Differentiate Your Business For Doubters.

(Note: I’m not advocating Harlow’s experiments. To avoid stereotyping humans, let’s continue analogizing stressful circumstances by extrapolating Harry Harlow’s findings.)

Harlow’s babies had oxygen, milk & minimal comfort. After determining objective & subjective life necessities, research could reveal whether subjects/victims tolerate or reject perceived shortages.

Will humans’ toleration end because: 1-relief never comes; 2-remedies are overpriced, incomplete &/or cause other trouble; 3-finished remedies are short-term? How long will anybody wait without satisfaction before seeking relief or surrendering?

Babies couldn’t verbalize feelings, describe unsatisfied needs or dodge harms. It’s like humans trapped in quicksand without recognized escape methods & routes. Outsiders may misperceive & say, “Get out of the puddle!”

Frustrating attempts disrupt functional hope unless people are assured about other testing options & customizing emerging benefits. Failure is disempowering, but power is preserved by learning from evaluated results.

Request customers’ reports for follow-up consultations. Testimonials & case studies can clarify how adjustments brought higher success than comparable efforts without your guidance.

If new customers’ descriptions aren’t clear, compare similar cases. Customers might recognize observations & experiences matching theirs.

Specialist retailers help customers evaluate circumstantial factors, recognize problems & plan remedies. In effect, competitors may be outsiders unable/unwilling to recognize & verbalize problems & remedies.

Customer integration grows stronger as people’s understanding improves consultation participation & perspectives about making higher investments for high-quality.

Will frustration & perceived inconveniences degrade into infuriation & perceived dangers? People might be tempted to emotionally "diagnose" problems, instead of feeling stumped by unfamiliar symptoms. People naturally prepare for recognized problems, right? Could problems be so bad if they don’t fit people’s preparation skills & resources?

Big retail customers might buy/use wrong or inadequate products & think/imagine problems are over.

If problems worsen, people doubt possible remedies.

Differentiate Advantage Offers For Countering Specific Doubts.

Before customers integrate your store into their lives, you’ll have doubts to overcome.

Doubters are stressed & mistrust facts for various reasons. Business differentiation shouldn't appeal to generalized consumers. Easily persuaded customers can build self-confidence & functional hope with products. This momentum & social proof can coax doubters.

Differentiate offers to fill knowledge & physical gaps, so doubters can be attracted by referrals, testimonials & case studies.

Cynics may bitterly believe high-quality doesn’t exist & reject proof. Despite internal conflicting beliefs, doubters may realize or want to believe better truths probably exist externally. Provide & apply those truths to doubters’ circumstances.

Consultations help doubters determine IF better options exist/could be created. Help customers determine indicators of successful problem remedies.

Offer Example: ‘Since cheap products disappoint people & many retailers won’t guide customers, your doubts are justified. For your needed remedies, schedule (Store) consultations for diagnosing problems before trying remedies. Step-by-step customized kits incrementally advance remedies. If preliminary results don’t fit criteria, let’s adjust products &/or instructions for sustainable advantages.’

If they want functional hope, doubters accept case studies. Cases won't happen until people experiment in their circumstances.

Harlow's babies expressed stress but coping mechanisms didn't accurately address problems.

Frustration adds more pain when humans sense, but don't recognize exact problems. After misdiagnosing problems & choosing inappropriate coping mechanisms, people might still trust their diagnoses & become more skeptical of mechanisms.

Depending on perceived options, frustrations could push people to test alternatives or surrender.

Nagging, unresolved subjective necessities seem to grow. Multiple minor complaints combine into major loads.

Though you can’t change people's budgets & credit-limits, your advantage offers can reduce stress. Justify new attempts with functional hope from guidance to adapt specific goals for circumstances.

After desires are justified, budgets & options can be adjusted based on results from case studies & new customer reports.

Example: Option-1 might be immediately effective. Option-2 might be effective longer. Option-3 might be consistently effective, but short-term. Option-4 might be less technical but slowly lose effectiveness despite maintenance efforts.

Which option best fits budgets & expectations? Desirability & pricing might depend mostly on when benefits begin, peak, fade &/or end. Are remedies complete & include long-term prevention? Help customers balance needs, desires, expectations & affordability of creating new realities.

Generally, people invest to enjoy opportunities (pride, status, enrichments) after remedying/preventing stress (ill-health, property damage, social troubles).

For cognitive labor to conquer uncertainty, people must know which facts apply to causes & effects plus advance goal achievements.

Potential Uncertainty Issues: How far will people go mentally/physically to find certainty? What/how much will people do to obtain & maintain opportunities/remedies?

If people start projects, which problems interfere with creating & keeping opportunities? Are stress-levels related to remedy costs & offset by opportunity value?

If problem causes are unfamiliar, people might not know about severity of effects. Perceptions could signify minor causes, so people procrastinate. But what if untreated effects continue, fade or grow?

Is time available for thinking before interventions? If hasty plans don’t fit conditions & goals, is there time to restart?

Solve Confusion Before Problems.

Consumers value people’s knowledge & opinions. Urge niche members to seek your advice after asking how others understand opportunities & problems. Causes & effects may seem minor externally even to empathetic loved ones.

Problems are personally perceived internally & can undermine health in ways outsiders don’t understand.

Case studies & testimonials can explain how your advantage offers relieve specific troubles. Stress-relief clears minds, so customers can conquer other causes.

Some may interpret “subjective necessities” as oxymoronic. Objective necessities fulfill confirmed survival needs & fill/prevent some subjective gaps.

When people are stuck in subjective gaps, causes may be invisible, but noticeable stress effects may be misunderstood externally &/or internally. How long can anybody tolerate subjective stressors?

When total fulfillment isn't possible/available or affordable, which substitutes increase confidence & comfort enough to justify purchases plus learning methods?

Clayton Christensen advocated marketing based on people's jobs-to-be-done. Before/during/after using your offers, how much control/influence do people have over jobs-to-be-done effectiveness & efficiency?

Harlow’s newborns had “job-openings” without information to describe mothers'/“applicants” qualifications & unfulfilled duties, so indefinite/undefined problems/gaps brought definite frustrations.

When you help customers describe opportunities or gaps, jobs-to-be-done descriptions are easier.

Surrogates couldn't guide babies in maximizing benefits like mothers could. If self-determined babies controlled access to milk & "comfort" from surrogates, access didn't increase quality.

Self-determination is important for feeling comfortably secure if people know what they should control & how. But self-determination is incomplete without beneficial, reachable resources &/or ability to acquire better options. Self-advocacy requires knowledge of procedures & evaluating disruptions.

Beholding benefits seemingly indicate opportunity availability, but customers must create & preserve favorable conditions. Without that ability, stress increases if people predict they wouldn’t enjoy those “benefits” again.

If attempts fail as people test methods, desperation becomes another symptom as relief seems further out-of-reach. Without relevant experiences, babies weren’t aware surrogates couldn’t actively fulfill needs. It’s like people reaching for relief without recognition criteria or accurate knowledge for using available resources.

Without criteria to recognize maternal practices, babies wouldn’t automatically recognize authentic mothers. If newborns rejected surrogates & disregarded mothers, unfulfilled needs would cause more stress. Without “trial offers”, newborns wouldn’t recognize mothers’ physical traits as qualifications until demonstrated practices help babies confirm benefits.

Based on human criteria, laboratory conditions may've seemed better than nature, but Harlow's babies became more stressed.

Your perceptions of local conditions & potential advantages aren't enough to persuade niche members. Develop offers based on members' perceptions & understanding. Make it easier by influencing their perceptions & understanding.

Potentially True Analogy: While contractors coaxed people to build the Panama Canal, workers stopped working after satisfying their financial needs. Contractors experienced high living standards, but laborers didn't know earning more money could bring more enjoyment. Contractors distributed catalogs to show advanced products & explained how to upgrade lifestyles. Laborers were inspired & worked longer to finish the canal. This fits my functional hope concept.

Without functional hope, Harlow's babies became more uncomfortable. If they could've understood & believed experiment results were necessary for future functional hope, babies' physical pain might’ve been less distressing. But distress wouldn’t end because upgrades wouldn’t improve surrogates much.

It’d be like tolerating cheap stuff while saving money for upgrading cheap stuff. Advantages would be possible only with high-quality replacements.

If humans feel discomfort worsens & functional hope doesn't exist for recovery, mental stress combines with physical discomfort. This combined stress is hard to resist as fatigue overwhelms people.

If scientists quantified & stabilized total pain, that "progress" wouldn't directly enhance subjective coping mechanisms. Coping mechanisms might be stable or improved if you & your retail teammates offer progress & future functional hope.

Offer Example: ‘Though you’re familiar with your situation, (problem) seems strange. By the time, you learn the definite diagnosis & examine extensive damage; symptoms will worsen while you handle other priorities. You need answers & might need help forming meaningful questions to find appropriate answers. In (Store) consultations, let’s review your pictures, observations & checklists, so we’ll develop questions to bring necessary answers. When people don’t know exactly what’s wrong, any cheap products & chores seem adequate. Before you start, let’s define the impact you need & set your goal, so your product & method choices will maximize your achievements.’

Copyright 2025 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

Your business's profit potential depends on how much value your market niche perceives in what you offer. They won't perceive any value unless they have a reason to think about it. It's why you need effective marketing.

https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Customer Integration Is Beyond Niche Marketing. Integrate Advantages Into Specific Lives.

As you integrate into niche members’ lives, learn what’s challenging & offensive.

Examples: Challenge people to test approaches- ‘You’ll develop (benefits) by learning & testing alternative methods. While learning from results, adapt product & method choices. You’ll learn to change your conditions plus adapt to unchangeable factors.’ People feel insulted by accusations- ‘Why haven’t you tried (methods)? Stop fighting changes & use (resources) to manage factors & create (benefits).’

