In the marketing business, we learn through people’s experiences, our own adventures and theories we gathered along the way.
However, not everything we learn is true or rather, true forever. Theories change as behavior, trends and environment evolve. Many things that are widely believed in are no longer true (or never was).
This part of the article will show you 4 of the marketing myths that you should clear your mind of before making marketing decisions.
1. Consumers know what they want
With growing differentiation of products, consumers are presented with more and more choices, to the point that we no longer know exactly what we want. You can rebut and say, “of course I know what I want! Otherwise, why would I be heading to a store?”
Well, you think you know what you want.
Say I want to get a packet of potato chips. Simple, it’s potato chips I want. When I enter a store and stand before a rack packed with bags of potato chips, I find myself spoilt with choices.
Too many choices
There are different brands, different packaging, different flavors and different promotions. That’s good but do I really know what I want? I may have Pringles Sour Cream in mind before stepping in but I immediately get caught in a dilemma when I see a new flavor from Doritos and hey, I almost forgot about Lays! Oh and what about chocolates?
Now what do I want?
Tell your consumers what they want
What can marketers learn from this example? We used to think that consumers are in control and try our best to guess what they want and what they need. To a certain extent, that’s still valid but there’s something else.
To succeed in this business, you need to know how to tell your consumers exactly what they want. You need to affect their decisions to benefit you simply because you can.
Consumers never knew they that they would want water from the Alps or Fiji until you told them that they do. If you are selling Evian and your consumers want water, tell them that it’s only Evian they really want.
2. Competitors are limited by industry
Traditionally, companies from the same industry compete with each other and the competition is strictly restricted within the industry. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case.
Xerox
Xerox used to only have to worry about other photocopying machine companies; but now it’s facing competition from printer companies such as HP, which can let consumers print multiple copies of documents at home with just a click of a button. The possibility was not even thought of in the past. A product can now be easily substituted by another product that used to satisfy a different need.
Don’t be oblivious to possible competition from outside your walls, observe their actions and strategize.
3. Put yourself in your consumers’ shoes
That’s what they tell you but they are wrong. Consumer behavior will show you that you are NOT like everyone else. Even if you are willing to pay $20 for a Rubik cube does not mean the person next to you are. If you priced your product according to how much you are willing to pay, you may miss significant market share.
You are not like everyone else
Introspection leads to failed ventures and missed opportunities. This is what Professor Wang Jing, Jane of Singapore Management University found out. She asked a group of research participants how much they were willing to pay for a range of products. After which, she asked them to estimate how much an average person would pay for the same products. She then plotted graphs like the one shown below:
Look at person A with the most extreme result. He was the only person who was willing to pay more than $15 for a Rubik cube. He was definitely not a typical consumer.
The interesting thing is, he thought he was.
He thought that an average person would also be willing to pay $20 for the cube but he was wrong. If you are like person A, your venture would most likely fail.
4. Tests and research are always valid
Research proven strategies often give us a peace of mind that what we are doing is right. After all, it is proven and tested. Isn’t this what marketing research is about?
Not unless it is invalid – failure to measure what you intended to measure.
New Coke
Take a look at the new Coke case study. They did a blind taste test and asked if participants liked the new taste. The results came out and it was proven that people did prefer the new Coke taste. However, the venture failed. Why? It is because they were not measuring the correct thing. Consumers were emotionally attached to the old taste and no matter how good the new taste was, it just wasn’t right!
Bill Cosby introduces the new coke
Everything basically turned out to be the opposite from what his crystal ball envisioned.
Pringles
In response to sellers’ complaints that chips broke too easy and were hard to sell, Pringles introduced new chips that were less prone to breakage. As a result, its chips had a new taste. It also designed a new packaging with a shape of a can to protect the chips better.
To check if consumers would like the new taste, Pringles conducted a blind taste test. The thing is, no one goes into a store with a blindfold. Their sense of sight is also affecting their rational decisions. The new can packaging made the potato chips seem artificial. To make things worse, the new chips were perfectly shaped and non-greasy. It was not like the usual chips that consumers were accustomed to.
It did not matter how good the chips tasted, the packaging and look of the chips weren’t giving them an appetite. People at that time still preferred to eat broken and greasy chips out of bags.
In this case, Pringles developed a product that catered to its sellers and neglected its consumers’ opinions. Even when it tried to seek consumers’ feedback, it was not looking at the true attributes that consumers cared about.
Make sure you ARE measuring what you THINK you are measuring
If you are doing a marketing research, make sure that you are recreating the experience that consumers would eventually have with your product. If they are going to buy it from a store, conduct your research with a store setting, and if they are going to be able to visually see your product, don’t blindfold them in tests. Make sure what you think you are measuring is really what you are measuring. Sounds easy? Many marketers have fallen for this trap, don’t be the next one.
