There are several stages of “recognition” by the customer of your product or service. They are given different names by different authors but effectively they are:
Impact
- First and foremost you need to be NOTICED. If your customers don’t see you, they have no reason to buy in. Everyone is working in an increasingly cluttered environment. Customers are bombarded by visual cues from almost every direction. They don’t study them in detail – they make almost instantaneous decisions based on a combination of cues.
- You need impact to get noticed – the design can also significantly affect that. Something which is not always considered by marketers and researchers alike, is the visual context of the communication (what is all around it?) In a lot of research we look at sketches or mockups on a nice white or black background. Stand out is not a problem. It has PLENTY of Stand out and impact. But put it into the context of a cluttered category and the whole picture changes. Suddenly your communication disappears from view.
- How can you help check this? I always recommend that clients keep appropriate material within the marketing department so that they can place new designs within the context of the marketplace. If you are looking at your invoices, look at the competitive set of invoices your clients are likely to see. Don’t just look at your competitors, what do the local power bills, telephone invoices etc look like? Will yours stand out in this context? How do you wish it to appear within the marketplace?
- If you have a packaged product, look at the implications of the pack format in terms of on-shelf stacking. I have had clients who decided to go to a soft pack in a category which was largely about hoxes. It created enormous problems for them in terms of stacking and facings. Marketing and pack designers need to make sure that the design will always have impact no matter how the product is stacked. How many times have you seen products stacked on their sides. This is not serious if the design has been thought through to give maximum impact no matter what the stacking method.
- You don’t have to contact a market researcher to get some sense of how your communication will operate and whether it will stand out.
Message
- Next is the message which the consumer takes out of your communication. What does it tell them about the brand (imagery, positioning etc.) and about the product or service? What will they expect to get from buying into this product or service? What is their expectation of delivery given your communication?
- While qualitative research should give a clear indication of the message and takeout from a pack, the technologist needs to be involved in the technical aspects of this message. Is all the technical information (particularly the nutritional information) correct? Is the ingredient listing in the corect format and has it been done in a way which is appropriate for the category and the target market?
- Does the product require usage instructions? If instructions are included, are they suitable for the target group? Are they visible? I have seen many packs with almost unreadable instructions. Are they in an appropriate form? Sometimes pictorial instructions work better than written ones for certain target groups.
Relevance
- Whatever the “takeout” from the communication, the customer will then decide whether it is relevant to him or her. No matter how strong or clear the message, if it is “not for me”, I won’t buy into it.
- This is the point at which a customer asks – Is it for me? Or for someone else? Is it for today’s need? Or would I use it on another occasion?
- If you are looking for an “everyday”tomato soup to give your household, a pack (no matter how much impact) which tells you that this product is premium and for special occasions will probably be rejected as being too “special”(with its price implications) for this particular purchase occasion.
- In many cases, the occasion will influence buy in. I may decide that the bus will do for getting to work, but I will buy into a stretch limo for a premiere night at the opera. We all buy into different goods and services on different occasions.
Action
- Having decided whether this product is for them and for the current occasion, the customer then decides to purchase or to reject (for now).
Brilliant Reflections/Consumer Research Specialists 