Mysteries of Retail: How To Remain Relevant In A Changing Marketplace

Do you remember the Magic 8 Ball?

The Toys R Us leadership team could certainly use one, as the once dominant toy retailer appears to be on shaky ground with no clear path to relevancy. A planned IPO was recently withdrawn; the chain’s long time CEO Gerald Storch has stepped down, with no new successor named. Sales slid 3.5% over 2012, and investors are looking at the company’s not-insubstantial debt.

Factors contributing toward Toys R Us slide certainly include competition from Wal-Mart and Amazon. Wal-Mart wins on price, while Amazon’s got both depth of selection and (for their Prime customers) the ability to put any child’s desired toy in their hands within a day. Given this, how can the once great chain expect to compete?

What Makes Customers Choose You First?

Before we can chart a profitable course into the future, it helps to have an understanding of the past. Let’s travel back in time to the late 1970’s and 1980’s, Toys R Us’s glory days. At this time,  the toy market wasn’t as crowded as it is now. Toys R Us was, for many locations, the only game in town. Geoffrey the Giraffe was a well-known and loved mascot. Children everywhere knew and sang the “I want to be a Toys R Us kid” jingle, which had an explicit call out to the desire to never grow up. The joys of childhood could go on forever, if you knew where to shop. It wasn’t exactly Ponce de Leon’s fabled Fountain of Youth, but for the American shopper, it was more than close enough.

Dominant retail brands achieve their position because they provide their shoppers with a compelling emotional experience that is so complete and satisfying that no other store could match it. Toys R Us was hitting many of the same emotional notes that have made Disney so successful. For the kids, that meant wonder, a sense of magic and delight. For the parents, Toys R Us provided something more: an easy-to-navigate route to making at least some of their children’s dreams come true.

It’s important to understand that these emotional triggers are as powerful and compelling as they ever were.  The magic still matters! However, somewhere along the way, Toys R Us lost their ability to hit the target. The experience isn’t what it once was, and absent that, parents no longer have a reason to choose them first. Amazon is always available. No one cruises the toy aisle at Wal-Mart because it is a magical experience.

How do you get the magic back? It’s going to take some serious math. Coupling a statistical analysis of Toys R Us’ best customers’ purchasing behaviors over the course of time with a comprehensive examination of the unconscious psychological factors that drive shoppers decision making will reveal what it takes to fill today’s customers with that sense of wonder, delight, and excitement once again. Provide that, and Wal-Mart won’t matter. Amazon won’t matter.  Give them the magic, and they will come.

May 15, 2013 by

Speak to Those Who Listen

In today’s saturated marketplace companies are wearing thin in the pursuit of new customers. They create messages that speak to themselves, enter markets where they don’t belong, and speak to people who don’t care to listen. They target hypothetical demographics instead of targeting Brand Lovers.

By speaking to their Brand Lovers, Cult Brands strengthen their relationship with their best customers and constantly increase provability. After decades of speaking to her best customers Oprah has become one of the most powerful brands today.

With a TV show viewed by over 40 million people weekly, a magazine with 2.7 million copies circulation, a book club with millions of members, and a website that harnesses all these things together, Oprah utilizes every channel to connect with the people who love the Oprah brand the most.

The collective success of all these mediums comes from giving the customer what they want: spirit, health, style, relationship, home, food, money, and the world. Oprah covers these topics on her television show, Oprah.com, O magazine, and Oprah & Friends radio show. Every media channel dives deep into the issues and provides answers and suggestions to improve the customers’ life.

The brand takes full advantage of the web and is synced with Oprah’s TV show daily. If you missed the show you can find interviews with photos and video clips so you can enjoy the show you missed. The website also fosters a customer community. Online members can join discussion forums, get recipes for the holidays, and become part of the book club. Every aspect of the brand encourages members to participate. Audience members can ask questions to guest, readers can send letters to O magazine, and everyone is welcome to discuss the issues on Oprah.com.

The Oprah brand also looks to its community for new ideas:

  • “Living your best life in 2009? Let us know how!”
  • “Do You Have a Great Money-Saving Holiday Tip?” and
  • “Do you feel empty, lost or disconnected?”