If people can’t handle more challenges, develop offers by identifying current/potential/emerging offenses/storms. Which defensive options (products & practices) increase customers’ confidence & security? Without comparison criteria, people might tolerate insufficiencies instead of maximizing defenses.

Consumers need energy & knowledge to evaluate & prioritize potential risks while monitoring horizons. Knowledge indicates “storm” tracks & severities for planning escape & recovery methods. If people prepare & storms miss them, are preparations sufficient for future “storms”? Could unused preparations elevate security & confidence?

Like all communications, advertising succeeds with content in contexts. Content: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How (Much/Often/Long).

Contextual matters: Why are people with Whom? How do social connections influence purchases? What are benefits people want & can maximize? When & Where can people maximize benefits? Who identifies & overcomes issues affecting your niche? Who influences/controls What (issues & offer purchases)? How Much/Long will people tolerate barely adequate results & Why?

What builds & supports Whose pride & identity? What offends or wounds Whom & could end relationships? Seemingly minor “wounds” are vulnerable to “infections” inhibiting actions & increasing susceptibility.

Vulnerability levels are contextual. Feeling vulnerable to judgment, people want reassurance but may deny image-incompatible psychological &/or physical desires/needs. Example: People feel better after adopting youthful appearances. Negative reactions range from: They look better, but I wouldn’t do it. -TO- Who do they think they’re fooling?

Advantage offers influence thoughts & feelings. Make offers available When & Where niche members’ perceptions are primed for remedies/recovery &/or recreation. Choose media according to members’ likely activities & receptiveness. Since electronic media intermittently exhibit ads, advertisers should link products/services with benefits niche members prefer creating, keeping, maximizing, stopping or avoiding.

Example: ‘With (kit), you’ll create & preserve, then maximize (benefit). Is discounters’ cheap stuff durable enough to maximize (benefit)?’

When recognizing issues, members’ memories (advertising recall) should restart AIDA (Awareness/Attention/Interest/Desire/Action). Your increased understanding integrates members’ concerns into your profession, so members integrate your store into their lives.

Offer Example: ‘Are you frustrated by conflicting options like preparing (property) for rough weather or enjoying (benefit)? Though responsibilities are imperatives, don't miss opportunities for (benefit). You’ll regret missing needed recreation or procrastinating on responsibilities again. (Store & retail teammates) have kits for peak (benefit) experiences plus (property) maintenance & repairs. You’ll be ready for (benefit) when your property is ready for rough weather. Great weather for (benefit) & rough weather won’t wait for you to prepare. If you wait, your responsibilities will weigh on you & (benefit) will be less enjoyable.’

Help People Trust Your Understanding of Their Challenges.

Empathic ads build trust by showing you value customers beyond profits. Deep understanding guides you to avoid irritating customers’ sensitivities while reminding/challenging them to avoid/reduce pain. Empathy includes using ads & words niche members understand. (Slang changes INCREDIBLY fast.)

People are proud of “Measuring Up” & “Having What It Takes”/“The Right Stuff”. Emphasize wisdom of investing in consultations to customize products/services to preserve customers’ right stuff. Review necessary skills & insightful facts customers might lack.

Appeal to customers as wise specialists using skills & knowledge in important issues while conferring with advisors for unfamiliar matters. Analogy: Respected leaders trust advisors to scrutinize evidence & insightful facts.

Offer Example: ‘You have privileges because respected leaders & business owners trust advisors to shape ideas by adding insightful facts to project plans. Different perspectives are applied to observations & knowledge. Businesses & consumers evaluate current conditions & options then consider improvements. You’ll decrease uncertainty & increase value by combining your observations with (Store’s) access to insightful, experiential data & product supply-chains. Your project’s total value is created from quality of your invested current resources & reinvesting your gains for increasing success.’

(Note: I’m not advocating Harlow’s experiments. To avoid stereotyping humans, let’s continue analogizing stressful circumstances by extrapolating Harry Harlow’s findings.)

Newborns had internally compatible natural need fulfillment “practices” & abilities. Newborns didn't have a fully functional repertoire for coping with insufficient nurturing.

Babies’ “right stuff” fit their expectations. Babies didn’t choose those circumstances & reacted because they didn’t have “response-ability” (ability to proactively choose responses like Stephen Covey described). Proactivity & response-ability are easier with self-determination to adjust cognitive labor with insightful facts & advice.

Self-determined individuals build functional hope by verifying perceptions, then aligning their choices, goals, needs & values. Experimentation & evaluation can reveal whether aligned choices, goals, needs & values are compatible with specific circumstances.

Apptly, available limited options were unsatisfactory & incompatible with babies' long-term needs & preferences. Babies chose which available surrogates might satisfy short-term deficiencies. It might’ve been narrow freedom, but babies were confined without liberty to explore & pursue options.

With physical liberty, people can obtain resources. Mental freedom opens useful options for resources. Harlow limited useful options. If babies could’ve had improvement ideas, frustrations might've increased.

It'd be like people wanting progress but no liberty to obtain resources & test approaches. Discouraged people might prefer avoiding cognitive labor because of obstacles & crushed hope. Hopeful people transition to functional hope when they're confident & knowledgeable enough to choose & use resources. Help customers preserve functional hope with evaluations to precisely guide steps based on progress & mistakes.

People want liberty to pursue happiness with/without defining personal liberty & happiness. Does goal specificity increase success & satisfaction or failure & frustration? Help customers accurately specify goals & resources, learn from mistakes, then proceed. Help with explanations for preserving liberty & happiness with advantage offers of high-quality products with guided compatible methods.

Offer Example: ‘Before you choose stores, consider which product options will fulfill your expectations of long-term dependability. When will discounters’ cheap stuff lose functionality & become frustrating? By renting products for temporary needs, you get benefits without product storage or disposal. Discounters decrease quality & push cheapness, so customers get disposable stuff to fill dumps. Do some retailers promise friendly-service? Would f

riends leave you frustrated? In (Store) consultations, we’ll identify what’s missing, then plan your goal achievements plus maintenance needs. This is easier because (Store) works with suppliers dedicated to value.’

Case studies & testimonials can explain how your offers provide benefits of confidence & lower stress when customers created advantages. Promote referrals with dual cases & testimonials presenting niche members advising/mentoring others & expressing gratitude.

Offer Fuonal Hope & End Learned Hopelessness.

Babies attempted natural actions & reactions, then learned about results. Without other options, babies retried.

When acting naturally, people expect natural results. Without awareness of alternatives, people might reattempt familiar methods despite negative results. Discounters want consumers to think product versions are alike. Manufacturers succumb to discounters’ cheap product demands & abandon solid reputations.

People might think products are unintentionally inadequate or defective. After product exchanges, reattempts & learned hopelessness provoke low expectations of temporary effects.

Though brands & product appearances are familiar, quality ch

anges aren’t easily observable. If previous benefits seemed adequate, people might blame new unfamiliarities for failures.

Harlow’s newborns didn’t perceive anything familiar, but malfunc

tions became commonly stressful. It’d be stressful for human newbies who don’t identify what/whom to blame, fix or replace.

Without obvious problem reasons/causes, people can’t plan or implement solutions & preventions. People might feel they've restored some control by diagnosing troubles or assigning blame.

Unknown problems are stressful. Diagnoses & names are like handles seemingly increasing familiarity & control plus partially relieving tensions. Unfamiliarity apparently undermines comfort & confidence, so people might expect trouble. People expect satisfaction from familiar products. Even if familiar cheap products are unsatisfactory, they may seem safer than unfamiliar alternatives.

Consultations increase familiarity with businesses & higher quality products. Explanations & guidance decrease risks, so customers feel next steps are on solid ground.

Without insightful, circumstantial facts, people might build comfort zones by believing combinations of accurate, inaccurate &/or misperceived information. Eliminating inaccuracies or misperceptions might leave few “knowns” for implementation.

Tests can convert unknowns into knowns &/or assumptions, so people are comfortable with implementations. When biases & assumptions become fictional foundations, failures are probably blamed on whatever doesn’t fit biases.

Imagine if babies felt response-ability meant they were responsible for making surrogates fully beneficial. It'd be like discounters' customers thinking persistence will make cheap stuff worthwhile. That's not functional hope because manufacturers didn't create enough functionality.

Help customers define conditions & needs/desires before goal-setting because current resources might not be functional for some goals.

Proactive people need step-by-step preparation to fulfill response-abilities. What’s a functional response to conditions? Did conditions disable some resources? Are current or available resources incompatible with goals?

Consultations customize kits to add functionality to incomplete circumstances.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2025 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Specialist Retailers Observe Conditions & Help Customers Shape Experiences.

Coaching increases valuable abilities by improving/adding techniques.

Advantage offers can dramatically or incrementally advance people's effectiveness & efficiency. Advancements outweigh problems by tipping scales in customers' favor.

Analogize balance scales by thinking how problems weigh customers down. As you add value to one side, leverage lifts weight from customers. Explain leverage & combine beneficial elements, so advantageous combinations lift weighty problems & stabilize lives.

To push/lift loads, people need power & stability. While simultaneously battling issues, people push while being pushed from multiple directions, which disrupts balance & increases vulnerability.

If levers break or slip, problems become worse. Leverage analogizes condition-altering resources for facilitating advantages. Help customers appropriately follow-through, so finalized efforts stabilize benefits. If any combined benefits fail, advantages deteriorate.

While shedding loads, people might celebrate perceived relief & stability then switch to other issues. Success Delusion can disillusion people causing them to mistrust their judgment &/or businesses.

Discuss expectations plus which partial indicators could be misinterpreted as completed success.

Offer Example: 'Some stores publish product-price lists to imply cheap products sufficiently solve (problem). At (Store), let's explore insightful facts you need about (problem), products & techniques. Diagnostic checklists indicate troubles & guide your remedies. Use (Store) checklists to review current & needed resources. Your order will be processed for products & planning while (Store) business teammates guide you in confidently finalizing other projects. Avoid stress. Increase productivity. Enjoy favorite activities.'

