Great Marketers In 2022 – Know That Consumers Don’t Know What They Want.
It may sound absurd, but no matter how much they might think they do, consumers don’t know what they want. Indeed, Henry Ford once said:
Expressing a similar sentiment Steve Jobs once said:
I was engaged by a multi-residential property developer to undertake research to determine what the target market for a project wanted in an apartment. Far and above anything else, the most common thing consumers in the majority of focus groups wanted was – ‘quality.’ In an apartment, members of the project’s target market wanted:
While hardly astounding (who would not want quality) this desire for quality makes sense, I guess. But this all gets more interesting when the participants in the focus groups were asked to define ‘quality.’ What is quality design? What do quality fittings look like? What are the characteristics of quality finishings? What features represent quality? These are, I would suggest, very important questions. These questions, however, were not – and are not – easily answered. While consumers think they know what they want – they don’t.
Both Ford and Jobs were right. Consumers don’t know what they want. What is more, they don’t even know what determines what they want. Behavioural research suggests that consumers tend to base perceptions of quality on and indeed perceptions of what they want on:
Consumers, and indeed human beings more generally, tend to think that if they like something it is quality. More importantly, consumers are social animals, which means that their perception of what represents quality, is largely determined by social norms – what they peers say. Indeed, the taste of consumers has also been found to be directly impacted, if not determined, but their peers. What consumers want is invariable influenced, if not determined by their peers.
Further, most consumers do not appreciate the impact on social norms on their purchase decisions. When asked what impacts on their wants, tastes, and perceptions – most consumers think they do. They think that while others may be impacted by social norms, they are not.?
The?‘introspection illusion’?is a?cognitive bias?in which people wrongly think they have direct insight into the origins of their mental states, while treating others’?introspections?as unreliable. The introspection illusion occurs when consumers believe they have freewill and that their purchase decisions are self-determined – while accepting that this may not be so for others.?The fact is all consumers are influenced by social norms and these social norms more often than not determine what they want. Here are two studies exemplifying the impact of social norms on behaviour.
BATH TOWELS
A 2008 study by?Noah J. Goldstein, Robert B. Cialdini and Vladas Griskeviciu?found that the rate of bath towel in hotels increases significantly when patrons are told that other patrons reuse bath towels, even where the alternative is an environmental message. It was found that:
?This highlights the power of social norms and the extent to which knowing what others have done impacts the behaviour of consumers. Furthermore, it suggests that following the lead of others is more important to many people than doing what might be considered the ‘right thing’.
COCA COLA
Most studies have found that consumers struggle to differentiate the various brands of cola – including Coke and Pepsi – when participating in a blind taste test. For example, the findings in round one of a recent?study?involving a blind taste test were:
In the second round of this same study, participants were given three rounds of the same cola. The findings were:
Despite this apparent inability to accurately differentiate brands of cola, another study found that:
Consumers who buy Coke are buying everything they associate with the brand. They are buying into the fun lifestyle, youth, and vitality associated with the Coke brand. They are even buying into the images of slim models drinking Coke – even though if these models consistently drank Coke, they would not be slim. The purchase behaviour of these consumers is influenced by social norms.
The point here is that what people want, is most often determined by social norms. It has been suggested that purchase decisions are also based on what they need. But research has shown time and again, that what consumers need – or think they need – is largely determined by social norms and beliefs – which are largely determined by external influences. How often have you heard someone suggest that they ‘need’ something you can clearly see they don’t need? When I was a teenager, I ‘needed’ Levi Jeans, when quite clearly, any brand of jean or indeed, any form of trouser might have done the job of providing modesty, warmth, and protection. The fact is I need Levi Jeans because of social pressure, and I considered them a quality product because of social norms.
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The impact of social norms in the 21st?century are well addressed in the book –?Change – How to make big things happen.
Human beings don’t even choose what they believe. The fact is – nothing we believe is a choice. Every belief is the result of one or more external influences and social norms. This has led many a philosopher to suggest that freewill is an illusion.
Social norms have been found to be so powerful that they effectively negate freewill without most consumers even knowing it. Human beings are social animals, and nothing impacts their behaviour more than social norms. Nothing determines what they want more than social norms.
Human beings are also easily – and unconsciously – influenced by apparently small nudges. The concept of a ‘nudge’ was first documented by Richard Thaler. He chronicled the example of a Swedish study in which the behaviour of male tavern patrons was influenced by painting a fly in a white urinal bowl. This simple innovation led to a 30% drop in spillage. This study was repeated at a university in the United States – using the logo of another university instead of a fly. In this case, spillage was decreased by 50%. These are two examples of nudges used to influence behaviour.
More commercially focused examples of nudges include:
In a?study?of the National Health System in the United Kingdom, it was found that 11.1% of patients were simply failing to show up for scheduled appointments. In response, the NHS began sending a text to patients a day or two before the appointment, advising them that a missed appointment would attract a fee of 160 pounds. Missed appointments immediately fell to 8.4%.
In essence, a ‘nudge’ is a small action orb ‘psychological trigger’ designed to have a large impact on decision-making. The discussion of nudges by Thaler and others has led to the development of ‘nudge marketing’. Examples of nudge marketing include:
The potential for nudging is substantial, and the options in terms of potential nudges are almost limitless. Some nudges are obvious, for example. competitions, while others are quite subtle such as the fly painted in the bowl of a urinal. Effective use of nudges requires a deep understanding of human behaviour – but it can be a very inexpensive way of driving sales.
The consumers referred to here were not consciously impacted by these ‘nudges.’ They were impacted at an unconscious level. They were impacted in the brain stem and limbic system rather that the conscious and thinking neo-cortex. These nudges impacted what consumers want, without them knowing. Again, consumers are not determining what they want. Nudges represent a very powerful tool kit of psychological triggers that can be readily used to influence consumer behaviour.
Further impacting the capacity of consumers to know what they want are the 25 or more cognitive biases that impact their behaviour. Consider these examples:
The fact is, human behaviour is significantly impacted by these 25 or more cognitive biases, and they impact without consumers even knowing they exist. While consumer think they are making an objective assessment of what they want, most often they are not. Most often consumers are influenced by one or more cognitive bias.
In closing this discussion, I wanted to refer to the early comments about quality. The reality is – consumers find it very difficult to define quality design, fittings, finishes and features, in apartments or indeed with any other product. Further, what the developer defines as quality may be different to what the consumer defines as quality.?Research?highlights this. The results of a?Wall Street Journal – Gallup survey conducted in September 1981, published in the?Wall Street Journal in 1981 found that – three out of five chief executives of the country’s largest 1,300 companies said that their quality is improving (only 13%?said it is declining). Another study by the American Society for Quality Control and published in the?Boston Globe that same year reported that 49%?of 7,000 consumers surveyed said that the quality of U.S. products had declined in the past five years. In addition, 59%?expected quality to stay down or decline further in the upcoming five years.
Quality is a very qualitative concept.
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