The brand asks the community to become involved with the brand they love. The result is a co-authored experience in which both parties benefit. The Oprah brand becomes stronger, constantly tuning into the customers want allowing them to experience what they love about Oprah. This relationship between the Oprah brand and its Brand Lovers attracts millions of new customers who are seeking the same answers.

Oprah’s brand is successful because every aspect of the brand speaks to the brand lover. Every TV show, every magazine issue, and every web page represents the Oprah brand in the same way.

If you want to build a lasting relationship with your customers then every aspect of your brand must speak to the heart of your Brand Lovers and the rest will follow.

Where to go from here
May 8, 2013 by

Retail’s Mysteries Revealed: Can You Tell Today What Your Customers Will Want Tomorrow?

The brand-breaking challenges JC Penney has had are in no way inevitable, Forbes magazine says, in this discussion of predictive analytics. By harnessing the power of mathematics, we’re told, retailers can significantly reduce the risk of going catastrophically off-brand, alienating your best customers, and losing market share. Does Forbes have it right?

Yes and no.

Yes, because statistical analysis of previous customer behavior provides retailers with tremendously valuable information. Objectively examining what has happened in your stores over the course of time can be a very revealing exercise. Retailers who engage in this type of analysis often discover things about their operations that they never otherwise suspected.

In the Forbes article, for example, we see how retailer Perry Ellis discovered that when their associates actively engaged with customers, such as assisting them in the fitting room, those customers would spend 50% more on Perry Ellis merchandise than customers who were left alone to shop.

This type of insight is valuable. But it is not sufficient.

Going Deeper: The Secret to Retail Growth

It’s really good to know what your customers have done. It’s even better to know why they’ve done it. Understanding the mathematics of customer behavior is a great first step, but to achieve sustainable, meaningful growth, retailers need to understand their customers’ motivations.

This is where things get complicated. 90% of customer behavior is unconscious. This means that customers don’t fully know — and they certainly can’t articulate — what leads them to embrace one retailer and eschew another. All of the stuff that determines these decisions takes place ‘off radar’, in the customer’s unconscious mind.

The unconscious mind is a complex and nuanced territory. We all have an unconscious mind. It’s where we store the millions upon millions of messages we’re given by our culture, education, and environment about the type of person we’re ‘supposed’ to be. Every image we see, every story we hear, every experience we go through leaves its mark on our unconscious mind. Together, these forces combine to form our self image.

Customers make purchasing decisions that reinforce their self image. Have you ever had a customer walk into the store and say “This place just feels right?” When they’re expressing that sentiment, it’s because the experience you’re providing is in alignment with their self image.

Now, obviously, every customer has their own unique self-image. No two people on this planet view themselves the same way. However, it’s possible to discover what traits and characteristics are integral parts of the majority of your best customers’ self image. This is done through the process of Brand Modeling, a proprietary process we’ve developed to help retailers attract and build strong relationships with highly profitable customers.

Identifying the primary unconscious drivers of customer behavior makes it infinitely easier for a retailer to stay on brand, better please their customers, and build market share. In other words, there’s a reason Kohl’s is successful, and JCPenney isn’t.

The ability to predict, with a high degree of certainty, what your customers are going to want tomorrow, begins with statistical analysis of previous purchasing behaviors. But it doesn’t stop there. When you’re willing to go further, and delve a little deeper into what makes your customers tick, that’s when true sustainable retail growth happens.

May 6, 2013 by

Retail’s Biggest Mysteries: Why is JCPenney Only Now Figuring Out What Kohl’s Clearly Knows?

We spend a lot of time considering the mysteries of retail here, but this one’s got us stumped:

Why did it take JCPenney so long to figure out that they should listen to their customers? Sixteen months after rolling out the new “Fair and Square” pricing strategy, the beleagured retailer is now returning to its old pricing strategy. The disappointed masses haven’t exactly been closed-lipped about what the brand was doing wrong. A commenter on the Forbes article, Who Can Save J.C. Penney? spelled things out pretty well:

A big mistake was made when Penney’s eliminated all of the coupons for the allegedly affordable everyday pricing. The merchandise that is now being sold is inferior garbage. Uglier, cheaper made clothes that looks like its for middle aged women. I’m middle aged and I wouldn’t even wear it because the stuf looks like Blue Light Polyester Specials. Even the sales aren’t true sales because that merchandise should be much cheaper on clearance. I know, I was just there last Thursday.

