BIG BUSINESS: Australians spend about $6B on pets and pet services each year [ACAC Report 2010]. By this measure these little guys are highly valued, without even being able to talk! What value (or value destruction) do you provide when you're not talking? "Product Benefit" is how your product makes the customer feel NOT the features of the product.
It’s so simple what motivates us – it’s how we feel. People have different frameworks like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, marketers talk about value, as in functional value, but also emotional and social value. I think these all boil down to the same thing.
People buy things because of the way it makes them feel.
The better they feel, the more value you are providing and the more they will pay!
Let's compare some models. Maslow’s hierarchy is made up of five levels;
5) self actualisation
4) esteem
3) love / belonging
2) safety
1) physiological
One leads to the other. As we meet a lower-level need it then ceases to motivate and leads us to meet the need that is characteristic of the next level up.
But in general terms these levels can be described as feelings. Feeling hungry or cold, feeling fearful or anxious, feeling loved or respected, feeling good by giving back.
They are about feeling, how we perceive our state.
What about the marketer’s definition of value: functional, emotional, social
- Emotional value would obviously be about evoking an emotion for a customer.
- However functional value can largely be about producing an emotional, sensory outcome e.g. "I drive a car so I can easily get around and I’m not tired“
- And social can also be expressed as an emotional benefit – a sense of belonging intimacy or fun e.g. "all of my friends are wearing this, I want to try it and 'fit in'"
The question is: "how do your customers feel?" and "can I control it?"
The answer of course is "yes!"
- Map the key contact points with your customer - verbal and non verbal
- Identify the key emotions they are seeking
- Build into your "customer experience" things that will evoke these emotions, using the 5 senses as a prompt
Delivering emotion is big value and if you are not getting it right you are missing out - BIG TIME!