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Yesterday's received wisdom on how
consumers choose one product over another is simplistic, based on
the assumption that they behave in a rational manner. Today we know
that this paradigm tends to relate only to the process of
purchasing mid-range, humdrum items (think printer toner!).
Consumers feel more than they think, and will make their decisions
accordingly. When the new Jaguar XF came out, I immediately coveted
it (zero rational behaviour there) even though I knew I already
loved it that evening I spent hours trawling the web for more
information: my emotions had started to give way to reason, and i
needed to post-rationalise my initially strong affective
response.
The social risk of
consumption
Of course, almost everything on the
average shopping list is going to cost a lot less than a Jaguar XF;
when someone considers buying a handbag, mobile phone or clothes,
it's often not just the price tag (be it too cheap or too
expensive) that stops them from buying - far more important is what
their friends will think of their purchase. Consumer behaviour
theory refers to this as 'perceived risk'. In the affluent Western
world, financial risk is secondary to the (psycho-) social risks
such as: "my friends may think I look so last year", "Will they
think I'm green enough?", "I won't be respected". This is
particularly true for the buyer when there is something at stake
and it explains why consumer behaviour tends towards minimising the
risk of unfavourable evaluation by their peers. With the advent of
social media, they can do this more easily than ever before.
Social Media
There are several online facilities
that will assist consumers - in real time - with their decision
making. Type "should I buy" into Facebook search and twitter search
and you'll find hundreds of people asking and answering that
question. Hunch.com helps you make decisions and gets smarter the
more you use it. As they themselves put it: "in ten questions or
less, Hunch will offer you a useful solution to your problem,
concern or dilemma across hundreds of topics." Another,
pollpigeon.com, allows you to create a poll to obtain people's
views on what laptop, dress or rhinestone glove to buy. All of
these services are set up in seconds and easily accessed from your
BlackBerry, Google android phone or other web-enabled mobile
devices. Imagine this scenario. A young woman goes handbag
shopping. She casts her eye over the bewitching display. Should it
be a La Perla, a Longchamps, or somethingelse? She takes a photo of
the chosen bag with her iPhone and, via twitPic, posts it onto her
twitter feed to be picked up by her fellow fashionistas, and then
carries on browsing in the store. Five minutes later, she gets the
feedback she needs: "Love it"; "Gorgeous. Buy it!"; "don't buy it!
I hear they use Indian kids to do the tanning of the leather". In a
trice, she has gone from admiring a handbag to knowing that she
shouldn't buy it, because the company may be using child labour.
What better way for a young shopper to minimize the associated
social risks?
This behaviour poses a challenge to
the retailer. A poor-quality snap of a beautiful product or an
untrue product story could result in negative online buzz, despite
the fact that the person photographing it is actually in the store
looking at it, and loving it. But retailers, be warned: any
business that tries to seize all control of the information that
customers share with their network online will fail. Instead, it is
important to seek to understand this natural evolution of behaviour
and support it.
The retailers'
response
Developing responses to this is
crucial - and the only limit as to how, should be our imagination.
Customers can be helped to share thoughts and feelings with their
friends online: today an increasing number of mobile devices have
built-in barcode(1d)- or QR-code(2d)-recognition software, capable
of holding simple data such as an internet address. The next
generation of mobile phones will have built-in RFID-chip readers,
and the generation after that will have super sophisticated
photo-recognition software installed. This software will be able to
recognise any object, and link it with matching data from the web.
All customers have to do is activate their cameras which, in an
instant, will recognise the code and respond accordingly.
Last december Google announced their
Google favorite Places program whereby Google mailed QR code window
stickers to something like 190,000 local retailers. All of these QR
codes are tied to Google's local search feature and allows the
retailer to include coupons and special offers to users who scan
the codes (Google can track the use of these codes and charge
accordingly just like they do with adwords). Next step is that
these codes become product specific, which has been acknowledged by
the company "Big in Japan", who has made the mobile app "shopsavvy"
that links a product barcode with a wealth of online
opportunities.
In the case of the handbag scenario
described above, the store could have added a QR-code to the price
tag; the code could hold a shortened URL that would take the
customer directly to twitter.com, where the entry field would have
been pre-filled with a link to the product page for that particular
bag, or perhaps a link to a web page containing a review or
background story on the product. This way, the company could
achieve a degree of control and be assured that the photograph
viewed online would be top quality, and the product story would be
correct. In addition, friends who click on the link on twitter
would even have the opportunity to purchase the product online,
there and then.
The technology for this is ready, and
the shift in behaviour has already advanced; especially in Japan,
where similar concepts have existed for a while. Nowadays it is
rare to find a product, poster or magazine in Japan without a QR
code, according to Packaging news, UK.
Today QR codes are used by record
companies in ads. The consumer snaps the code, and is brought to a
website where he or she can listen to samples of the artist's
music, there and then via the mobile device. Japanese Jagariko
snack food's QR-codes link to free downloads of ringtones. You find
them on Disney posters, outdoor advertising, McDonalds cups and
paper bags (nutritional info), t-shirt tags have them, and so do
magazines; integrating off-line with on-line.
Now retailers in the rest of the world
need to get ahead of the curve - before the curve gets ahead of
them. In the future, an even tighter merge between off -line
shopping and on-line social media will be inevitable.
If you want to know more…
Facebook search
twitter search
Hunch.com
poll pigeon
Example of someone who, from the
dressing room, has posted a pic of a dress, asking for her friends'
evaluation. Click here.
Source on quote on google's move.
Click here or here.
Click here for examples from Japan.
Click here for packaging news
UK.