Unless you are trying to kill the brand, please bring back the merchandise of yesteryear. Yes, some of it was pricey but when it went on sale and you used the coupons and the 15% off Internet coupon, oh my goodness, you really felt like you had stolen a bargain. And JCPenney profited, too. Do not underestimate the significance of coupons. Do not underestimate quality. We appreciated the old Penneys. Bring it back or should I sing Auld Lang Syne now?

Cult Branding: Are You Smart Enough To Listen To Your Customers?

The information that JCPenney’s leadership needed to change direction was clearly always there. By every meaningful metric — sell-through percentage, same-store sales, sales per square foot — the brand was floundering. Interestingly, during a recent industry conference, a speaker highlighted how innovative platforms like a new instant withdrawal casino have quickly adapted to consumer demands for faster payouts and more streamlined services, offering valuable insights for the retail industry. Consumers and retail analysts alike were telling JCPenney why things weren’t working. Yet it is only now that we see the JCPenney leadership acknowledging, “We now understand that customers are motivated by promotions and prefer to receive discounts through sales and coupons applied at the register.”

JCPenny’s commitment to an untenable strategy demonstrates that the brand lacks the commitment to understand who their customers actually are and what matters to them that is a central aspect of operations at dominant retail brands like Kohl’s Department Stores. One of the primary advantages of this humanistic approach is that retailers are then prepared to determine in advance how effective any marketing or operational changes are likely to be. Given advance information that Fair and Square pricing was going to alienate far more customers than it attracted, would JCPenney’s have gone forward with the plan?

It’s important to understand the essential role played by Kohl’s discounting program. Retailers who are striving for growth in this crowded marketplace need to understand the complete suite of unconscious, psychological motivations that drive their best customer’s purchasing decisions. For whatever reason, JCPenneys decided to discard the powerfully complex appeal of discounting, while Kohl’s made it a central part of their messaging.

The result? Here’s what Kohl’s numbers look like. Here are JCPenney’s.

Retailers that are successful are retailers that are willing to listen to their customers. A comprehensive approach that takes into account both explicit consumer commentary and the historical behavioral patterns driven by unconscious, psychological motivators delivers actionable insights essential for brand growth. Frankly, the JCPenney’s leadership team may have waited too long to get with the program. But that’s not the case for every retailer. Here’s what the alternative looks like.

April 25, 2013 by

Solving Retail’s Biggest Mysteries: How Do You Get A Customer For Life?

DoveLogo_Here at The Cult Branding Company, we’re always saying that 90% of customer behavior is unconscious. We’ll tell you that customers don’t know why they act the way they do. We’ll tell you that the vast majority of people aren’t aware of the psychological and cultural forces that shape their decision making.

We say all of these things, and for every one of you who nods your head and says, “Yes, that’s true!” there are three or four people out there who say, “Yeah, right. That’s baloney. People know who they are, what they want, and why they want it.”

The people in the second group are giving the masses credit for a level of consciousness and self-awareness that simply isn’t there.  But we’re not going to argue with you. We’re just going to sit back and let Dove — a brand that does a superlative job of putting customers first — illustrate that our customers don’t even know what they look like.

Go watch this video. It’s short, work-safe, and guaranteed to make you better at connecting with your customers: Dove Real Beauty Sketches

Your Challenge: Knowing Your Customer Better Than They Know Themselves

Throughout the Dove video, you heard women describing themselves. Did you notice how many of their references came from external sources, rather than  their objective perceptions? “My mother said I have a big chin.” “I’m forty, so I’m starting to get a little bit of the crow’s feet thing going on.” In other words, what other people said, or what predominant cultural beliefs dictate to be true, dictate how these women see themselves.

