Customer Integration & Differentiation Help Niche Members “See” What’s Necessary.

Daniel Kahneman (“Thinking Fast & Slow”) defined What You See Is All There Is (WYSIATI).

Do niche members see/recognize how your store provides necessary, valuable products/services with support for thriving lives?

Top-Of-Mind-Awareness is pushed as the ultimate marketing goal. But external issues aren’t consistently Top-Of-Mind because people must mentally juggle external & internal/personal issues.

Example: Preference for Brand-X cleanser is irrelevant while driving. But back-pain relief relates to comfortably sitting while focusing on safety. Top-Of-Mind-Awareness issues are things people currently see/notice & prioritize. If people don’t see all necessities, hazard avoidance & opportunity maximization are unlikely.

Customer Integrators study local members' living-conditions because customer integration includes monitoring indications to determine what warrants Top-Of-Mind-Awareness.

When/How should members prepare for daily & occasional issues? Which conflicts arise? Example: Daily commutes would be disrupted by appointments or shopping directly after work. Digital contact is impersonal but practical for forgotten/inconvenient errands. Separate outings consume more time & fuel. Drivetime advertising might inspire members to consider digital options for satisfying needs with minimal disruptions.

Offer Example: ‘While driving, you might remember (priority) & wonder how you’ll schedule it. Ask passengers to search (online/social media) for (Store) offering (kits). Contact details are there. Request deliveries.’

Top-Of-Mind-Awareness fails if members aren’t motivated by need/desire satisfaction offers. Let’s add Marshall Goldsmith’s "What Got You Here Won't Get You There”. Do people accurately “see”/evaluate necessities for arriving & staying “Here”? Is “Here” worthwhile? Is “There” worth efforts of going/getting?

As members evaluate abilities & resources used to get “Here”, do you help differentiate necessities/“What” for getting “There”? Do you help members recognize differences between those journeys? How do members define “Here” plus hazards of staying & obstacles to “There”?

How do daily experiences build toward/detract from goal achievements? Could bland/neutral experiences be empowered/enhanced into deeper values? Explain members’ needs for guidance & how you fulfill those. If members are only aware of competitors’/surrogates' offers, your advantage offers don't exist in Top-Of-Mind-Awareness.

(Note: I’m not advocating Harry Harlow’s experiments. To avoid stereotyping humans, let’s continue analogizing stressful circumstances by extrapolating Harlow’s findings. An applicable issue is people feel uncertain because they lack control & predictability.)

Harlow’s surrogates didn’t move independently, communicate or accurately resemble mothers. Newborns’ & mothers’ bonding was prevented. Newborns’ “maternal” perceptions & criteria were from surrogates (All There Is). Mothers weren’t seen among “All There Is” or “Get There” options.

Mothers wouldn't achieve instant trust by entering year-old babies’ reality. Observations, experiences & lessons initiate input processing/extrapolating to establish “facts”/certainty.

Stressful surrogate experiences are “Here” for babies that would probably want distance from mothers. Maternal “There” offers would be unfamiliar & seem risky. Scant similarities probably wouldn’t outweigh unfamiliar factors. Mothers could differentiate by explaining & comparing criteria: babies' familiar negatives & unfamiliar positive factors.

Example: ‘You’re suffering because surrogates can’t offer anything made for you. My genuine maternal care includes cooperation to help you with comfortable positions so you can effectively, efficiently suckle. Pain will ease while your wounds heal because I'll adjust when you're uncomfortable.’

Babies might suspect familiar surrogates “cause” pain, but unfamiliar mothers are strangers equated to dangers. If maternal reunions cause them to abandon salvaged positives from surrogates, babies could've suffered for nothing by losing their only positives.

Explain how to confirm reasons & remedies/benefits: Feel your soft fur & skin. Surrogates don’t offer enough softness to prevent your pain. I have fur & skin like you, so while holding each other, you’ll be comforted while suckling.

Human cases & testimonials could confirm benefits, but personal assurance is powerful.

If product samples bring initial relief, imagination extrapolates expectations of experiencing long-term benefits. Are trial offers enough for comfort & relief to begin?

TOMA Is in Consumers’ Reality but Doesn't Automatically Integrate into Lives.

It’s like students learning facts without opportunities to functionally create/preserve value. Cognitive labor should be functional. Example: I learned to calculate circle circumferences, but functionally did it once. Guide functionality & purpose to build functional hope, so people justify purchases to themselves & potential critics.

Awareness-Attention-Interest-Desire-Action are like To-Do List tasks. AIDA is completed by actions to satisfy needs/desires. Customer integrators establish life connections with information/reminders about major/minor opportunities & disruptions. When conditions deviate from expectations & resources become incompatible, people feel stuck with impractical options: 1-Tolerate inadequate offers; 2-Struggle to remediate familiar deterioration or possibly unfamiliar hazards?

