The consumer is emotional
| Danziger focuses only on the part of the consumer wallet that comprises discretionary spending (hence the title""the things consumers want as opposed to need), which according to estimates was nearly 30 per cent of the total consumer spending in the US in the year 2000. She defines "essential expenditure" (the other 70 per cent) as the money spent on buying things like food and clothing as well as furniture, household equipment, medical care and housing. In India, however, we would probably have to include some of those as part of discretionary spending""which means its share of the wallet is pretty high here as well. |
| And that's why what Danziger says is important for Indian marketers. Especially what's called experiential marketing. Since most purchase decisions are emotional ones, customers want their shopping experience to provide emotional satisfaction. Experiential marketing is quite the buzzword in India already""Barista, Cafe Coffee Day and Costa Coffee are all steps in this direction. Most malls in India strive to offer a shopping experience (whether the tenants achieve their monthly sales targets is quite another question!). |
| To illustrate the point about experience, Danziger cites a personal example of how once her dishwasher broke down and she went to the appliance store to buy a new one, she would happily have bought a new fridge and gas range as part of a kitchen remodelling effort (since all her kitchen equipment was old). However, not only were dishwashers stacked unimaginatively against a wall with price tags slapped on, the sales person treated her inquiry for a replacement dishwasher mechanically, making no effort to perhaps uncover her desire to remodel the kitchen. Hence the store lost a potential sale of a couple of thousand dollars. |
| The author's prescription for the store is to display the products in room settings to "romance the buyer", coupled with a financing plan, package deals, and even remodelling services, all aimed at making this store a one-stop shopping experience for all home appliance needs. This is exactly what stores like Arcus started doing three to four years ago. In fact, when I joined Arcus, the store at Gurgaon had five kitchens and six bathrooms with appropriate cabinetry, appliances, counter tops and flooring in the designer kitchens and tiles, sanitaryware, water closets and tubs for the colour-coordinated bathrooms. The "promise of the brand" (to use Danziger's words) appealed to Gurgaon's new resident who had just moved into a new home. Unfortunately for Arcus, as is the case with most organised retail idea successes, a flourishing dealer market sprung up and started simulating the coordinated look. There is, for example, a small dealer shop in Gurgaon which has five model bathrooms cramped into 700 sq ft of space, accompanied by tile flip charts and display panels for mixing and matching sets. With lower overheads and prices, such outlets count the cash even as stores like Arcus notch up the footfalls. Arcus' business lately has moved towards project work""furbishing kitchens and bathrooms in bulk for builders. |
| I wouldn't go to the extreme and recommend, as Danziger does, that you need to "help your customers fulfill their fantasies", but her point's broadly well-taken. None of this should mean you stop analysing point-of-sale data or that you stop keeping a track of what consumers buy. But do keep in mind that as customers get better-heeled, they're looking for a better shopping experience. Even internet shopping, what you'd think is the ultimate in non-experience, is driven by the images the portal manages to create in the consumer's mind. Reading Danziger's book you'd get the impression only this softer side of retailing matters. You often have to overstate a point to get it through the clutter. |
| WHY PEOPLE BUY THINGS THEY DON'T NEED UNDERSTANDING AND PREDICTING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR |
| Pamela N Danziger Corpus Collosum Price: Rs 195; Pages: 291 |