The shock of the future is now
hen I was in
college, back in the early ’70s, I remember reading a
book by Alvin Toffler called Future
Shock. It theorized about the
thousands of choices we would be forced to make each day and
the psychological overload people would experience from all of
these decisions.
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Have you been to the supermarket lately?
The average supermarket now displays
40,000 different items. Even though, the average family
fulfills 80 percent of its needs from only 150 of these items.
In just about every product category, there is now an amazing
proliferation of choices. In fact, there are over 1 million
different products sold in America, today.
This tremendous number of choices in the
marketplace can overload the human mind. No wonder so many
people seem confused about which products to buy or, even,
whose services to use.
Consumers are facing an explosion of
choices. Consider how the choices among the following items
have increased between the early 1970s and today:
• Over-the-counter pain relievers
soared from 17 to 141.
• Running shoe styles increased from
5 to 285.
• Frito-Lay chip varieties expanded
from 10 to 78.
• Soft-drink brands increased from 20
to 87.
• Types of milk rose from 4 to 19.
• Colgate toothpaste varieties went
from 2 to 17.
• Amusement parks grew from 362 to
1,174.
• McDonald’s menu items more
than tripled, from 13 to 43.
• Software titles grew from 0 to
250,000.
• Web sites increased from 0 to
4,787,894.
People are beginning to lose their
decision-making capabilities. In the supermarket, they bypass
39,850 items that they don’t use. Bypassing products and
businesses is a coping mechanism they use to avoid information
overload generated by so many choices.
With an increasing number of competitors
entering the drycleaning market — Men’s Wearhouse,
Zoots, One Price, etc., — customers have so many
alternatives that you pay dearly for your mistakes.
Once your competitors get your customers,
you won’t get them back very easily. Drycleaners who
don’t understand this will not survive.
How can you and your company develop a
strategy for survival?
You need to formulate a strategy
that’s clearly stated and highly focused. Be clear about
what you want to say and communicate it constantly to your
employees and customers.
Emphasize one compelling point: Why
customers should buy from you rather than anyone else. Your
main goal will be to get your name to take hold in
customers’ minds.
Getting into customers’ minds is
difficult. But you must find a way to differentiate your
business as the most attractive alternative. This is called positioning.
Human minds are limited. Generally, minds
can’t retain more than seven units – the length of
a local phone number. And seven are about as many names in a
typical category as consumers can remember. For low-interest
businesses, the average consumer can only name two.
When you overload an electrical circuit,
it blows out. Consumers overloaded by choices start blocking
them out. Essentially, they resist allowing new choices into
their minds.
Customers will resist messages that are
confusing, and embrace ideas that are simple for them to
understand. Make your message easy to understand and directly
to the point. For example: “We are this area’s only
Certified Professional Drycleaner.”
A driving factor in purchases is the
desire to avoid risk. Doing business with an unfamiliar company
makes people nervous. Today, people fear that they might
overpay or not get full value for their money.
Wise marketers look for ways to help
purchasers overcome their insecurity. One way is by using testimonials. That’s
when prominent individuals endorse your services. This implies
that others, who use your services, will become more
fashionable, more attractive, or even richer.
A second way to help customers overcome
their insecurities is to offer a guarantee, such as: It’s Ready, It’s Right, or
It’s FREE.
This kind of risk-reversal allows
customers to feel confident that are dealing with a trustworthy
company. Yet another way to overcome the consumer’s
insecurity is the use of heritage.
People tend to trust a company that has
been around for a long time. For example: saying, “Superb
drycleaning, since 1979” reassures customers that your
store is a safe choice.
The point to remember is simple: Your strategy must create a strong position for
your business.
Consumer perceptions depend on positioning
— specifically, in how your business differentiates
itself in customers’ minds. That means planting something
in their minds that causes them to put your cleaners ahead of
all the others.
Differentiation
Before I discuss how you can differentiate
yourself, let’s talk about how not to do it. Some
cleaners think they can differentiate themselves through quality and customer satisfaction. But in today’s world, those qualities are
rarely differentiators. They’re givens. Customers expect
quality and satisfaction as part of anything they buy. If not,
they want their money back, and will trade somewhere else.
There are a number of differentiating
ideas. One is to be first in a particular category. You can be
the first high-end cleaner. You can be the first wedding gown
specialist. You can be the first one-price cleaner. You can be
the first to offer same-day service.
If you’re first, what happens
when competitors try to copy you? They unintentionally
reinforce your position.
A second way to differentiate is through
leadership. Powerful leaders become synonymous with what they
do. If you think computers, the first name that occurs is IBM.
With chocolate bars, it’s Hershey’s. With soft
drinks, it’s Coke. And with ketchup, it’s Heinz.
If you’re the leader, it’s
O.K. to brag. If you don’t take credit for your
achievements, someone else might. Of course, there are
different ways to lead and sales leadership is just one of
them.
Another form of leadership is technological. If
you can convince consumers that you use the newest and most
advanced forms of technology in your cleaning processes, they
will consider this to be superior to what they’ve been
getting from your competitors. It is possible to attract
customers with impressive sounding terms. Just be sure the
resulting product is equally impressive.
Then there’s performance leadership.
If you are capable of providing the fastest, most reliable
service of anyone else in town, you can build a reputation that
will be difficult, if not impossible to dislodge.
Finally, there’s a differentiator
connected with doing things the old-fashioned
way. Older consumers, as well as
some younger ones, can be a soft-touch for the way things used
to be done. Like: We press your
clothes the way your mother would.
Here’s the importance of
differentiation in a nutshell: If you don’t have another
point of differentiation, you’d better have the lowest
price.
As you can see, your strategic planning
should start with your competitors in mind. You want to
determine precisely where they’re strong, and where
they’re most vulnerable.
If your strategy is superior to the
competition’s, you will win your market. With a sound
understanding of consumer perceptions, you will be able to
exploit opportunities to grow revenues and earnings.
You’ve heard the saying, “Keep
it simple, stupid.” And it’s clear that keeping it
simple is the smart thing to do. It’s the key to winning
customers’ attention, their business, and ultimately,
their lasting loyalty.
Dennis McCrory is president of The
Golomb Group Inc., a firm that
designs marketing programs for drycleaners. Contact him at The
Golomb Group Inc., 7664 Plaza Ct., Willowbrook, IL 60527.
E-mail: dennismccrory@golombgroup.com
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