Be Different or be dead

February 11, 2021

Why is a craving more important than a need to marketer’s?

Source: Pexels

Why is a craving more important than a need to marketer’s?

‘Crave research’ is the new black in the discipline of determining the triggers that make people buy.

But there still seems to be focus given to traditional marketing research which relies on determining what people need even though most people already have their needs satisfied.

Which means if you remain needs focused you will eventually end up competing on price as the other attributes of your product are the same as other providers - if 2 products are essentially the same in terms of features, price is the only thing left to try to distinguish one from the other.

But competing on price is an ugly place to be. Customers love low prices; organizations not so much, as profit margins are squeezed and competitors can easily copy.

Marketing needs to turn from needs-centric research to ‘crave’ research

The questions to ask in crave research are different than those asked in traditional market research: what do you crave, covet, ache (for), hunger (for), itch (for), sigh (for), yearn (for), lust (after) and long (for) replace ‘what do you need?’

The crave questions address what people spend their discretionary money on these days at premium prices — the marketer’s sweet spot.

The crave game is the new game that will separate successful companies from the mediocre and dying ones.

Crave-based offerings are automatically personalized because no two people crave exactly the same thing. And they command higher margins as people are generally prepared to pay more for an item they are emotionally pulled towards as opposed to one that fills a staple need in their lives. We get upset when car insurance rates go up 15% but don’t sweat the fact that we just financed a high end SAV for $100,000.

In a crave market, the basis for competition suddenly changes; price is no longer the most important element; the strength of the crave pull is.

Competitive advantage in crave markets goes to the organization that best delivers personalized crave-based offers.

A nice place to be — high market share at premium prices that deliver high margins. Nirvana marketing.

Long term sustainable competitive advantage is possible because once the crave research and offer development infrastructure has been developed, it can be sustained as crave factors change.

And the crave marketer is automatically changing with the customer; they are always relevant to the markets they serve.

Do you study what your customers crave?

Observe and ask them.

Build your marketing machine around what you discover.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.11.21 at 05:38 am by Roy Osing
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