Other people don’t limit their opinions to your physical appearance. They have plenty to say about how you dress, the type of work you do, and the way you raise your children. Cultural beliefs evolve over thousands of years, dictating standards and decrying shortcomings in every avenue of human experience.

What Dove does — and what other successful Cult Brands like Apple, Harley Davidson and Ikea do — is stand up and say, “You know all those voices that say you’re not good enough? That you’re homely? A failure? Ugly? Old?  What if they’re wrong?”

Providing Meaningful Belief Systems That Resonate With Your Customers

Standing up to a prevailing cultural narrative is step one. Providing an alternative belief system that resonates deeply and powerfully with your customers is step two. Apple tells their customers that they’re smart and creative. Harley Davidson tells their customers that they’re adventurous and free. Ikea tells their customers that they actually do have their lives together.

Dove tells women they’re beautiful.

It’s important to understand that telling is never enough. Successful brands back up their messaging with action. If you don’t know how to make movies with your new iGadget, Apple will show you how. Harley Davidson HOG chapters take to the open road in explicit celebration of freedom and adventure. Ikea’s catalogs are practically instruction manuals on creating a stylish, organized life.

Dove used a simple, powerful video to show women that they don’t see themselves the way other people see them.

Acknowledging the unconscious forces that shape people’s life experiences and pointing out that there is another way is a proven strategy for creating customers for life.  To do this, you have to be willing to accept that unconscious forces exist, and take steps to understand what specific influences are most powerful in your customers’ lives. There’s a way to do this. We know what it is. Give us a shout when you’re ready to learn more.

April 18, 2013 by

Major Retailers Use the Power of the Unconscious to Gain Market Share

Orlando, Florida (PRWEB) April 08, 2013

Succeeding in one of the toughest retail environments ever seen has presented today’s business leaders with a unique challenge. It is essential to predict customer desires in advance while delivering a highly customized level of service, consistently and in real time.

The Cult Branding Consulting Suite is a new host of services offered by BJ Bueno and his consulting team at The Cult Branding Company designed to provide retailers with the strategic insights necessary for healthy business growth. Bueno, author of “The Power of Cult Branding” (Crown Business) and “Customers First” (McGraw-Hill), and his team’s unique methods delve into the tangled, nuanced web of human behavior to discover what factors and forces consumers are most responsive to.

It‘s estimated that over 90% of consumer behavior is unconscious. Consumers don’t know why they make their purchasing decisions. However, they do continually give off behavioral clues that smart retailers can use to create a competitive advantage.

For over ten years, The Cult Branding Company has been serving leading retailers such as Kohl’s Department Stores and The Life is good Company with in-depth analysis, consumer insights, and strategic consulting with measurable results. The launch of the Cult Branding Consulting Suite helps retailers capitalize on its proprietary research methods for revealing the consumer psyche.

“Instead of taking a cookie-cutter approach to marketing as many business consultants often do, we take a different angle,” explains Cult Branding’s Director of Research Aaron Shields. “We look at the patterns in consumer data to uncover the unique drivers of differentiation for a company’s brand — in the context of its specific breed of customers. Then we develop customized strategic initiatives that will lead to significant top-line revenue growth.”

The Cult Branding Consulting Suite eliminates the mysteries of retail. Their unique, proprietary process provides retailers with identifiable action steps retailers can use to build sustainable brands.

This proven customer-forward approach takes into account every aspect of retail operations, from merchandising and store design to crafting irresistible marketing and messaging. By identifying and articulating the precise path to attracting highly profitable customers, the Cult Branding Consulting Suite provides a guide to sustainable revenue growth for today’s leading brands.

THE CULT BRANDING COMPANY is a strategic consulting firm that delivers consumer insights and actionable strategies that contribute to measurable increases in market share and top-line revenue growth. They are board members of National Retail Federation and the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association. Clients include Kohl’s Department Stores, Turner Classic Movies, LA Lakers, and The Life is good Company.

View the original release here.