Avoid or Escape

Whether problems invade like parasites or overpowering predators, people need insightful information about advantages & disadvantages. Since surrounding conditions seemingly close-in like predatory packs, customers need escape methods/routes. Which advantages do you offer for safety & victory?

Compatible modules & interdependencies interlock to create/maintain value. Exciting innovation offers spur purchases until people realize their skills, products & problems are incompatible. Despite fitting people's knowledge, skills & other criteria, modular & interdependent products can badly interact or inadequately integrate.

Unclear purposes & fulfillment plans can bring unwanted results, whether circumstances & resources are incompatible or interact well. Experiential incompatibilities arise from moral, result/expectation, need/desire or other inconsistencies.

Plan projects with refined purposes & appropriate resources to help customers avoid failures from incompatibilities & faulty preparations.

Since June 2022, we've avoided human stereotypes by anthropomorphizing bears & salmon while extending Marshall Goldsmith’s analogy to avoid success delusion & spawn insights.

If natural population maintenance doesn't work without exceeding resources & abilities, salmon can adopt & adapt external best practices. Coaches noticed male birds & insects attract females with colors & sounds. Salmon spawn once, so males didn't know which external best practices could work better.

When coaches helped males add sounds & colors, bears noticed & ate more salmon. Surviving males didn't attract females that look for nesting spots without noticing males. External practices didn't help males release milt. Though bears caught more males, a misguided minority fulfilled duties after barely avoiding predators.

Fewer males fought each other & more females nested eggs. For public relations & reputation repairs, coaches adjusted criteria & claimed success because some clients succeeded.

Birds & insects attract mates because they need direct contact. Female salmon choose places, not mates. Males just show-up & release milt. Dating app developers tried influencing salmons' preferences without learning species requirements. It's like discounters claiming success because customers finished projects, though many customers are disappointed with long-term results.

Retailers can observe conditions & compare niche members' practices to case studies. Retailers should find causes & effects to help customers repair damage & fill gaps. Discounters fulfill minimal customer satisfaction criteria & hope nobody notices problems reemerging.

Offer Example: '(Store) offers guidance for long-term protection & productivity. Discounters let you hold a few dollars, but since trouble remains, you'll need more money to repair damage & create what you need for future protection. At (Store), let's explore expectations, then identify necessary products & practices for progress & preservation.'

Increase Your Niche Understanding.

As more problems arise before others are solved, people feel they're losing control. As consumers use cheap products to gain, then lose temporary control, discounters profit when people buy additional inadequate products as replacements. This prolongs dissatisfaction despite intermittent, insufficient relief.

When problems feel like ever-pursuing predators, escape is temporary. As fatigue increases, people perceive ill-defined problems as bigger threats. Low-quality might enable temporary evasion. High-quality escape isn't excessive. "Too much" is better than "too little".

Full problem/opportunity & product explanations should build enthusiasm. Zig Ziglar advocated salespersons' enthusiasm because enthusiasm can be decreased without disaffecting prospects.

Ziglar's analogy: During a man's shortcut across a pasture, a bull chased him. After feeling "bull breath", the man over-jumped for a tree branch, but caught it on his way down.

If prospects dislike enthusiasm or long explanations, catch them on the way down with high-priority subheads & summaries.

Integrate Your Business with People's Productive Tendencies & Guide Maximization Practices so People Preserve Progress.

As I analogize predators, it may seem I'm exaggerating problems. Let's consider how stress magnifies people's perceptions of problems. Multiple familiar problems are troublesome. People are often distracted while learning to contend with unfamiliar, identified problems. (Example: Clogged pipes are obvious. Combined chemicals & microbes become indistinguishable sludge.) When unidentified problems strike, subconscious minds search in simultaneous directions for memories & external condition comparisons.

This following run-on sentence demonstrates how preoccupied people are.

While conscious minds juggle identified issues, subconscious minds insert potential definitions of unsolved, growing problems with likely remedies that somewhat worked for possibly similar troubles.

Unidentified problems are like shadows possibly indicating/exaggerating threat shapes & sizes. When people feel outnumbered or vulnerable, problems seem like threats/predators. Limited resources are wasted on misjudged abilities & unidentified problems if an uninformed consumer can afford one attempt.

Conditions Affect What's Efficacious Against Predators & Prey.

(This analogy is partially scientific. I'll connect it to marketing. I don’t understand all human sensitivities, so I analogize to avoid stereotypes. I'm not dehumanizing people, please don't be offended.)

Reptile & amphibian predators attack moving prey. If insects & small animals don't move, these predators don't attack.

I've heard frogs would starve if they were put in containers among freshly killed flies. If you'd put a frog in a container & drop in flies as you'd kill them, that frog could starve unless falling is perceived as movement.

Like humans waiting for justification, frogs only flick sticky tongues for attractive food. They don't have hands for removing inedible crud, which would be removed internally.

Though you've stuck-out your tongue & bought inventory, niche members don't want to be stuck with useless stuff & have different standards for sticking tongues out. What about offers would cause people to change standards, behaviors & schedules? Are consumers hungry enough? Are they motivated to fight/escape from hungry predators?

Human attention is drawn like prey & predators are naturally programmed to detect movements. If criteria aren't fulfilled, people & animals don't perceive any need to change behavior.

Some predators don't move until prey is close to catch.

Mice detect predators, then freeze, flee, or fight. You may've heard cornered mice fight because they can't escape. Dying or winning is how they end danger. By freezing, mice might avoid detection & survive long enough to pass genes to future generations. It's debatable whether threat responses are natural or nurtured.

Threat perceptions influence whether people freeze/wait or reject offers. Advantage offers explain threats & how kits remedy &/or prevent damage/injuries. Perceptions don't guarantee optimal decisions, so consumers need interpretative guidance.

Despite accurate problem diagnoses, you might overestimate severities based on customers' perceptions. Determine if customers should Zig or zag. If customers jump higher than necessary, they can catch problems on the way down.

If enemies are comparatively small or seemingly vulnerable, mice can react naturally or respond based on learning experiences & observations. Would fighting end the problem? Would running be a temporary escape until predators attack again? Would delays/escape allow time for learning & planning or postpone inevitable trouble?

If potentially bigger, stronger predators are perceived, there's limited time to mentally process responses. Natural reactions seem more expeditious, but possibly less effective. Mental processing delays moves, but could optimize responses. Processed responses could counterbalance/counteract severe predators/threats which are hard to predict & control.

People react in personally habituated/natural ways depending on how preparations compare to perceived threats.

People habituate/default to what feels productive & familiar. If you want consumers to accept unfamiliar offers, promote kits while people have time to process insightful knowledge which makes kits & benefits comfortably familiar.

If problems are uncomfortably familiar, clarify details consumers may've forgotten or misinterpreted. Provide what people need for responding emotionally but logically. If people think it's too late to think logically, they'll probably react & take the easy way out (buy from discounters).

People may act habitually, if freezing/staying-put seems logical. People won't stay to preserve or increase progress & benefits, if flight/abandonment seems logical.

Inspire functional hope by explaining logical, emotionally satisfying advantages to attract consumers & preempt potentially inadequate choices.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2024 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

Your business's profit potential depends on how much value your market niche perceives in what you offer. They won't perceive any value unless they have a reason to think about it. It's why you need effective marketing. https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Successes Are Effects of Planned Causes. Superstition Only Feels Like Success.

Advantage offers explain consumers’ problems & opportunities to show how options fit. Retailers’ empathetic understanding establishes/reestablishes rapport, so consumers confidently enter stores.

Orientations create familiarity, so people comfortably buy project kits. Cheap products don't adequately help people adjust to uncomfortable changes from circumstantial causes or inadequate projects. To overcome negatives, people might reprioritize & forgo other benefits. Example: Storage space accommodates one object. Bigger sheds or storage rentals cost money customers could've invested in better equipment.

Consumers feel successful when saving money until cheap stuff fails to establish advantages. Top-quality, prioritized projects create stress-relieving advantages.

Orientation relates to positioning. To position your store in niche members’ lives, offer necessities for reaching & maximizing life positions. To reach, maintain & maximize advantageous positions, customers must integrate with specialty retailers. You & customers cooperate to preserve their advantages by maintaining your store’s position in their lives.

Nobody has perfect perspectives, so use consultations to orient customers with knowledge of their current & desired circumstances. With agreement about their locations & destinations, help customers maximize planning & product selections.

Customer integration retailers help customers identify positive & negative expectations. People might discard warnings if troubles don't emerge as expected.

Orientations/consultations explore expectations, establish criteria & preparations for emerging negatives &/or unfulfilled/late positives. People need evidence to discern if positives & remedies fade slowly or problems emerge gradually.

Help Customers Prioritize Needs & Abilities.

People accept Stephen Covey’s guidance about Qudarant-1 & Qudarant-2 priorities. Many things seem urgent & important. If everything seems equally prioritized, nothing is prioritized.

Which problems might cause more stress, damage, &/or interference with opportunities? Because of overwhelming stress, people might not notice/ignore symptoms or causes.

Organized, aware people highly prioritize problems & learn symptoms. Without enough money, people can feel preliminary relief by planning repairs. Preparation & incremental steps bring some comfort if people can't afford full projects.

Though reprioritization could feel disruptive, explain why customers should reconsider budgets & plans to solve problems sooner.

Example: Repairing Problem-A might be a better priority if Problem-B can worsen, but customers don’t have adequate skills or budgets. Orientations/consultations can reveal whether customers should: 1) invest time to learn skills for using unfamiliar products to remedy Problem-B; or 2) remedy Problem-A sooner with familiar skills & products.

Review urgency & importance criteria if potentially higher priorities or low budgets cause postponements. People delay until they’re certain about the best prioritizations.

