with white napkins and white plates, a
light brown colored steak, salad, rice and
some rotisserie chicken. The billboard
also features a well-known chef, with the
price tag at the bottom of the ad, $300.
Would the billboard make you see the
serving spoons in a different way?
Spending money on the billboard would
only relay the amount of faith the
manufacturer has on the serving spoons
on offer. Naturally, as a consumer you
would even wonder why the serving
spoons deserve a billboard ad. You would
however gain instant respect for the
product because of the perception that
has been created by the investment.
Compare this to how the e-shot made
you feel. I bet you thought it was spam,
wondered why anybody would send you
an e-shot about $300 serving spoons
in the first place, and you probably
unsubscribe and chose the option ‘I didn’t
sign up for this email.’ Any marketing
professional would not spend money on
a product or service they do not believe
in. If your marketing channel commands
respect, a customer would immediately
give it notice and connect your product
with their personal need to feel respected.
The flip side would be why spend so much
money on a good product that has the
potential to sell itself once it gains some
traction from cheap marketing - online?
The answer is clear. For a good product to
gain trust among consumers, it has to be
marketed in a way that customers expect
a good product to be sold.
A local example fits this theory well.
We have all interacted with door-to-
door or direct sales force agents who sell
all kinds of household items. I recently
met a lady who was selling a flask for
$20. She gave me more than ten reasons
why I needed to buy the flask from her.
I listened to her make her pitch and the
one point she stressed is that the flask
was made in France and was supposedly
a very expensive flask. I passed on the
opportunity to be among the first people
to get this very ‘expensive’ flask at a
bargain price.
A few days later, I was in the mall and
happened to be shopping for some
kitchen towels. I found the same flask at
the kitchen store retailing at $65. I asked
the sales lady about the flask and she
gave me the same pitch about the flask.
08 MAL28/19 ISSUE
Any marketing pro-
fessional would not
spend money on a
product or service
they do not believe
in. If your marketing
channel commands
respect, a customer
would immediate-
ly give it notice and
connect your prod-
uct with their per-
sonal need to feel re-
spected.
She also told me that the flask was new
in the market and was available at select
stores or among select sales agents at $20.
Needless to say, I should have bought the
flask from the door-to-door sales agent.
I was also left wondering why such an
expensive flask should be sold in that way.
It is next to impossible to express
credibility of the value promise unless
the extent to which you promote the
promise is equal to the significance of the
product or service. Put in another way,
for a marketing tactic to be convincing, it
must contain a demonstration and a level
of trust that is in line with the value of
the product and the expectation of the
recipient. Truth is, if I had found the
flask at the mall for $20, I would have
purchased it or at least considered the
thought to purchase it.
Marketing does not need to happen on
expensive TV ads or large LED billboards
that are being driven around the city to
give your product the gist it deserves. It is
much less about the cost of the medium
but more about how you understand your
customer and the mediums they trust.
Marketing is a question of trust, not
expense. Identification of information
signals that the customer considers
credible will help to close in on a sale
much faster whether on digital or
traditional media.
Many marketing professionals are
making the mistake of using digital for
products that only require digital support
to close a sale or direct a customer to a
point of purchase. Companies like Rolex
and luxury car brands still advertise in
newspapers and magazine while their
social media pages are thriving with
followers and engagement. People would
be queuing outside Apple shops hours
before a phone is launched into the
market to purchase the latest iPhones
because it helps them display wealth and
attract respect. Selling knives, tissue and
lighting fixtures can also be done the same
way. It simply is how you connect with the
customers need to want to feel associated
with a ‘luxury’ brand.
At times this display of wealth and need to
connect with the customer may not be the
ideal approach. Customers may instead
end up overwhelmed by a company’s
service or product. This also ties back
to the customer’s need to feel respected.
Using the example of a restaurant, the
issue of perception plays a significant role
when less is on offer.
Some restaurants are well known for their
generous portions. People would often
frequent these restaurants as a group,
not when alone. Imagine getting into a
restaurant, looking through the menu and
settling for the daily specialty. The waiter
happily skips into the kitchen and a few
minutes later drops a full roasted chicken
on the table. He quickly turns back and
disappears into the corridor again before
emerging with a large serving of roast
potatoes and a hot salad before saying Bon
appetite with a huge smile on his face.
That happened to me once. I started
looking around to check whether I was
still alone on the table. I asked the waiter
why the portions had to be so big and he
explained to me that the large portion
is meant to entice the customer to come
back as they will have an extra portion to
take home.
The idea sounded very well thought
through but didn’t look so great with all
the food staring back at me on the table.
I had to ask the waiter to take the food
back to the kitchen and pack half of it.
The other half was still too much for me
to take down in a single sitting. It became
clear to me that the portion of a meal in
a restaurant and the price can be inversely
proportional.
Restaurants and hotels may feel like they
are expected to overwhelm their customers
with food as a retention strategy. Customers will
definitely take note and praise restaurants that serve
a lot of food. This thinking is erroneous as not all
customers are looking for a mountain of serving
when trying to find a place to eat. The truth is most
restaurants offer a lot of food just for the sake of it.
Offering large portions has however become a business
strategy that companies are now embracing in trying
to define value for the customer and position ‘wealth’.
Telcos are offering unlimited data plans for 24 hours
that a customer would ideally not exhaust, online
TV companies are offering hundreds of channels
to customers who do not have time to watch all the
content on offer. Customers have become accustomed
to expecting more for the same cost or more for a
lower cost.
It is however not about offering more but offering
more value. Customers would spend more if they
can get more value. Value does not have to be more
products per se, it can be simply how it fits with a
need to display wealth and command respect. Apple
for example doesn’t get any cheaper by the year but
Apple enthusiasts are unrelenting in keeping up with
the latest release.
Different audiences have a different perception
of what value means to them. Tapping into the
influences that drive value to a customer will help
businesses save money while also having met their
customers’ expectations. Reframing the buying
decision around what the customer considers to be
of value to them will help businesses save time and
energy. The restaurant for example could have served
a reasonable portion of tasty chicken rather than a
whole rotisserie that instantly caused worry.
As a marketer, it is fundamental to know when to
do more and when to do less. The key decision is
knowing what perception a customer attaches to your
product and how this affects them emotionally. Being
passionate and enthusiastic about your product may
make you offer more to wade off competition as a
subconscious decision to improve business without
realizing that it will overwhelm the customer.
A simple rule may apply when it comes to knowing
what to do. It may help to do more when it’s a
question of the perception of your product, and it
may make sense to do less when it’s a question of
the perception of your customer. Marketing does
not have to be expensive to be effective, it has to be
effective to be worth it.
Diana Obath is a seasoned Public Relations
and Communications Specialist. You can
commune with her on this or related issues
via mail on: [email protected].