Often retailers assume unsuccessful advertising indicates fickle consumers. Ads compete for attention. Besides competing in comparison-shopping, offers must earn intrapersonal justification & possibly social/familial approval. Purchases compete for/against financial priorities. Shopping competes for energy & time prioritization. Customer integration persuades niche members to open personal space/time & advantage offers help members justify space/time.

Only What You See Is There.

This applies to cheap products when only minimal temporary results are possible. When people are sure their knowledge is enough, other potential “facts” are supposedly unimportant/inapplicable or fake.

When manufacturers don’t supply viable options, materials aren’t maintainable & products are too cheap to upgrade/repair. Do cheap/discount merchants ask manufacturers for facts/product specifications or only about wholesale prices & logistics? Some discounters push brand names & prices without admitting brand owners reduce quality to gain retail sales.

Do big retailers' customers have low expectations, inaccurate criteria or inflated perceptions? Example: If furniture looks good & supports weight, people might be satisfied. While upholstery subtly wears & dulls as cushions lose springiness, people are distracted by many issues & don’t associate lint & backaches with slow furniture deterioration.

Retailers can challenge people to take pictures & compare appearances month-by-month. Ask if any other lifestyle changes might’ve increased pain. Some changes aggravate &/or are aggravated by others. After cheap furniture causes stiffness, people are vulnerable to further causes inflicting effects.

Stressed muscles don’t adequately support joints as movements inflict small cumulative cartilage, ligament & muscle tears. Repetitions prevent recovery. Previously benign movements & positions increase problems.

This might be more information than people want, but they need it, though they might’ve learned or intuited some. For overwhelmed minds more learning/processing & remembering bring stress. People should recognize consequences, so offer reviews of concerns & options. How long must consumers juggle details until other priorities take precedence?

After you collaborate on plans & customers finish projects, when should preventive maintenance be reviewed? Will you automate reminder messages or urge customers to mark calendars to ease tensions? It can be like people writing to-do lists & concerns, so relaxing is easier.

Your retailer teammates can be like marathon pacers by mentoring & encouraging customers to manage energy & provide other tips while monitoring progress & coping mechanisms. By consulting with customers, searching for insightful memories, researching details & testing, you’ll be close to customers in their situations.

Learn/observe results as customers tweak/adjust methods to maximize products you’ve recommended.

Cheap stuff might be analogized as TUvwxYz because people think they see TUVWXYZ. Without checking inside, products seem good enough for adequate results without supporting long-term benefits. Since vwxz looks like VWXZ, big retailers & manufacturers hope nobody detects any differences. It especially applies after manufacturers established high-quality reputations with TUVWXYZ.

Manufacturers want more sales & yield to multiple big retailers’ cheapness demands. When price rollbacks are offered, volume probably isn’t enough to increase economies-of-scale because manufacturers hit volume, speed & space limits for production maximization. Eventually, efficiencies can’t be increased.

Diseconomies-of-scale occur when average unit costs increase as production rises plus logistics & storage are more expensive & big retailers push supply chains to absorb costs. Sometimes, manufacturers pay to ship unsold & defective products back.

You can add extra details like these to websites to show your knowledge & help consumers verify various costs of cheap stuff. Curious consumers can click links.

Express understanding about consumers’ needs for mental quietude while gently offering guidance in finding essential insightful facts for individual lives. Promise to empower niche members’ informed decisions instead of hiding information.

Offer Example: ‘Are you also frustrated by big retailers that only want you to know where to find stores, product displays & checkouts. (Store) has deep research results to apply to your local conditions. You don’t have to study each detail, but details are available. In consultations, we’ll determine what applies to your goals & plan your achievements. (Store) specializes in collaborating with customers & retailer teammates for applying insightful facts for creating & maintaining your advantages.’

Help consumers perceive what’s all there is all that matters, define their gaps & explain why offers are advantageous to remedy local problems & claim opportunities. Cases & testimonials can show niche members are grateful for your advantageous value.

If prospects have different goals, you can map routes using “mile-markers” from cases & testimonials. Step-1 might come from Case-A. Step-2 might come from Testimonial-B.

When resources (including insightful knowledge) seem inadequate, people might be stuck instead of procrastinating. Imagine knowledge gaps as potholes. After recovering from previous shocks of hitting potholes, people advance & are jarred by others.

Situational misunderstandings analogize as rough routes to nebulous destinations. After multiple jolts, people naturally wonder if destinations (goals) really exist & are worth all their troubles. Customer integrators specialize in functional hope & collaboration to determine if there’s hope of functionality.

Copyright 2025 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

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