We need that information (often delivered digitally) now more than ever.

It pays to get back to basics. The split-second decision-making that drove expensive image messaging is over. Take the time to communicate completely with your customers. Those who do will do more than emerge from the current economy intact, they’ll find themselves with a fiercely loyal customer base that will ensure their prosperity for years to come.

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posted by Kevin

Mar 06, 2009 @ 11:20am

Yet Another OJ Scandal

This morning, I saw on CNN that Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice is scrapping its new package design just a few weeks after introducing it. Why this sudden change? And why is it CNN-newsworthy?

Because a firestorm of dissent that occurred online drove the company to make such an expensive decision.

Outrage over a brand’s packaging decision? I think. Who could possible care, other than a few designers?

So I arrive at work and in The New York Times Tuesday advertising section was more commentary.

This significance came clear: The new economy has consumers clinging to the familiar.

As a result, consider what’s most fundamental to your business’ success, and make sure it is front and center in your brand experience and your marketing.

An example is our client First Community Bank. As a community bank, their brand is built completely on relationships and human connection. In fact, amid the economic challenges of the day, we featured the bank’s president in a television campaign in which he invites customers to call him personally to talk about any issue they are facing.

A recent home refinancing push led to an effort far more personal and casual than a traditional statement stuffer. Each statement envelope was hand stamped with a home refinancing message.

Of course I am a First Community customer, and I recently received a hand-written thank you note from one of the tellers after a branch visit. I can’t imagine a tactic more in keeping with First Community’s promise of maintaining a personal relationship with its customers.

What effort can you deploy that speaks to your brand’s core?

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posted by Teresa

Feb 23, 2009 @ 9:41am

Take time to count the pennies.

It has finally happened. We have more time than money.

I saw it first hand, just today, sitting in the drive-thru at Wendy’s. The line was snaked all the way to the curb, forcing the back end of my car to hang precariously out into the street. As for parking spaces, forget it. We had all come to worship at the altar of the 99-cent value menu.

It had made the drive over to Knox Abbott worthwhile. After all, what’s 15 minutes sitting in line when you can get a chili, fries and tea for $3.79? (It’s that $1.70 drink that puts me over the edge every time).

But I digress. The value menu is a microcosm for two things smart marketers know in this new economy:

1. People will go out of their way to find you if you deliver what is perceived to be more value for the dollar.

2. People are no longer content to buy bundled, or combo’ed, products just for the sake of convenience.

We’ve finally realized we never needed those super-plus-biggie fries, even though it saved time to just order a “number 5.” We now know, in fact, we can live without the “electronics package” on our car featuring the GPS that’s automatically programmed to drive us to our mother’s house on Thursdays and put our makeup on for us at the same time.

People are looking for simple value on the things they need. And they are willing to spend more time looking for them, one at a time. Remember that, and stop trying so hard to up-sell to customers and instead, listen to what they want to buy. Give it to them at a fair price and with a smile, and you’ll both be happier in the end.

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posted by Cathy

Feb 10, 2009 @ 9:28am

Make “Private Label” Work for Your Brand

My shoulders tighten. My hands clinch. And I hear myself thinking “this is a crappy time to be in the  business of marketing.” Jobs, AND THEREFORE THE ENTIRE U.S. ECONOMY, depend on our ability to get customers to spend money. And yet the resources we have to accomplish that Herculean task get thinner every day. I don’t have to tell you, it’s your reality: Margins get tight and the marketing budget is the first to go.

And yet there are brands out there doing it well. Each of us can learn from every move they make—no matter what our category. Just watch and think:  How does that great idea translate to banking? Or tourism? Or healthcare? Or retirement living? Or widgit making? There is always a parallel because the real change is in consumer behavior. And that is relevant to all of us, no matter what the business line.

Take, for instance, the move to private label, or “house” brands. In a recent New Economy Consumer survey, eight out of ten consumers said “house” brands offer good value; four in ten report buying more in the last three months than ever before. Great information if you are in a position to develop a new packaged goods line. (Publix is rocking the house with theirs.) But can you take this idea and apply it to your business?

Home furnishings direct marketer Grandin Road did—and the move didn’t require a single change in product offering. By simply designating some products in their line as  “GrandinValues” (and denoting these with a GV logo), online shoppers can get “exclusive, designer-inspired styles, at irresistibly low prices.” There’s a brand within a brand.

