Current consumers think deeply before making purchase decisions. They make purchase choices based on the balance between value they expect to derive and the cost to their wallet. Where value is higher than cost consumers feel incentivized. But where the opposite is the case, they feel cheated, and zero in on available options.
In this highly competitive market where store brands compete tightly with national brands; and innovative ways of rendering services are cropping up among new entrants, it is important for entrepreneurs to consistently search for new market advantages, apart from developing eye-catching packaging, seductive ad copies or giving the business a familiar name for better recall.
Here are some tips for driving the consumers or clients into patronizing your product or services:
1. Can your offering make the consumers/ clients work more effectively? In his book, ‘How to Make It Big as a Consultant’, William Cohen, advised businesses to priorize the economy life of their target market. It means providing services that will make it easier and more convenient for the consumers or client to work smarter and better. In fact the whole concept of deploying technology to work is to help people carryout tasks smartly, faster and better. This could come from helping people communicate, send files, run money transfer, connect, organize meetings, carryout accounting or invoicing, arrange and make travel plans without any logjam or delays. Whatsapp, Zoom, Google and Slack are doing incredibly presently in those areas. The same concept can be applied in other sectors.
2. Will your products or services save the consumers money? One of the reasons products and services are built into ranges is to meet the demand of every wallet. The market apparently comprises buyers from all socioeconomic classes. However, it will shock businesses to note that even those at the top of that socioeconomic ladder do trade down sometimes to pick quality products which prices are reasonable. The era of free-money is gone. Consumers who make so much money would rather stack them away in savings or as investments. By looking out for ways to offer quality services or products that shave some kobos or cents off the going price, you can capture a sizable chunk of the market. Few of the ways to do that are:
- Look for suppliers who can supply quality ingredients or raw materials at good prices
- Digitize some of your processes to reduce head-cost
- Take out non-essential part of service that is serving as ‘cost centre’, and add a more exciting substitute that cost less
- Scale production or maximize shift to render more services or produce more to take advantage of slack hour
3. Can you save customers/ client time? Home delivery services developed at a time when consumers were time-squeezed, working couples were on the rise; and more demands were placed on executives’ time than previously. These realities will certainly return after the lockdown. It is time to take advantage of this critical insight. Therefore do these:
- Add home delivery options to your services
- Prune your processes, either via IT infrastructure or physical interaction, to deliver seamless, safer and faster services.