Should prioritization be based on potential plan disruptions; comfort; readiness; &/or other issues?

People reject radical changes, but tolerate permanent issues to avoid bigger hassles & expenses. Understand niche members' tolerances to guide choices.

Stressed people might prioritize resisting changes that are unexpected, different than predicted &/or perceived as problems. When people stop opportunities or remedial projects to focus on perceived problems, stresses multiply as prioritization is derailed.

Specialist Retailers’ Consultations Can Guide Reprioritization by Applying Insightful Information.

People might suspect circumstantial changes, but lack definitions for identifying differences.

Analogy: Advantage offers can include clues about trouble like definition updates for security programs. Malware scans could be destructive if programs quarantine all software changes.

Without criteria/definitions, frustrated people unsuccessfully scan for changes that become troubles later.

In similar circumstances, people might disregard/habituate to recognized objects. Caution increases because of perceived threats & perceptions are based on criteria.

People prioritize loss avoidance & remember potential harms & benefits, especially if relevant to priorities. In courtroom shows, you might’ve heard actors/lawyers claiming cross-examination questions are irrelevant to the case. Judges determine relevance somewhat like Reticular Activating Systems engage with, pursue or reject stimuli & subjects.

Irrelevant issues aren’t evidentiary. Make advantages evident, so customers sustain your offers & overrule competitors.

Without guidance, facts, impressions & feelings simultaneously zip through consumers’ minds like this equation: Tools+materials+insights+knowledge+skills=advantages.

It means: Offer context-based insightful knowledge, so customers skillfully use tools & materials to create & preserve advantages. Creating, retaining, regaining &/or combining experiences brings & preserves advantages.

As people & circumstances change, you should guide customers' evaluations for updating experience combinations. These beneficial combinations are goals & specialized insightful knowledge maximizes benefits.

Consumers don't specialize like you, so compellingly describe advantage offers, so niche members realize they need you.

Fatigued Minds Are Overdrawn on Attention.

Paying attention is costly & can engage with or transition among subjects. Attention is limited by low-energy & mental capacity. Swiping left or right is analogous to what minds did for centuries. If option-1 seems tolerable, people want better options without missing-out on known & unknown opportunities.

“Engaged” is like conscious/subconscious minds sustaining attention. Engagement can mean mentally subscribed to retain access to information or other promised/perceived value.

Narratives involve minds by providing & holding details leading to conclusions. When beginnings engage minds, people want conclusions/resolutions. Incomplete stories leave open loops & value seems to be missing. Advantage offers can include opportunities competitors ignore. Desired, unfulfilled opportunities are gaps people want to fill.

Fear-Of-Missing-Out hurts because opportunities are lost. FOMO hurts when missing out seems like personal or social failure.

Offer Example: ‘While you’re earning & paying money, plus trying to cope with information overload, opportunities are passing & problems are progressing. WAIT! Problems are progressing?! Without adequate preventions & solutions, conditions regress & problems progress. You need (Store) consultations to gain insights for using knowledge & skills, so you'll avoid cheap product results. Let’s check causes & effects, so your chosen top-quality products will fit conditions & your necessary skills. Discounters specialize in pushing manufacturers for lower wholesale prices. (Store) specializes in customizing kits, so you’ll learn skills to create & maintain (advantages).’

Cheap products have missing value when discounters push manufacturers for lower wholesale prices (more on that later).

Zig Ziglar & others advised us to use stories to teach memorable lessons. Characters can be like mental handles which made Smokey Bear effective for fire warnings. Make characters as detailed as necessary for meaningful messages. People can engage with characters by adding personal details to perceptions.

Fictional & real bears & fish are often featured in media. When you’re reminded about predatory competitors or natural struggles, remember you need to create success. Don’t wait for customers or success.

Results Are Perceptual & Interpreted. Compare Benefits & Expectations.

While rushing through product selections & tasks, consumers want to believe their efforts are successful.

(Let’s continue our survival analogy where we left in July.)

Piranhas could be tripped up while simultaneously adjusting to environmental & work conditions (if fish could trip). They might be ill-prepared to battle bears, but seemingly escort salmon successfully. Piranhas claimed they scared bears away because fewer bears attacked salmon. Bears suffered digestive injuries without knowing why until authorities warned about sharp-pointed fish bones inflicting internal injuries. Bears stopped eating salmon until dining habits were improved.

In WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE, Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter wrote “superstitious behavior comes from the mistaken belief that a specific activity that is followed by positive reinforcement is actually the cause of that positive reinforcement. The activity may be functional or not—that is, it may affect someone or something else, or it may be self-contained and pointless—but if something good happens after we do it, then we make a connection and seek to repeat the activity.”

Though superstitions don’t prove causation, superstitious people are sure. Success Delusion is people claiming they caused results without any real influence. How much do discounters profit from consumers assuming they used products effectively because results are as expected? It’s easy to assume perceived effectiveness is long-term, especially when conditions decline gradually.

Few bears appeared while piranhas were there, so they claimed causation.

To avoid paying &/or increase their comfort & confidence, salmon could claim their bones dissuaded bears. Piranhas could demand payment because salmon bones existed for centuries while bears ate salmon.

Bears could satisfy hunger with other food, but starve while hibernating without salmon protein & fatty-acids. While leaving hibernacula early or late, bears could stumble to rivers to drink. If they find somewhat frozen salmon or fry swimming downstream, hunger & memories could make salmon palatable. While eating, bears could think fish-bone problems aren’t as bad as starvation.

Or What?

Retailers don’t want consumers considering alternatives. Since consumers consider alternatives anyway, you should explore their thought processes.

If cynics claim your offers are unnecessary & too expensive, you could challenge them to compare competitors &/or no hope of opportunities & remedies. Explain functional hope from advantage offers of guided product & method selections Say guidance is included in prices.

How much functional hope can consumers maintain as discounters demand lower prices & manufacturers put the same brand names on lower quality products? How low can quality go? It’s worse than shrinkflation (smaller quantities without decreasing material qualities).

What have consumers experienced, observed &/or heard to cause them to stop, start or alter habits? Did they amend behaviors because of changed beliefs or caution? What indicates whether they should continue or adjust?

We’ll continue exploring consumer rationality & irrationality.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2024 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Customers' Lives Are Stories, Help Customers Write Personal Best Sellers.

AARP The Magazine (June/July 2024) has an illustrated composite case study, "How One Woman Found Happiness in Midlife – and You Can Too" [https://www.aarp.org/home-family/friends-family/info-2024/find-happiness-joy-in-life.html] about yearning for opportunities, problem solutions & preventions.

The print version is "One Woman's Search for Happiness" with the subtitle: "Mary's floundering gives way to flourishing after applying some practical, research-tested midlife interventions." While coping with problems, "Mary" considers pleasure expenditures, investment planning, a medical diagnosis & learns flourishing is a way of being, not a destination.

In WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE, Marshall Goldsmith wrote about Success Delusion. Goldsmith might figure Mary discovered what got her HERE won't get her THERE. She didn't have success delusion, but wondered what prevented success (arriving THERE). She improves herself & circumstances with guidance.

People continue standard methods that seemingly bring emerging benefits, until 'What the __ HAPPENED?!'

Discounters push manufacturers for cheaper product versions, which people use to repeat previously "successful" actions. Between people's initial perceptions & goal achievements, circumstantial changes can invalid some preparations.

It's like hikers preparing for a light snowfall & getting stuck in a blizzard. During a stormy hike, 5-foot-tall people get less wind resistance than 6-footers, who see over snowdrifts. Various factors affect whether perceived “superior” attributes are functional from start-to-finish.

It’s confusingly frustrating when similar efforts bring different people superior or inferior results.

Mary learned to plan & adjust her life journey for experiences, not destinations. Destinations might be misperceived or unreachable.

David Hochman’s article explains behavior changes are necessary for improving conditions. David wants people to realize help requests are gestures of confidence & strength.

Explain how your guidance decreases customers' vulnerabilities & increases confidence. With fewer/smaller vulnerabilities, customers can refine strengths & fulfill opportunities. Help customers define limitations, then prevent limitations from growing into weaknesses. This assurance helps customers identify & respond to threats.

Help Customers Reach Beyond Separate Benefits By Building Advantages.

Beneficial modules & interdependencies become advantages as people combine products & methods. Advantage offers inspire people to confidently discover & build strengths.

Analogy: Carnival games have big Teddy Bear prizes for skilled winners. Unlucky players might get small consolation prizes. In some games, people win & trade multiple medium-prizes for top-prizes.

Discounters’ customers may feel inadequate when inadequate products fail. Urge people to stop accepting minimal cheap product results as consolation prizes. Results are suboptimal when people don’t know how to: evaluate conditions & resources; plan accordingly; choose products & do methods.

Customize products & methods offers & help customers understand how to fill gaps between HERE & THERE.

Specialist retailers can explore how to increase functionality & coach customers to create & expand functional hope. If project steps or tasks feel difficult, functionally hopeful people reassure themselves while adjusting product choices & techniques.

Since perfection is hard to create & preserve, coach people to create &/or seek progress indicators.

Example: 'After finishing step-1, check how well (result) contributes to (advantage). Emerging results should do/be (unfinished advantage) plus/minus XX% of (finished advantage).' If results seem insufficient, help customers determine if other plans, products &/or methods would improve benefits. After settling for partial advantages, if customers reconsider, could they achieve full advantages later?

Plans, methods & products might bring good, but unneeded results. Establish indicators of whether steps effectively, efficiently increase value, so customers can track real progress & not continue building on mistakes.

Create Personas To Provide Personal Service.

Advantage offers might fit one life aspect, an overlap or transition. People have multiple, daily transitions between aspects & try preserving progress, so certainty makes transitions less stressful. Guide iterative progress & project completion, so customers' minds are settled enough to focus.