April 12, 2013 by

Retail’s Mysteries Revealed: Amazon and the Art of Picking Your Battles

Amazon understands one of the fundamental truths of retailing, and they’ve demonstrated that with their amazingly successful Amazon Prime program. For years, now, the industry bean counters have been looking side-eyed at the program that offers shoppers free two-day shipping and streaming of digital content in exchange for a one-time annual flat fee payment. It looks like a system designed to fail.

An Amazon Prime membership costs $79 annually. Researchers have found that the average Prime customer was using $90 worth of shipping and streaming services per year. The math seems pretty simple; 90 – 79 is 11. Amazon loses, the customer wins.

Does anyone reading these words really believe that Amazon, the company that tracks customer behavior so closely that they can make personal recommendations to each and every one of their 615 million customers, didn’t know this was going to happen?

Of course they knew. That brings us to the next question: Why would you pick a fight you know you’re going to lose?

Cult Branding: Know Your Customers As You Know Yourself

This is the only time you’ll ever see Donald Trump quoted in this space. “Sometimes by losing a battle, you find a new way to win a war.” Amazon, the company named for a nation of  fierce warrior women, is performing a classical tactical maneuver. There are times when allowing your enemy to gain ground moves them into position to be surrounded. $11 may be lost, but a customer who is becoming increasingly habituated to choosing Amazon as their default retailer is gained.  The average Prime member spends over $1,200 with Amazon annually. The non-Prime Amazon customer spends less than half that amount.

Amazon knows one of the secrets of retail. We may love our customers, but our customers don’t necessarily love us back. There’s an uneven power dynamic inherent in the relationship, and the customer feels like they’re getting the short end of the stick most of the time. Given a chance to even the scales with—or to even get one over on—a business, the customer is going to take it.

Understanding this aspect of human nature allowed Amazon to craft an irresistible offer. They’ve taken on the role of the giant and just handed over a slingshot. In an economic, social environment rife with depressing overtones for the typical buyer—average income growth for 90% of the American population was $59 over the past 45 years—opportunities to come out ahead in the game are few and far between.

We want to embrace our customers, and that can lead us to presume that our customers—especially the best ones—want to embrace us too. But things are more complicated than that. Human behavior is motivated by a wide range of emotions. Not all of these emotions appear attractive or noble at first glance. It’s hard to see the appeal in an adversarial relationship. It can seem counter-intuitive and extremely uncomfortable to consider the entirety of our customers’ perceptions of the brand.

Do we, as retailers, want to do what’s comfortable, or do we want to do what works?

April 2, 2013 by

Unlock the Power of the Unconscious to Drive Top-Line Revenue Growth

It‘s estimated that over 90% of consumer behavior is unconscious.

Put simply, we as consumers (and human beings in general) are unaware of why we do what we do. We’re not entirely conscious of why we buy a particular product from a particular brand. Even when subjected to direct questioning, people simply cannot describe why they do what they do. But there are reasons—unconscious drivers—behind all of our actions including purchasing behavior.

How Can Consumer Insights Derived From Unconscious Drivers Grow Your Business?

Understanding the unconscious motivations of your customers can help you:

  • Attract new customers
  • Cultivate stronger loyalty with current customers and increase top-line revenue
  • Strengthen your brand positioning
  • Increase purchasing potential — grow the wallet size of existing customers

Mega brands like Apple, Southwest Airlines, and IKEA know their customers pretty well. It’s not difficult to observe the results.

Psychologically-Driven Consumer Insights Can Transform Your Performance

Just think about all of the ways you can apply the right consumer insights to your business:

  • Craft more effective messaging strategies
  • Improve product packaging and displays
  • Develop advertising that generates higher ROI
  • Improve performance of promotions, email campaigns, and product pages

Every customer touch point can be transformed and made more effective once you know what motivates their behavior.

Market Research with Results

Businesses spend millions each year to generate market research that often yields zero financial results. But this isn’t surprising: You ask the right questions, but market research often provides the wrong answers. Customers’ responses to market research are rationalizations, not actualities.

From our experience, the majority of market research becomes irrelevant once you understand what drives your customers to do business with you.

Our proprietary research methods and consulting processes go beyond your customers’ rational responses and dig into the unconscious motivators that drive sales. Simply put, our consumer insights into your customers can save you millions annually.

