Selling Without Interruption

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Selling Without Interruption

05-Aug-2010 03:35 PM

Nick Mercer
B&T Magazine, May 14, 2010

Changes in consumer behaviour are forcing marketers to re-think how they target consumers. Brands can no longer rely on advertising but need to interact with people if they are to succeed.

We are seeing fundamental changes to the way consumers compare and purchase products and services. We may be seeing the beginning of the end to what might be described as the 'advertising age'.

Marketers use advertising to inform, persuade and sell product through a variety of communication channels. However in most instances advertising interrupts the medium consumers are using. A person pays $1.20 to buy a newspaper to get the news but the editorial is continually interrupted by advertising for products and services. Society accepts free television programmes knowing that the TV channels use the advertising income to fund the development and broadcast of TV shows that are of course interrupted by advertising.

However the traditional channels are showing signs of decline, newspapers are attracting fewer readers, less people watch free-to-air TV, over two-million people have signed up for the 'Do not call' register. Clearly people won't accept continued interruption in their lives.

Marketers have been, to a certain extent, control the type and frequency of advertising message. The drive to get the advertising message into our lives spawned hundreds of advertising opportunities from lift advertising to shopping-trolley advertising.

A few things have changed this state of play, however. The internet has dramatically changed the playing field. Marketers can no longer rely solely on ad messages as the internet has made all businesses very visible.

Search engines have redefined the way people now shop. In a couple of seconds consumers can, from the comfort of their home, compare different products online, ask the advice or recommendation of friends or colleagues and in some cases purchase the product without the need to visit a retailer.

Research indicates that word of mouth and referrals from friends or family are the most important factors when consumers are comparing prospective purchases. The internet facilitates this more so than ever before. The power of advertising to persuade and sell is becoming less important and less relevant.

Marketers with poorly built product, or overpriced services will be found out. Marketers who manufacture product by using low-cost labour or non-recycled components could be 'outed' for their actions. Worse still for marketers, unhappy consumers might not only avoid these products but they could steer their family, friends and colleagues away from these brands.

In addition to the rise of the internet, consumers are more aware and knowledgeable about marketing and advertising techniques. They are more suspicious of, and perhaps less susceptible to, advertising messages, and certainly not reliant on advertising to form an opinion of a product or service.

So what does this all mean for marketers? Businesses need to redefine how they can attract consumers to their brand rather than sell their brand – pull rather than push. Brands cannot rely solely on advertising. They will need to work harder to make their business be seen as a company an individual wants to do business with. It makes the job of a marketer much harder as it means we need to make brands more appealing, transparent and truthful in a more mature way that is respectful to consumers. This could be better customer service, better product benefits or a business that is more socially responsible – not using child labour to pick the cocoa beans.

Many marketers are now more reliant on the internet and their website becomes a major part of the brand experience. When a consumer 'finds' a prospective company and visits the product website the consumer needs to have their expectations met and exceeded.

Essentially we are moving into an era where consumers demand less interruption and a more meaningful product experience, what might be seen as passive marketing. This could mean problems for products that people might not typically buy but are sold. Life insurance and exercise bikes spring to mind as products that are generally sold via direct marketing techniques. In this new era where consumers are more powerfully armed there will be fewer opportunities for businesses to use persuasive selling techniques.

Attracting and appealing will be the buzzwords, not marketing and advertising. The companies who understand this new environment will succeed and the companies who continue to try to sell, will sell no more.