The "Mary" persona shows overlapping life aspects. Example: Her medical diagnosis prompted life-choice reevaluations & affected her daughter. They cooperatively enriched their lives.

Customer personas include niche priorities for generating offers fitting priorities &/or settling issues to establish peace. People should feel more peaceful & confident by accepting your compelling advantage offer descriptions. As people purchase from you, they should feel some freedom because you've relieved stress.

Indecisiveness arises from & causes stress. Cooperate with customers to explore needs & desires then compare your offers so decisions are logical & emotionally fulfilling.

In personas, include what customers struggle to finish before bedtime. What keeps them awake? What do they dread as they awake? What causes more stress than before? What doesn't provide as much relief or pleasure as before?

JoHari Window indicates people aren't fully self-aware. Marshall Goldsmith wrote about people's commitments to improve behavior after accepting uncomfortable evaluations.

Subconscious success delusion can include weakness denials & only doing mastered tasks. Without conscious intent, people avoid difficulties because self-improvements & task proficiency require humbling practice. Offer customers resources & criteria for efficacious practice.

Advantage offers decrease difficulties & increase life quality. Promote positives & mitigate negatives by compellingly comparing current/emerging disadvantages with advantage offers. Explain consequences of self-limitations.

Personas reveal current & desired self-perceptions plus social perceptions.

Would customers prefer returning to times/places they felt comfortable or experimenting to achieve progress?

Which personal changes would expedite goal achievements &/or adapting to circumstances? Which circumstantial changes are/have possibly disrupted customers' efforts?

Disruptions can force people to postpone goal achievements when problems worsen without quick action.

Personas include positive & negative traits people don’t recognize or acknowledge. People could self-perceive as always in-command & alert by avoiding contrary indications.

People prefer avoiding stings of accepting negative traits, so consultations reveal how personal negatives & external stings combine into negative effects. Coach customers to do, replace & stop specific actions. Case studies demonstrate products & actions connections.

Develop Personas & Make Advantage Offers Personally Important.

What are niche members’ daily, new & expected problems? What's apt to disrupt opportunities, positive experiences & expectations?

Write personas focused on niche members' thoughts, feelings, biases, desires & needs.

Retailers’ biases are apt to intrude. Product-price list advertisers seemingly think consumers feel compelled to spend. Do you offer Product-X $20 to relieve that “stress”? Or do you offer situational remedies & opportunities?

Big retailers survive by listing familiar product prices at familiar locations. Some biggies fail because they aren't relevant. Personas highlight what's important, so you offer relevant advantages.

Newscasts & conversations reveal serious issues. Which concerns invade customers' lives? Can customers avoid problems or reduce severity? Advantage offers reassure consumers more than Product-X $20.

Offer Example: 'If you buy cheap products because you want bargains, are you reassured by cheapness? While you examine (problem), do you wonder if cheap products are sufficient? After (Store) consultations, you'll invest in advantages & assurance when we check pictures & your descriptions. Let's consider your current resources, including skills, so we'll find the best products & tutorials. Big retailers push cheapness. (Store) specializes in providing maximized advantages, so you'll be reassured. Your life will be more comfortable when you're sure about your chosen options. You'll invest in confidence at (Store).'

You’re Competing for Attention, Interest, Desire & Action (AIDA).

Your messages compete for Attention against internal stress, felt-needs/threats & external priorities. Why should people be Interested in your claims for improving their futures? Which issues do people most Desire to remedy? What makes your remedies high priorities for Action?

Like radio signals in massive static, only the strongest messages breakthrough. Make your offers advantageous enough to breakthrough daily static. Present advantages for specific circumstances instead of pushing products (Product-X $4).

Your messages should express your understanding of niche members' lives & your desire to learn more.

When you learn about local niche members, compare their lives to customers' experiences. Have other niche members partially or totally achieved goals fitting your specialty? What do their results indicate about your & competitors' offers?

Why haven't other niche members bought from you? Do your offers fit in their daily lives & plans? Through daily jungles of distractions, why should people invest limited attention in your offers? Often subjects enter minds by replacing others.

While people are continually distracted, which priority does your offer fulfill? If people struggle to regain previous thoughts, your message is pushed aside unless people perceive differentiated benefits.

Since attention is limited & prioritized, why should people prioritize your offers? Advertising is often a contest of advertisers trying to pry minds open, while consumers perceive vulnerabilities & block perceived manipulation efforts.

Product/price ads attempt to grab money, so people resist. Advantage offers present specialized guidance for choosing & using high-quality products.

To positively influence niche members' choices, explain why your offers are superior to consumers' current experiences & competitors' money grabbing attempts.

Whether people blame themselves, others, conditions or products, each failure adds stress that weighs people down. Urge people to stop carrying that weight.

Failures can bring lessons, but people need encouragement to explore alternatives. Success delusion can be temporarily comforting, but realizing they’ve failed is dispiriting until somebody guides them out of negativity.

Philosophical encouragement might open minds, but people want practical reasons to believe they can achieve real success.

As a specialist retailer, increase customers’ satisfaction by helping with cognitive labor.

Copyright 2024 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

Your business's profit potential depends on how much value your market niche perceives in what you offer. They won't perceive any value unless they have a reason to think about it. It's why you need effective marketing.

https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Create Enough Control to Preempt Customers’ Hesitation.

We’ve covered helping customers gain/regain control with advantage offers.

Case studies demonstrate successful methods for incrementally influencing conditions & easing stress, so customers confidently, precisely focus on details.

People are distracted & lose track of details when priorities & stresses pile-up. If efforts & resources are expended on Priority-1, would people lose Priority-2 limited-time opportunities? Would Priority-3 problems become worse?

People don't like settling for less than their aspirations.

Compare case studies of people who: 1) did & didn’t invest in advantages &/or 2) succeeded because they stopped hesitating. Describe everything customers gain from advantage offers, so do-it-yourselfers don’t resist full-service offers.

Offer Example: ‘Though you're rightfully proud of your skills, are you prepared as challenges of (season) approach. As you repair __, can you fully prepare for (opportunity)? If you run out-of-time, anticipation will become stress. (Contractor) can quickly repair __ while you learn about (opportunity) options & enjoy the anticipation. (Contractor) will help you proudly fulfill priorities plus enjoy (opportunity).'

Ask about customers' impressions before & after projects. Testimonials may express, 'Though others enjoyed (advantage), I hesitated after friends failed with cheap products. (Store) consultations showed success comes from (brand) products & planned projects. I can't bring back lost opportunities. I'm glad I have (advantage) now.'

Customer integration advantage offers & in-store experiences can inspire testimonials like that.

To develop offers, answer these:

After discovering opportunities, why do people advance, hesitate, not try or quit? Without insightful knowledge, consumers might have regrets after misunderstanding circumstances & offers. Advantage offers should clarify problem remedies & opportunity maximizing.

For your niche's circumstances, what makes customers' needs/desires urgent? What about that urgency makes your offers essential? If customers don't have money & time for urgent projects, what's the next best occasion & how does it compare to the best?

Limited-time offers are arbitrary. What makes any expiration date better than another? Why did customers perceive your suggested actions as superior to competitors’ offers? What would inspire customers’ self-confidence & confidence in products?

Uncertainty seems to justify hesitation. Raise assurance enough to make hesitation unnecessary & counterproductive.

Case studies help consumers relate to customers’ stories plus understand your insightful services bring more benefits than competitors' generic results. By comparing advertising & in-store experiences, consumers will recognize product value increases because of your understanding & desire to learn.

Advantage offers convert customers’ wishful thinking into functional hope. Customer integration practices are bridges bringing customers back for more value.

Use Customer Intimacy & Product Leadership to compete with competitors specializing in Operational Excellence/Leadership.

Progress & Stagnation - Which Brings More Risks?

Whether perceptions are accurate or false, what would indicate consumers should wait for information or stop projects? What would consumers gain &/or avoid losing if they wait or stop?

Issues have multiple factors & actions might affect some factors more than others. Consider positive & negative causes & effects. What if "A" happens, but "B" doesn't happen as expected?

Offer Example: ‘Let’s be realistic. People hesitate because they don’t know how to create & preserve (advantage). They don’t want to fail or lose (advantage) after succeeding. (Store) advantage offers include high-quality products chosen for your goals & circumstances so you succeed. You'll learn preventative maintenance specifically for (advantage) & won't lose enjoyment & fulfilling memories. Instead of thinking about risks of losing (advantage), consider what you’ll lose if you never have (advantage). (Store) is dedicated to functional hope, so avoid wishful thinking & we’ll build functionality.’

“Normal” Normally Isn’t.

We're avoiding human stereotypes by anthropomorphizing bears & salmon while continually expanding Marshall Goldsmith’s analogy to avoid success delusion & spawn insights.

As predators, salmon & piranhas have different tastes & abilities. Piranhas may be satisfied if they eat enough bears. If bears stay away, what will piranhas do? Can salmon better defend against or escape from bears or piranhas?

Bears are major threats, but salmon shouldn’t rush into alternatives without considering potential problems then testing effectiveness & efficiency. Though piranhas bring advantageous relief, disadvantages negate advantages.

Since they don’t always survive bear attacks, salmon don't develop self-defense techniques. Piranhas are unfamiliar with local conditions & to salmon. Species differences bring unpredictability.

When salmon react to unexpected effects, their reactions can cause unexpected effects. Though fish seem familiar & salmons’ circumstances are familiar, it’s important to avoid force-fitting facts & biases. Salmon & piranhas might bond based on similarities, but their mission success could be jeopardized by ignored differences.

Case study similarities might be incompatible with goals. Cold, oxygenated fresh & salt water are good for salmon but not piranhas. After meeting salmon in oceans, piranhas had difficulties switching to swimming upstream in rivers.

Salmon described conditions as normal except for bears, so piranhas thought they’d easily adjust to environmental & work conditions.

