If people only have financial & physical needs, advertising generic products by names & prices might be enough. People buy what they want & they want emotional satisfaction, not generic solutions.
To fulfill needs in special ways, people might need to use unfamiliar products & tasks, so they also want information & reassurance. Customer integrated retailers connect with customers more than physically with products.
Customer integration includes mental factors like confidence to try different products & methods. Since customer integrated retailers want customers to be totally satisfied with results, product satisfaction isn’t enough.
When people are disappointed by results, they might blame themselves &/or products. Disappointment leads to limited options because people hesitate about new things.
Help people explore options to enrich their lives. When you have a specialty, you offer a narrow, but deep range of options. If people are frustrated with limited results, you can offer better options in that deep range.
Example: Fitness stores match products with people’s needs & include information about specific exercises. As fitness levels change, customers can progress with different exercises & products.
You can make your store a necessity for people’s desired results in the range of your specialty. Your store becomes more necessary with each information detail & physical aspect you offer for specific improvements.
Your expertise & option range can reassure customers how well you enrich their lives & how necessary your store is. Since you have to limit your inventory, specialize in specific improvements & be an authority with valuable information.
Inspire trust by offering information that makes improvements complete in local conditions. Detailed advertising can explain how your specialty makes desirable improvements possible. Describe current & near future issues, so people recognize signs & symptoms. Explain how your products mitigate, solve or prevent problems, plus how your information improves product performance.
Eliminate Or Mitigate Risks.
Explain what eliminates or mitigates exposures to risks. Example: Problems cause gaps around windows. Caulking can seal small gaps & prevent some damage, but won’t fix problems that could cause gaps or previous damage.
Example Offer: ‘It’s time to check windows for drafts. (Store) has caulking & information for you to determine if there’s a problem to fix before you use caulking. It’s easy to find stores that just sell products. (Store) has products & information you need to find & fix problems, plus maintain improvements. (Store) offers what you need for long-term maintenance, so you’ll get results that are worth your time, effort & money.’
Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA)
Do big competitors attend to or ignore regional differences? You should emphasize specialized products, services & knowledge about what matters locally & help people thrive in changing conditions.
AIDA is a common advertising model. It describes effects of advertising on consumers. Customer intimacy & integration emphasizes how retailers make that model optimally effective.
Here are questions to help implement that model:
How much Attention do you pay to customers’ concerns?
How do you Attend to what’s necessary to improve conditions & maintain improvements?
How do your show your Interest in helping customers produce & maintain superior results?
How do you fulfill your helpful Desire with Actions to help customers choose specific products & methods for superior results?
Show you pay attention to & are interested in customers’ details, so you can inspire them to integrate their lives with your store. Offer what they desire for maintaining & enhancing important life aspects. Develop preliminary action plans for using products. When people respond to your ads, you can ask for details to finalize plans.
Integration forms relationships by connecting with what's important to people. There’s little connection in exchanging products & money because it doesn’t express much concern about customers’ results. When you have customer relationships, you want each other to thrive.
People buy discount store products when they think they have enough information or aren’t aware of better options.
Compared to big retailers’ lack of product quality & service, you can focus on improving customers’ results, even if improvements are incremental.
Instead of loading up on discounted products, customers can invest in better products for each step, so they can evaluate & customize incremental results. Explain how incremental progress can be adjusted for budgets & changing conditions.
Offer Full Solutions
Instead of advertising products, offer full solutions by helping people choose their best options by comparing their needs with product features.
Determine which product & task combinations can improve conditions & guide customers in checking progress. When customers check progress based on your guidance, they can adjust to be sure results become long-term solutions.
Offer Example: ‘Since home improvement solutions require more than products, (store) offers full guidance. Let’s review total conditions to determine what you need. We’ll choose tools & materials based on your needs & abilities. If necessary, we’ll explore adding to your skills, so you can create & maintain results. Let’s decrease your stress & increase your confidence with step by step plans.’
People need to know what to expect from problems, so they can choose products. Example: If an illness starts with fever & aches, people buy relief from those. Later, they might lose sleep because of coughing. Signs can help people prepare for what’s not currently apparent. ‘This current virus causes (symptom list). Products on this shelf can bring you comfort. If you have questions about symptoms, ask us now, so you’ll feel better soon.’
Promote Better Options.
People will opt for discount store lower prices & wider selections unless you promote better options.
Customer Intimate retailers offer customized, lower risk solutions. Customer integration goes further by helping people customize experiences.
Offer Example: ‘To offer you total confidence in home repairs, (store) will recommend products & customized plans for long-term, high quality weatherization. You’ll enjoy your warm home & low utility bills. (Store) focuses on your total enjoyment because minimal satisfaction & temporary results aren't enough. Let's make your results special by adding benefits with products & information discount stores ignore. Discount store commodities might barely do what you expect. Let's review what you need & choose tools & materials for the best results.’
Problem solutions can be experiences when people enjoy improvements & confidence in long-term results. Since actions produce results & inspire confidence, you can offer more significant value with products & planned tasks than discount stores.
Discount store executives show their disinterest in consumers’ details by reducing employee contacts. Show your interest in consumers’ details by encouraging contacts. You can learn how to help individuals, plus gather & combine their details for a fuller perspective of local conditions. That perspective can help you offer better kits for preventing or solving problems.
Each detail can help you enhance kits to provide complete results.
Help People Understand Information You Offer
If you only focus on product sales, you’ll limit customers’ options. You can be flexible & help consumers be flexible by adding information.
Unfortunately, information can be interpreted & rejected as opinions. Success can depend on handling or detouring around disagreements.
Though facts seem to be black & white, there are often shades of gray. You can reduce doubt by consulting based on customers’ details. Focus on details that make particular products & methods necessary. When you effectively & efficiently combine those products & methods into superior results, customers’ testimonials can support your statements.
Products & methods work in some conditions & fail in others, but those success & failure evaluations are often subjective.
If nothing worked before, limited effects seem like success, so people repeat methods. They advise others to do the same in similar conditions. They might do the same things until you persuade them to try what’s more convenient, less expensive, easier to achieve &/or more effective & efficient.
Though discount stores might have low standards, people might think commodities are better than nothing or good enough. Differentiate your store by making higher standards part of your offers.
Example: ‘Stores are setup to either push products or help customers. (Store) will help you combine products & information into superior results. When you need full, long-term superior quality, don’t settle for partial relief from discount store bargains. You should depend on store owners to help you use products. Let’s review what you want, so you’ll get lasting benefits that are worthy of your time & efforts.’
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Copyright 2020 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
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