Grandin Road "Grand Value" Ad

Grandin Road "Grand Value" Ad

Our client, Yesterdays Restaurant and Tavern, has a different—but very compelling—spin on it. In addition to the “based on what’s in season” daily specials for which this local eatery has become known, they now offer a designated Blue Plate Special for lunch and dinner every weekday. Value-based at $6.99 for an entrée, two sides and iced tea, it’s comfort food (another biggie in this economy) at a price you can afford. We are promoting the Blue Plate Special heavily this first quarter, positioning it as a high quality, low cost alternative to other restaurant options.

Still from Yesterday's Blue Plate TV

Still from Yesterdays' Blue Plate TV

This kind of thinking is a great way to sustain your brand’s equity through a down economy while providing customers with an option they can feel good about.

What opportunities do you have to promote a more basic version of  your core offering?

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posted by Teresa

Jan 23, 2009 @ 11:32am

The Repentant Consumer

We all know the economy is the monster birthed by the oil giants, financial industry, insurance kingpins, and every other human being who ever dared to sport a pinstripe suit. The MAN has done it to us, once again.

Boo. Hoo.

Did THE MAN force us to create our own personal artic air mass with the touch of the AC button every time the temperature dared to reach 70 degrees? Did HE shove you and your co-workers into separate cars every day, only to have you arrive at work at the same time Monday through Friday? What about that Lipitor? Surely you can’t be expected to think about what you eat and get some exercise to control your cholesterol. You’ve got to rush back to work for an hour and a half between dropping off and picking up the kids for ballet, tennis and soccer. Come on.

Yet surprisingly, this wasn’t always the case. There was a time when people actually turned the lights off when they left the room and slept with the window screens open. They returned little green Coke bottles to the corner store, and got 5 cents for their trouble. There was one bottle of aspirin and some rubbing alcohol in the medicine cabinet. If those two things couldn’t help you, you were probably dead already.

But here we are today, in debt, fat and on five kinds of antibiotics. And mad as hell at THE MAN for doing it to us.

Smart companies facing this kind of consumer backlash have two choices:
1.    Keep pushing more of the same kind of excessive, mass consumption on consumers
2.    Enlighten consumers on how we can all have more by consuming less

Case in point: Getting consumers to take responsibility for their own energy choices. Sure, making a conscious decision to run the dishwasher at 11:00 pm rather than 7:00 doesn’t sound like much. But when we all think about the way we’re consuming energy, it can make a huge difference. And odds are, we’ll feel better about ourselves—and even the energy company— when we accept the fact that we all had a hand in this mess.

Whether you’re the producer or consumer, there’s an appropriate level of repentance due from us all. Getting out of the blame game and channeling it into positive action is the payoff for us all in the days ahead.

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posted by Kevin

Dec 08, 2008 @ 1:00pm

The Invisible Middle Ground

There is no more middle ground. As a society, we seem addicted to dramatic shifts. The White House will soon be trading hands from the son of an American dynasty to the son of a Kenyan immigrant. We downsize from the excess of a Cadillac Escalade to the economy of a Toyota Prius. We go from a never wait, charge it now mentality to a near halt in non-essential purchases.

While not entirely illogical, such radical shifts are proof that consumer decision-making, regardless of the prevailing economic condition, remain emotionally driven. The desired personal benefit may change, say from status to financial security, but the core driver is and will always remain, human emotion.

What does change are the ingredients that form and contribute to these emotions. The emotional epiphany takes longer to construct. This is the concept behind considerism. Economic recession tends to postpone and prolong decision-making (consideration time). This is obvious when you think about major purchases – who’s buying a car right now? It still holds true on a much smaller level as well, even the impulse-buy in the grocery store check out line. That slight hesitation, perhaps even putting the item back, all takes more time.

Marketers need to use that time to their advantage. Consider this:

  • There are more factors than ever influencing decisions, i.e. socially conscious company mission, organic, green, etc.
  • There are more conduits of information than ever before.
  • There is more peer influence on consumer choice than ever before. (Angie’s List has moved from handymen to doctors.)

As a result, it is now even more crucial that marketers continue to message after the initial introduction advertising provides. Of course, this is not a new concept, but yesterday’s common neglect is today’s fatal flaw.

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