Their species might not survive if salmon stop spawning because of bear attacks. Salmon leaders could promise followers safety with a slogan: 'Piranhas will swim with us!' Followers might misunderstand & ask, 'Will bears eat piranhas not us?'

Effective offers require clearly understood advantages.

Be Careful What You Wish For!

Outsiders’ observations & experiences affect perceived logic of people's plans. Others might not notice causes or recognize slowly emerging internal & external effects. Learn about niche members, so you can blend objectivity with their subjective perceptions.

Help customers interpret observations & experiences with insightful knowledge. People might assume correlation is causation or concurrent effects have the same cause.

Many bears switched to other “normal” conditions by moving upstream to shallower water to avoid drowning. Some piranhas claimed success when few bears attacked. Salmon retorted, “Bears weren’t expected to attack YOU!”

It’s vital to define success metrics, expectations & impressions (“normal”).

Fish assumed they’re safe until they couldn’t swim & flee in shallow water. Bears learned to decrease their disadvantages & increase salmons’ & piranhas’ disadvantages. Swimming difficulties impeded almost 100% of their plan.

Commit to Goals, not Methods.

Salmon seem committed to spawning without considering alternative times & locations could better fit their requirements.

Help customers recover from mistakes & avoid risks. Encourage openness to input. Determine project irreversibility points when customers can consider stopping to resell kits.

Sales may be final, but resale & rentals open options when conditions make plans unsustainable. Resale values are lower than retail prices, but when customers invest in top-quality products, some value is retained. Discontinue if rental/resale promotions become unprofitable.

Offer Example: 'Plans go astray when people misinterpret information & observations. Customers take responsibility for consequences & consult with (Store) to reinterpret & replan. Don’t reject negative reality. Report triumphs & tribulations, so we can change methods & resource combinations to decrease negatives & increase positives. Ask for information packets from (Store). If you're serious about creating benefits, let's plan positive steps. (Store) has rental tools & used materials for beginners.'

If customers inquire without buying, offer consulting: 'If you're inquiring because of curiosity, I'll supply information packets. When you’re ready to create (benefits), let me know you're ready to plan.'

People should prepare for more, similar & less stressful conditions to ensure they maintain control. Progress isn't permanent without consistent or adjusted efforts.

Which resources should be reserved for future prevention or repairs? How much control do customers need for being & feeling safe? How much control & risk can they afford? How much & what kinds of controls are practical, attainable & sustainable? How much & what kinds of risks are possible, practical &/or tolerable?

Products May Be Low-Priced or Seem Impressive, But Prices or Impressiveness Don't Solve Problems.

Bears decreased attacks when piranhas were present, so hungry piranhas blamed & attacked salmon. The next attempt was piranhas wearing salmon costumes to fool bears. What could go wrong?

That's a discounter question. Instead of real remedies, discounters try imitations.

Piranhas couldn't fight in costumes & were vulnerable because of trouble removing costumes during attacks. Hungry bears eat whichever fish are vulnerable. Hungry, costumed piranhas fooled & bit salmon. Some salmon tried piranha costumes but were attacked by salmon gangs. Bears swarmed in while fish were fighting.

Remote-controlled piranha drones didn't work for thumb-less salmon.

Discounters advertised preprogrammed Piranha Drone-Amatics. Those drones had impressive names & scary appearances, but bears weren't impressed or scared.

Real problems are like that. No matter how cheap discount products are, problems aren't impressed. Problems grow despite or because of cheap products. Low-prices bring instant gratification, so explain why advantage offers establish long-term gratification of functional hope.

Product prices & appearances don't increase functionality. Functional hope brings personal benefits when functionality increases opportunities &/or decreases troubles.

Cheap prices let people keep money, but are they comfortable with incomplete remedies? How much & what kinds of functionality bring hope? It's important to know what went wrong & could fail without full remedies.

When they haven't fully defined problems, consumers don't fully understand necessary functionality. Differentiate your store by explaining how to create functionality in specific circumstances to increase customers’ understanding & functional hope.

As a specialist retailer, increase customers’ satisfaction by helping with cognitive labor.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2024 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Help Customers Integrate Benefits into Advantageous Predictable Storylines.

Stories alternate progression & regression in personal goals & social connections. Whether products are used socially, effects influence self-perceptions, which can shape social interactions & life-stories.

If storylines shifted unfavorably, did people misinterpret external factors or fail because of inadequate assets or despite good resources? What was misinterpreted? Which choices brought failure?

If people surrender, stagnation cancels happy endings. After numerous losses, victory seems out-of-reach & surrendering cuts losses.

Guide experience reevaluations to convert fulfilled expectations into steps toward happiness & unfulfilled expectations into improvement lessons. Positive expectations & lessons open alternatives when knowledge & attitudes inspire actions.

Problem remedies can cause side effects & conflict with other life aspects while disrupting happy endings. Negative assumptions seem safer if people are unsure whether unfamiliar products & conditions might increase risks. Even if circumstances stagnate, familiarity seems safer than unfamiliar changes.

Early-adopters want new technologies, willingly confront incompatibilities & contribute developmental insights about problems & benefits. If suppliers share early-adopters' input, use it to coach customers in using products early enough to prevent or limit problems.

Technology compatibilities can increase progress but incompatibilities increase burdens. Because conditions differ & each household uses different products, manufacturers can't fully predict incompatibilities.

Many consumers won't buy until necessities are imperative &/or drawbacks are eliminated. Consultations & pre-need practice can establish familiarity with requirements, so customers prepare to recognize & mitigate trouble.

Without accurate problem recognition, people might use convenient, familiar but inadequate products. Without owning recognized products for recognized problems, people might buy familiar discount products.

Without full problem recognition, people might treat symptoms & indulge in success delusion when symptoms recede, though problems remain.

Since we're sensitive to potential stereotypes, let's continue using Marshall Goldsmith's bear-salmon Success Delusion analogy.

If anthropomorphized salmon conclude their major problem is predators can see them in shallow rivers, turning back might seem safer. By agreeing to spawn while bears hibernate, salmon could encounter totally frozen spawning areas, so delays are counterproductive.

Comfortable Familiarity Won't Guarantee Success.

Advantage offers include insightful opportunity & problem information, so people choose successful options.

Use advertising frequency & reach to make offers familiar plus make products convenient with pre-need knowledge.

Some learn better through doing activities, but hesitate about learning lessons from mistakes. What's the minimum information consumers need for recognizing problems plus recognizing you as a convenient, authoritative source?

Just-in-time actions should include pre-need learning & practice. Start prevention before full symptom onset. Start solutions before problems become irreversible. Prevention & solution refinements result from repetitive evaluation, learning & practice processes as people achieve confidence.

Because troubles differ widely, alertness is vital but unproductive until people combine alertness with refined identification. Excessive caution might overload mental processing & attention, so people don't notice details & mistakes delay benefits.

Offer Example: '(Store) acquired (products) which you can use to __. Let's consult about circumstances & requirements. If you need different product versions, let's check wholesalers' listings. Discounters have limited choices. At (Store), you have voice plus choice. Ask questions so we can find answers, if you don't understand benefits of products & techniques. Since your success requires more than products, (Store) offers insightful information & guidance to find tutorials for developing skills applying to your tools, materials & circumstances. Let's be sure your plans & preparations fit your goals. At (Store), your chosen product & service combinations will bring you confidence.'

Familiar Circumstances & Strange Twists

Even if natal rivers wouldn't change, spawning salmon are different than ocean-bound fry. Adults' slower upstream swimming & size makes them attractive to predators. Bears don't seem dangerous to undetected fry.

After avoiding hooks, nets & predators in oceans, salmon could feel confident since rivers are shallower & narrower with fewer attack opportunities, but bears attack differently.

Memories might indicate reality & influence expectations which are assumptions about reality.

If based only on familiar threats, plans breakdown quickly. Reality-checks might embarrass some customers, but you can request permission to explain reasons: 'Though this equipment is expensive, let's explore why this (repair/replacement) is important for you.'

New Warranted Vehicles Can Be Burdensome.

Problem preventions & remedies can relieve burdens but add others. Example: Barely damaged vehicles could be functionally repaired but emission-reduction & safety technology replacement costs exceed vehicle resale values.

Necessary technology repairs become unaffordable, so recent models become junk. Even if intact components are valuable, would technicians charge excessively to install used components to repair salvaged vehicles? Would there be affordable warranties & insurance?

If totally refurbished products' purchase & operation costs approach new product prices, would people expect offsetting values: convenience, reliability/durability/confidence, comfort, etc.?

People might purchase privately without realizing moderately damaged technology becomes unpredictable.

If unguided purchases become mistakes, happy endings are unlikely. Wise decisions are necessary for fulfilling responsibilities. Unwise actions disrupt confidence with increased stress whether actions are short missions or long-term pursuits.

If life-story chapters become worse, people might prefer stagnation. Your consultations can bring incremental improvements to show customers' emerging chapters can be better.

Conflicting Desires, Expectations & Beliefs

Despite desiring & expecting quick improvements, people might disbelieve quick-fix offers. Explain how you develop integrated benefits & why they're important.

Offer Example: '(Store) offers integrate into your life. This means while consulting, we'll determine circumstantial causes & effects plus product & technique combinations to achieve your goals. Let's compare product & technique benefits to your expected opportunities, so you'll be ready for plan implementation.'

Whether creation & maintenance activities/projects represent sprints or marathons, people's preparations & results affect confidence. Without confidence, stress builds into fatigue & interferes with judgment & implementation.

Mistakes raise stress & downward spirals multiply. Guide consumers' perceptions of successful achievements, then offer resources for winning races.

However people design stories or missions, benefit eagerness should be balanced with costs of acquiring implementable knowledge & skills. People may act prematurely without testing if complex tasks seem easy.

