The purpose-driven purchase

Remember “keeping up with the Jones',” or the idea of buying something as a “status symbol?”

How ironic that seems now, in an age of Conspicuous Responsibility, where so many consumers have realized that money is indeed an object. Now, the idea of an impulse purchase (at least, of any meaningful size) seems a distant memory.

I’m going to offer a link to a story that I’ve shared before, having to do with the back-to-basics, brown-bag lunch attitude being demonstrated by so many consumers; it came in a Research Brief from Media Post. Among other illustrations of thrift, the story cited research showing more people are trading in bottled water for the very similar product that comes out of their faucet.

Implications: There’s a reason I’m coming back to this issue, beyond the attention I gave it in last week’s posting (“Saving money on one thing to subsidize another”). And that is to offer a reminder that price is never the only issue--and that it is seldom the most important issue--affecting the purchase decisions consumers make.

If I sold bottled water, the period from the 1980’s to 2007 treated me pretty well. People thought of bottled water as pure, healthy, delicious… and maybe even sporty. But among all of the reasons people bought bottled water, this was one of the biggest: Why not?

Allow me to over-simplify. During periods of relative wealth, people didn’t need a really good reason to buy stuff. In fact, they really only needed an absence of reasons to not buy stuff.
These days, we need sound, justifiable reasons to make a purchase.

If I sold bottled water today, I’d be analyzing whether my marketing was more style (hip, sexy, cool) than substance (benefits associated with the product, such as purity, flavor, etc.)

One of the big reasons for bottled water is convenience, and I’d be talking about that. Walking, running, hiking, driving… let me count the ways where carrying a “glass” of tap water is inconvenient. If my water was packaged in a recyclable, environmentally-friendly bottle (aren’t they all?), I’d be talking about that. If my bottle of water provided essential vitamins, I’d be talking about that. And since thrift is one of the big reasons, currently, to NOT buy bottled water… I would give thrift a new context. “When you break for your brown bag lunch at the office, why buy your soda or bottled water out of a machine (which usually comes at a higher unit cost)? Instead, buy [name] bottled water by the case, where ever you buy groceries… so you can have a convenient supply at a reasonable price.”

Whatever you sell—from bottled water to backrubs, from automobiles to education, from furniture to sportswear—realize that the economy has provided consumers with a very big “why not” to buy your offering. Fewer people are in a position to buy for no reason. It’s time to get re-acquainted with the real benefits that are satisfied by the product or service you sell.
Mike Anderson