Let’s think for a moment about why you exist on the market. To serve your customers with your products. The core of your offer is, no doubt, your product or service with all its attributes that bring value to your customers.
I realized that many companies focus on functional benefits and forget about emotional ones, which is crucial to building a stronger relationship with your audience.
3 ASPECTS OF YOUR PRODUCT THAT IMPACT A PURCHASE DECISION
1 Translation of functional into emotional benefits
When it comes to machines, equipment and tools where the mode of operation is important, we often focus on their technical properties. For example, if you sell drilling machines, it makes sense to focus on how they work and how deep holes they can make. Similarly, if you sell cars, speed, engine power, acceleration, the size would matter to your potential customers.
Let’s take Volvo. They promote the functional benefits of their technically perfect vehicles, and their clear messages smartly leverage that through safety as a solid emotional attribute. Volvo has become known for its safety, attracting people who own safety as their value. Translating your functional attributes into emotional ones establishes a stronger connection with your audience.
Visual attributes can also address customers’ emotions, like colours. Cars come in different colours to additionally meet the needs of different types of customers, be it business people, families, younger population or sportspeople. The visual aspect plays a crucial role in many industries, like fashion or culture. I can’t imagine buying a painting without considering a visual impact unless I would be a collector of expensive and precious art pieces careless about their look.
2 Time sensitivity
Not all of your product’s traits are relevant to your customer at all times. Focus on those that bring value in a specific time and occasion. Otherwise, you would be easily overlooked, and your chance of making sales is gone.
Let’s see an example of a woman expecting a baby. In the first trimester, her thoughts are occupied by her baby’s health. She is seeking all kinds of information to get to know as much as possible about every step in her baby’s development. This is when she has a high affinity towards, for example, food supplements addressing her health or literature on that specific topic. If you run a store with products for babies and pregnant women, sending information about these products at this particular time will most likely trigger her attention and engagement to get to know more and even decide to buy. She is interested in the functional benefits of your product. Even more, getting the right solutions brings her emotional comfort and satisfaction that she does everything right.
In the third trimester, when she is convinced that everything is fine with her baby, she starts to think about buying equipment, clothes, accessories. And here is when the visual part of your products play an essential role. Which bodysuit to choose, with yellow or green colours or what blanket colours match the stroller. The visual identity of your product can be a decisive factor for purchasing. Don’t forget we often buy with our eyes, not minds.
Everything went good so far. You accompanied a mother-to-be on her journey from feeling unsecured by offering her information on her health to turning into an active shopper when offering a rich portfolio of apparel and accessories. You leveraged your products’ functional, emotional, and visual attributes according to her needs. What can go wrong now, right? Everything.
3. Customer service
It is not only important what you offer from the perspective of your product’s attributes but also how you do it. Customers go for a complete experience, not just a product itself. It is customer service that complements the experience they have with your product. Like, how quickly you respond to their requests, is it easy to return products bought online that don’t suit her baby, do you offer any discounts for their longtime loyalty, not answering the phone is a lost opportunity. It is often a silent yet crucial factor in a purchase decision. Especially B2C businesses often forget about its importance; on the other side, B2B businesses pay more attention to customer relationships, aware of their high value.
Find your product’s benefits that best address your customers’ needs, and make their lives better in a way that is appealing to them.
All aspects of your product are equally essential at a purchase decision as they are at customers retention. You want them to stay with you for as long as possible. Their loyalty is not based just on their historical purchase, but it is hard everyday work to deliver a remarkable solution that strengthens their loyalty, grows their lifetime value and improve your profitability.