Testing can reveal benefits, but deeper explorations & benefit developments require insightful knowledge & skills acquired through actions. If customers learn from incremental steps that don't fulfill expectations, label those as tests.

No Problem or No Reported Problems

Salmon successfully swim to oceans but eaten salmon can't report spawning failures, so each year salmon expect successes.

If you don't find enough insightful knowledge from shared discoveries, help customers create personal lessons.

As conditions change, people should verify expectations based on memories, perceptions, education &/or observations.

Tests are developed to define limits of applicability & functionality. Successful tests might show resources &/or techniques aren't functional in some circumstances. It means other resources & methods should be tested.

Risks remain until somebody explores possible resources & tries actions to develop &/or combine resources & techniques.

Adequacy is generally definable but criteria are specifically applicable. Other people's lessons & observations can reveal risks that indicate preparation criteria. Some needs might become apparent after starting.

If typical criteria are low-prices, people might not explore criteria for each need. Since people hesitate about spending more than necessary, explain what could be lost & how high-quality products ensure opportunities &/or prevent losses.

Planning, skill-building & resource acquisitions should be iterative. Potential losses might become apparent at various steps & make prevention possible. Skills should fit resources & fulfill steps, so finished plans make each step achievable.

After people define expectations & projects (life-story chapters) emerge as expected, disruptions can be like awakening in different stories. Plot twists make stories interesting & possibly hard to follow, so people might struggle with explanations.

Internally, these disruptions put other priorities off-track like derailed trains blocking traffic. A life is like a track & priorities are like trains. When high priorities are derailed, people delay other priorities until tracks are cleared & repaired.

Contrary facts & theories blow in like windstorms. Despite facts being equally true, people shouldn't force-fit them if they fit different conditions. Example: Repaired roofs don't rain-proof houses. Wind can blow rain around window frames.

When people are more concerned about price than applicability, they're tempted to imagine short-term results are functional. Instead of regretting cheap stuff purchases & getting barely adequate satisfaction, people should know what's possible & practical.

Product benefits are easy to explain but harder to make interesting. Differentiate by showing interest in customers & you'll seem more interesting to them. Make offers about local people based on your research which shows your interest in them.

After receiving your messages, people's confirmation research is easier than in-depth research. Their thoughts & questions probe memories: 'I remember that happened.' 'I've felt that.' 'I've noticed that.' 'Did you experience it?'

After that confirmation, people might check other sources for details but personal verification is more meaningful. As people verify functionality & durability of their value creations, advantage offers present more potential value people hope for.

Functional hope applies to integrating products, skills & insightful facts. Force-fitting is NOT integration. Force-fitting cheap stuff with top-quality products causes malfunctions & derails priorities.

Ensure progress with top-quality products made for specific purposes without degradation from cheap products.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2024 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Successful Customer Service Requires Your Attention, Interest, Desire & Action.

Jay Abraham said people are interested in those who are interested in them. To be an interesting conversationalist, express concern about people before sales attempts. Consultations show concern & willingness to learn.

Stephen Covey advised seeking to understand before expecting others to understand. When you understand niche members, you can offer easy-to-understand advantages.

For value-building, advantage offers start with attentive interest to understand niche concerns. Maximize value by contextually fitting proposals to customers' lives & helping them understand causes & effects.

Basic Example: ‘Because you're concerned about (issue), (Store) combines (benefits) into customized advantages to solve, then prevent (problem). (Issue) is complex, so somebody else’s approaches might bring only limited success. To achieve full success, it’s time for (Store) consultations because (issue) is emerging. Let's prevent its full negative effects.’

Explain causal factors plus sufficient prevention or counteraction.

Example: Since people don't spend time in crawl-spaces below houses, negatives aren't noticed. There's just enough air movement for mold spores & humidity to enter & increase. Mold fouls air in occupied rooms by expanding upward & outward. After mold & damage remediation, ventilate crawl-spaces with filtered, dehumidified air. Regularly use problem checklists so you’ll remember prevention practices.

Your interest & understanding inspire consumers' interest in your offers by indicating potential advantages consumers won't find in discount stores.

Systematize insightful facts to increase value of customers’ assets. Synchronize insight inventory with product inventory based on people’s personal, social & seasonal transitions. Which product & insightful information combinations preserve stability during transitions?

Show interest in people’s concerns by explaining how to customize product benefits into advantages in current & desired life contexts.

Reach People Through Their Interests.

Your & customers' success depends on their: 1) receptivity to offers via specific media; & 2) available time, energy & money to buy. Multiple exposures are necessary, so distracted minds compare offers when related needs bubble to the top. As people consciously focus on activities & compartmentalize unrelated desires, subconscious minds scan for necessities, prioritized opportunities & threats.

Example: Mealtimes liberate hunger which settles for any necessary relief. Appetites crave flavor above necessities. Food advertising can register in subconscious minds, where appetites prioritize desires. Food descriptions & fragrances can stir memories plus arouse familiar cravings or curiosity.

Analogy: Food fragrances initially indicate appealing ingredients. Appealing indicators inspire minds to combine memories with updated awareness, attention & interest then determine which food seems desirable enough to warrant acquisition action.

Even without interpreting specific ingredient fragrances, people anticipate flavors especially when pleasant memories are triggered. Anticipation & appetite push from interest to desire satisfaction at least equivalent of what satisfied previous standards. How will you set niche members' standards to fit your advantage offers?

Fragrances seem to communicate chemically & descriptions trigger neuro-chemical memories. Appetites are harder to suppress when people anticipate satisfied desires.

You can inspire anticipation when you know how flavors (benefits) satisfy niche members’ appetites (triggered desires). Appetites combine interest with attention & push for fulfillment. People desire excitement (flavors) & have appetites for specific adventures (recipes).

Personal Example: My parents had me eat cooked cabbage; YUCK! They knew cole-slaw included raw cabbage, YUM! They could’ve satisfied my appetite with raw cabbage. Until I was older, I didn’t connect cole-slaw appetite with cabbage which was differentiated from cooked cabbage. Cooked cabbage consumption feels like losses. Cole-slaw consumption feels like winning though raw cabbage isn’t exactly a trophy.

Cole-slaw memories don't block cooked cabbage memories, but cole-slaw anticipation means I'm aware other cabbage combinations could be worth pursuing (action).

When you're interested in people, you can learn which memories to stir into renewed desires. When you know what's familiar & which impressions are inaccurate, you can differentiate your offers.

If you offer kohlrabies to people who dislike turnips, you'd need to differentiate based on appearance & flavor. If you promote the cabbage flavor, you can advise people to eat cooked or raw kohlrabies based on cabbage preferences.

Differentiate Based On People's Lives.

Do people perceive your offers as equivalent or superior advantages? Differentiate customers' advantages from other people's experiences with analogies, observations &/or familiar anecdotes.

Offer Example: ‘If you enjoy free-flight, ski-jumps could be like low-risk sky-dives & gliding. (Store) offers safer simulated experiences with wind-machines, hang-gliders & bungee cords.’

As memories fade, feelings become distant. Descriptions connect experiences & subconscious minds can maintain connections if conscious minds are pulled back to the present.

People are too distracted to reach for meaning over mental distances every time ads come long. Do that work for them, instead of letting their awareness & attention slip away. To inspire interest, help people connect what's familiar with your offers.

Be interested enough to differentiate among niches & their preferences for shaping plus combining conditions, products, skills & techniques. Each winter, Wisconsinites either leave; want to leave, but can't; enjoying staying; or are ambivalent.

Find ad recipients & use their degrees of desire for deciding ad timing plus products, services & information combinations. Wisconsinites, who leave in October, might want snow removal offers earlier than Wisconsinites exhausted by blizzards.

When you know what sustains satisfaction, help customers define & achieve full victory.

Your interest in people communicates your desire to recognize their specialness. Though it’s professional interest, you’ll imply personal concern about contributing to people’s well-being.

Empathy can be like pouring water to prime old long-handled pumps. Before self-priming pumps, jugs held water for pouring into pumps before lifting & pushing levers.

Like buying from discounters, people might apply excessive effort & time to eventually pump water without priming.

Discounters prime consumers with low-prices & wide selection. Water symbolizes value. You probably can’t afford low-prices, but you can afford valuable empathy. When you prime with empathy, you show consumers can safely reciprocate their interest with yours.

Awareness, Attention, Interest, Desire AND Action?!? Are You Serious?

Because of excessive distractions & contrasting priorities, people's awareness & attention are thinly spread among urgencies, emergencies & thousands of advertisers. Who has time & energy for interest, desire & action?

If retailers' offers only show interest in money (Product-X $43), consumers rightly wonder, "What's In It For Me?"

When retailers explain benefits, consumers have reasons to PAY (invest time & energy) attention. Retailers should explain how benefits correspond to consumers' needs & desires plus offer coaching about converting benefits into condition-specific advantages.

Basic Offer: 'You can satisfy your (need/desire) by using (product benefits) to create (advantage). (Store) has (products) plus guidance for you to maximize (product features) to improve __ & reduce __.'

People are concerned about privacy & seeming ignorant, despite knowing questions & answers are necessary.

By demonstrating basic understanding you indicate when consumers share specific information, team efforts will create value to fulfill life improvement criteria.

Build functional hope to increase people's trust for sharing deeper information to enhance functionality. Customers feel less risk when they realize how much they gain from sharing personal details.

Though total interpersonal understanding is unlikely, empathy includes learning & accepting people's reality. Empathy helps retailers reach people & explore their troubles.

Even when your & customers' knowledge is limited, you can use combined knowledge to help customers understand gaps between present & potential circumstances. In consultations, you can propose diagnoses, provide guidance & offer deeper advice, written suggestions &/or recommend tutorials.

Customers' Destinations & Goals Are ‘THERE’.

How long do customers plan to stay 'THERE'? Do they have optimal resource quantities for getting 'THERE' & staying long enough for full achievements?

