Why People Buy - Part 2
WHY PEOPLE BUY - PART 2
Understanding the human mind
In Part 1of Why People Buy, we looked at Maslow's Theory of Need. Maslow believed that humans instinctively fulfil their needs and wants via a hierarchy, but that humans fundamentally will always want more. His theory maintains that certain needs will be instinctively fulfilled before others and that if you identify a need in your consumer you can target that need. But there are other factors that will influence human desires and to understand buying patterns fully you will also need to understand three main categories of people and how they are motivated.
ATTITUDE - Glass half empty vs glass half full
Positive and negative attitudes - There is a common misconception that thinking negatively is bad. But when you break it down, this basic way of describing people can be a bit misleading. What we should in fact be saying is - Those who see "What's there" and those who see "What's missing". Both ways of thinking can be beneficial or detrimental to one's personal fulfilment. For example, in relationships it is detrimental to constantly look for 'What's missing', it is insulting and damaging to the person in question to constantly look for flaws! To see what is good about a person is usually far more beneficial to your relationship! However, as a business person it can be equally detrimental to be a 'What's there' kind of person. By always seeing what you have and ignoring what is not there or what you have not, you will miss vital signs that changes need to be made in your business to adapt, often before it goes bankrupt!
As a human being you will be more fulfilled if you maintain a 'glass-half-full' attitude, but as an entrepreneur you will accomplish more success by being a 'glass-half-empty' thinker - after all, according to Maslow - People buy what is missing in their lives!
AUDITORY, VISUAL & SENSORY DRIVEN TYPES OF PEOPLE
People also tend to fall into one of these three categories based on the way they think:
- Auditory: people who think in words
- Visual: people who think in pictures
- Sensory: people who think with their senses (sight, sound, touch, taste & smell)
By determining which of the above categories your customers fall into, you can tailor your marketing to appeal to them via the medium that most communicates with them. For example, people who think with their senses will be attracted to scents, touching samples or by words such as velvety, aromatic, sensual and crisp. Those who think in pictures will be drawn to lots of visuals, photographs, detailed diagrams, charts and colour. For people who think in words use vivid narrative, stories and analogies, descriptive and intelligent text.
MIND MOVIE PEOPLE
Lots of people visualise their lives like a movie that is constantly running in their head. This is especially true with the development of films having come so far and being so prominent in so many people's lives. Often the movies going on in our head is so real and so powerful that it can strongly control what we perceive to be reality. This holds wonderful potential for an advertiser. Just as a director can lead an audience on a journey so too can an advertiser 'lead' a consumer?
The experience of a product or purchase decision can be enhanced in this type of people thus encouraging them to buy. By launching a mini-movie about how a product can enhance your life, an advertiser can communicate with the mind of the consumer and motivate their behaviour. A classic example of this type of marketing is advertising that promotes security systems, by setting a scene of vulnerability the product then steps in and offers a solution to an issue that may or may not have been there before!
How does this apply to me?
By understanding how people think, you can target the way you market yourself and your product. You can determine how your customer thinks and therefore how to appeal to them! For example, most customers who buy Hand Made products tend to be sensory types, they experience their purchase with all senses! They prefer to travel to a market where they can browse amongst the stalls and experience all the sights, sounds and smells that that invokes. They taste samples, touch textures and talk to the artists, they experience their purchase. They prefer to interact and feel good about purchasing something that is made by a human being. Non sensory types are happy to rush into supermarkets, grab an efficiently labelled and displayed product from a shelf, pay swiftly and get back in their car to go. Supermarkets know this and they cater for sensory types too, where do you think that freshly baked bread smell comes from? It's not the ovens!
So having ascertained what your consumer needs and wants in Part 1, you can now determine how to communicate your brand to your customer through the medium that best appeals to them. In Part 3 will conclude 'Why People Buy' by looking at the final reasons that affect a consumers spending patterns and how you can tap into this thought-pattern to maximise your opportunities when marketing your small business.
