Mastering Consumer - Centricity II: Selling and Buying

 The difference between marketing and sales can be seen from selling and buying.  Selling focuses on the need of the seller, while buying focuses on the need of the consumer (marketing).

 Here are a few sales and marketing questions/statements that leads organizations along either a consumer centric part or a product first path.

 How much have we invested in R&D?

What is the penetration of our product?

We are in the aviation business, aren’t we?

Why do the consumers shop at these certain times for this product?

What problem is the consumer trying to solve by using these products?

We need wider distribution, to reach more customers.

What more strategies can we deploy to gain consumer confidence and increase purchase?

We are the number one product in the category, we set the price.

While each of the statements above are relevant given the context, only a few of it truly seeks to understand the consumer. The buyer not the seller is the reason for being of any brand and without a proper and simple understanding of why a product is being used, the brand does not have a long-term future.

There is a story of a laundry detergent brand that prides itself as the number 1 whitening detergent. The brand built its proposition on the fact that consumers want a clean and sparkling "white" cloths, similar detergents in the same market promised the consumers clean and fresh smelling cloths. In hindsight, the brands that promised clean clothes are still in the market while the niche brand is no more and the question is, does the brand really understood what the consumer want when it comes to laundry and clean clothes?

Selling/Sales is about increasing the opportunity for a consumer to pick up a product. All sales strategies are designed around increasing the chances for a consumer to pick a product. Marketing on the hand is about providing the consumer with a solution to a concern or a problem. “You have a headache, use Aspirin – (Marketing), go to the pharmacy and buy – (Selling)”

   Therefore, we may say, consumers are looking for marketers who through insight/enlightenment will unravel the solutions to their problems, and they will joyfully search for the product to buy from a sales point or person.

Be consumer-centric. Therefore, for a long-lasting business, build brand objectives around consumer centricity.

Get a certain portion of the population,

To change the way, they behave

By showing how your brand works

#ConsumerCentricity #BrandSuccess #CustomerExperience