Terms that are sometimes contradictory, but logical behaviors after all. The company needs to sell to survive. The problem is that the path of short-term sales inevitably leads to discounts, the dehumanization of the brand and a dynamic in which price is the only variable that generates traction in sales.
When you get into that spiral, discounts take over the company. And this path ends in a commercial war of low prices in which our customers do not care about the germany phone number list free brand, they only want it to be as cheap as possible.
On the customer's side it is also logical: why would they buy a more expensive product if they have another one that is the same at a lower price?
This is where the problem lies. COMPANIES HAVE NO OTHER SELLING ARGUMENT BUT PRICE .
To continue selling, they have been eliminating brand attributes and making concessions that have led them to messages such as product + price + call to action.
The connection between brands and their customers has disappeared
They have become meaningless. In the struggle I mentioned at the beginning, the need to survive has won, but this has led the company to crisis and in many cases to closure.
We have data everywhere that show us the consequences of these strategies. To give two examples:
Brands are irrelevant : The Meaningful Brands study carried out by Havas Group in 2017 is well known : “Spanish consumers consider that 91% of brands are dispensable, compared to 74% of the world average” . In other words: in Spain more than in the rest of the world, brands are irrelevant.
Brand loyalty has virtually disappeared : As a result of the above (among many other things), brand loyalty has virtually disappeared. According to a 2019 McKinsey study : “ 58% of shoppers switch brands at the time of purchase . ”
Brands must become more human to survive
In my opinion, the companies that will survive are those that are able to turn this situation around. We must find a balance between the need to sell and a brand that connects with its audience beyond price. We need to seek a healthy relationship for both parties.
In these days when information flows and our customers know our products perfectly, companies must strive for maximum transparency. At the slightest mistake they go to the competition (they are just a click away). Remember that they have no reason to keep your brand.
That need for transparency brings to the forefront the other force in the internal struggle of the company (sales vs. purpose). If we are 100% transparent, but we are empty, why would they choose us over the competition?
Being transparent means being more human, it means recognizing errors, it means a closer relationship with our clients, it means having a special meaning for them beyond the price.
This change is necessary not only because sales-focused strategies have given us problems, or because access to our customers' information forces us to be more transparent, but because it is the only way to influence our customers' purchasing intentions .
As I said in Give Your Audience Control of Marketing :
If we make a brilliant marketing strategy, we will only be able to influence a third of our audience's purchasing interactions, the remaining two thirds are under the control of our customers.