Since June 2022 without human stereotypes, we've anthropomorphized bears & salmon plus extended Marshall Goldsmith’s analogy about avoiding success delusion. It's gone swimmingly!

Whether it's genetic or lack of planning, salmon deplete resources by swimming upstream while eating little or nothing. Some males fight & females dig nests. Whether they successfully spawn, they die. Salmon should eat well in oceans because by focusing on prey in rivers, they might become prey.

They don't review expectations & plan: Step-1: Though ocean currents are different from rivers, train by swimming into currents. Step-2: Salmon are relatively safer swimming in oceans among familiar food & predator species. Study future conditions & plan contingencies. Step-3: Swimming upstream in fresh water rivers. Adapt techniques for shallow navigation & self-protection from unfamiliar predators.

Consultation Example: '(Effort) helps you reach __. (Product) supports your efforts, so you can __. When you achieve (benefit), options will open so you can choose (range of advantages). Kit-A results will help us test for the best approaches because (problem) is the preliminary diagnosis. Kit-A should start creating (benefit) from (preliminary result) with (products), so as you close that gap you'll notice one of these indications: 1) progress; 2) interrupted decline; or 3) possibly continued decline. Progress will indicate it's time to implement the full project with Kit-B. Interrupted declines would show you should continue with Kit-A before finishing with Kit-B. If declines would continue, the problem diagnosis could be __, so Kit-C would be effective. Please take pictures & notice (sensory indicators) so we can review your findings.'

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Successful Returns On Investments & Returns Of Investments

Even without stating “Success Delusion”, you can advertise advantage offers compared with usual conditions plus typical cheap product results.

Goal achievements can seem successful, but will results last long enough for Returns On Investments &/or Returns Of Investments (meaning people regained/saved money, energy &/or time later)?

During planning, expected ROIs might seem bigger than anticipated finished project costs. In hindsight, when people subtract inputs from benefits, results could be negative because of short-term inadequacy plus lack of durability.

Planning should calculate personal costs & rewards plus include product & technique feasibility. Functional hope includes making rewards outweigh mental & physical resource costs.

Since people experience costs before benefits, help customers maintain hope with effective, efficient results so perceived input & output values don't wither.

Example: People invest effortful days into preparations for two-hour parties because delight matters. How much guest & host mental, physical &/or social stimuli make preparations seem worthy of input values?

Without guidance, people might underestimate required exertion & resources for preparation & fulfillment. Progress stops if preparations deplete people's time, energy & money. How can you guide customers to personal fulfillment so they relieve financial & health concerns without trying to push beyond fatigue?

Even if people know benefits are valuable, resource replenishment is necessary for full advantages.

Excessive heat & exhaustion can quickly overcome people's willingness to create advantages. Even when people create expected benefits, fatigue triggers negativity & skews perceptions.

During hot summers, customers might do outdoor projects after work shifts. People need recovery from jobs to work on personal projects.

You could work with nutrition businesses, so customers have full personal functionality while creating other functional advantages. If customers can’t adequately focus & perform tasks, would your offers be fully advantageous? Guidance can reduce stressful confusion & maximize productivity, so efforts aren't wasted.

Offers Can Be Framed From Multiple Perspectives.

Obstacles & miscalculations reduce morale so projects seem wasted & you could lose potential referrals. Make your store an optimal value source so people make referrals to express concern for each other & share optimism.

If people think limitations & problems outweigh perceived options, retailers should describe advantage offers to restore optimism.

Consult with other specialist retailers to develop opportunities to promote. Insightful facts & products should bridge gaps between customers & their aspirations. Find authorities & manufacturers who develop tools, materials & best practices.

Optimally healthy, clear-minded nutrition store customers can optimistically evaluate your advantage offers.

When you guide healthy people's insightful cognitive labor, success is easier. If nutrition retailers offer recovery to your customers, focused cognitive labor can optimize physical effort to 1) effectively avoid mistakes so restarts aren’t necessary & 2) efficiently avoid waste. Increase your total advantage offers with benefit combinations like these.

Whether people consume juices for refreshment &/or nutrition, they could have “better” options. Nutritionists advise avoiding sugary juices because temporary sugar-rushes bring crashes.

When people are exhausted, sugar-rushes can feel like successes before crashes. Vegetable/fruit smoothies have carbohydrates, sugar, protein, fiber plus vitamins & minerals.

Smoothies might taste like failures but aid functionality & suppress hunger distractions. Though sugar-rushes can aid immediate productivity, the success delusion could be nascent breakthroughs interrupted by crashes.

Benefit creation & maintenance require creating & maintaining foundational positive conditions. Foundational positives creation & maintenance require cognitive labor to develop reasonable positive maintenance & improvements plus prevent or restrain negatives.

Example: If people are concerned mostly about rotting wood, they might think success is: 1) removing rotten wood plus preventing future rotting & mold; 2) no remediation but preventing more rotting & mold; or 3) replacing rotten wood without changing causes. Wood replacement expenses & hassles could bring benefits without reducing suffering from mold-induced medical problems.

Though interpretations are subjective, comparisons would be like balancing scales indicating whether positives equal or outweigh negatives.

Some criticize marketers for pushing higher standards on people who have good enough results. Morale can decline when people compare their existence to others’ lives. I don’t advocate urging people to compete socially in matching or exceeding anybody’s achievements. That competition can bring success delusion from temporary personal satisfaction & social status akin to inflating balloons that eventually pop or shrivel.

If people’s satisfaction comes from somebody’s losses, victory can feel like freedom. Losses can feel like jails without access to keys as people struggle for future wins.

When people feel trapped, how do they define freedom? How would people create & retain that freedom? When people pleasantly anticipate renewing personal magic, daily drudgery doesn’t feel like a prison.

How will you describe offers so niche members recognize how that freedom (continues to) fit their lives?

Physical survival can be assured despite people's daily slogs. People can feel mentally like salmon struggling upstream, escaping predators & fulfilling responsibilities but life fulfillment slips away further.

Salmon start journeys with all requirements to arrive, but not to survive or return.

If people perceive preliminary success, they might assume their preparation & resources are sufficient. Projects might fail if people inaccurately assume they've prepared. Remediation fails without preparation for maintenance beyond choosing repair products & learning skills. What are typical shortcomings & biases you can help people overcome?

Differentiation or Commoditization

Retailers assume they're successful because they sell things instead of attracting more customers by offering experiences.

Analogy: Spectators watch bears catch fish. Imagine entrepreneurs feeling successful if tourists watch bears & spend money in towns. Businesses should add value to humans' experiences plus preserve conditions for bears & fish, so tourists might return for nature, comfort & entertaining variety. Other rivers attract bears & fish, so watching them can be a commodity experience.

Commodity products are purchased based on low prices. Commodity purchases have little/no differences in opportunity costs.

If people buy identical commodities from discounters, there are differences in sales floor sizes, checkout lines, driving & parking lot walking. Other than time & energy expenditures, transactions & experiences are about equal.

If you use commodity advertising (Product-XYZ $35) like discounters (Product-XZ $25), consumers think $10 is the only difference because offers aren't differentiated. You'd offer value instead of commodities if you'd explain how XYZ provides better relief or prevention than XZ because you guide customers to maximize XYZ according to their goals.

If products & service-levels are commoditized, would people return t small stores despite higher prices & lower perceived selection?

Retailers Push “Loyalty” Programs. Opportunities Pull Consumers.

Offer valuable opportunities so consumers return to reinvest. “Loyalty” fulfillment costs somebody money &/or effort. Consumers invest money for purchases plus point redemption efforts to increase value.

Through relationships, opportunity offers can keep you in business. “Loyalty” implies relationships but based on what? Relationships can be based on mutual concern about each other's wellbeing. People don't have loyal relationships if they only trade money for products without interactively helping achieve goals.

Sincere loyalty shows concern, so questions & answers are expected & comforting. When you know customers' goals require AB more than BC, you can talk personally about why AB is worth $X plus learning skills.

If you talk impersonally, you might deal with stereotypes & make imprecise recommendations plus provide less value.

When niche members recognize you as a specialist, your sensitive offers are perceived as personal, not stereotype-based.

Though advertising is an impersonal sales method, you can promote your specifically distinctive retailing style. When you treat people as exceptional, they can believe you offer exceptional value. Set people's goal achievement standards high & make it hard for competitors to compare.

Since I'm not in your specialty, I'm demonstrating things with sensitive analogies.

Since June 2022 without human stereotypes, we've extended Marshall Goldsmith’s bear salmon analogy about avoiding success delusion. Please bear with me!

Bear Analogy/Offer Example: 'As a bear, you notice natural changes. Though you coped with previous experiences, you need to refocus & reprioritize to successfully adapt. Though bugs(?), honey & fruit taste good & are relatively easily obtained, servings are inadequate compared to your hunger & nutritional needs. Now in autumn, you're hungrier than usual so you need adequate high-quality, long-term protein. You must retain enough necessary nutrients for when your usual food isn't available. Though you're energized & motivated now, remember last year you felt very sleepy. If you wait until you're sleepy & food is hard to find, you'll be very weak if you survive until spring. Before our local river freezes, it'll have high-quality, high-protein salmon rich in Omega-3 fatty acids you'll need to thrive through winter. Let's schedule a plan consultation now, so you'll be ready.'

This shows an advertiser understands consumers' needs, plus helps consumers understand why they need specific products.

Consultations would create understanding for guiding customers based on what they’re willing to adjust or replace.

Without consultations, retailers wouldn’t know which customers are flexible enough for guided testing of unfamiliar products & methods. People might interpret “unfamiliar” as ‘new possibility’ or ‘unsafe’ & replacing familiar things could feel like potential losses. “Adjustments” could be construed positively as ‘augmenting’ or negatively as ‘destabilizing’ familiar things.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/