Make Smarter Decisions

How do you determine which marketing strategies to employ? What if you had a way to quickly determine whether or not a strategy will be effective before you execute?

When you know precisely whom you’re trying to serve, you can easily discern if a strategy or campaign will speak to the hearts and minds of your most profitable customers.

Our process provides penetrating insights into your customers that will illuminate the way to sustainable growth and profitability in all market conditions.

These consumer insights also make advertising campaigns more effective, giving marketing executives clear indicators of what will work—and what will not.

You’ll receive actionable insights that you can apply immediately to generate top-line revenue growth and expand your market share.

Start the Conversation

    We can help you discover new ideas for inspired leadership. Reach out to us.




    March 27, 2013 by

    Solving the Mysteries of Retail: What Makes Customers Choose You?

    Some zaftig mannequins are getting serious love from shoppers all around the world. More than 16,000 people have shared the image you see here, enthusiastically embracing the new profile on display at a Swedish retailer. ““Finally, mannequins showing how clothes fit on real women. I’m changing where I shop!”

    What’s behind this enthusiasm?

    It’s easy to forget that something as ordinary as a mannequin is a messaging vehicle. Fixtures are, almost by definition, made to be taken for granted. But as retailers, we can afford to leave no aspect of our operations unexamined.  The typical mannequin used in America is a size 4 or 6. Some brands don’t even bother with that—they use strategically arranged poles and hangers to display their wares.

    When shoppers look at these images, what are they seeing? Women come in all shapes and sizes, with the greatest number coming in at size 14. These women are continually bombarded with images of women who don’t look like them. Between airbrushes and makeup artists, ‘perfection’ is to be found everywhere but their own mirror. There’s a tremendous amount of cultural and social baggage that our customers are carrying with them at all times, an internalized narrative that dictates how they’re supposed to look and in what ways they fall short.

    When they come into the store and encounter mannequins that are less than half the size they themselves are, the cultural narrative they’ve come to expect—the one that tells them they’re not good enough, that they’re failing at the ‘be a beautiful woman’ game—continues uninterrupted and unchallenged. It’s a seamless delivery of a negative narrative so ubiquitous that shoppers take it as an inevitability. Inevitable, that is, until they encounter an alternative.

    Then it’s a different story.

    Giving Customers a Reason to Choose You

    Malcolm Gladwell tells a famous story about Howard Moskowitz, the food scientist who discovered for Prego that what customers really, really wanted was a chunky spaghetti sauce. Armed with this information, Prego introduced a chunky sauce, and had some of its most profitable years ever. Part of the reason Moskowitz was so successful in his research was that he was willing to question everything. No variable was fixed. Everything that could be questioned would be questioned.

    It was this process—an early analog to the process we call Brand Modeling—that revealed the unexploited growth opportunities available to Prego. Bringing that same approach to retail means objectively analyzing every aspect of a store’s performance to identify what messaging is being shared with the customer, and assess the effectiveness of that messaging. Couple this with an insightful statistical analysis of customer behavioral patterns, thought processes, and beliefs, and the result is a revelation of the operational changes you can make to better attract and satisfy your customers.

    In other words, if the mannequins you’re using tell your customers they’re fat failures, you might want to change your messaging. Universally, we’re drawn to images, iconography, and representations of people who physically resemble us. The larger mannequins are in alignment with how many customers see themselves. Presenting this image in a positive, celebratory way makes customers feel that they also are worth celebrating.

    As a shopper, which experience would you prefer? We’re not different than our customers. They’re people, just like we are. Remembering that is the key to humanistic marketing and successful retail brand building.

    March 19, 2013 by

    Solving the Mysteries of Retail: Is Price Matching the Solution to Showrooming?

    Showrooming has dominated the headlines lately. You know what showrooming is—the chances are better than good you’ve had it happen in your very own store. Customers come in, they shop around, they find something they like, and out comes the smartphone. The price is checked, usually against Amazon, and increasingly, it’s the online retailer who makes the sale. You’re left standing there with nothing. To stop the bleeding, many retail chains have adopted price-matching guarantees. Is this a good idea?

    It may be, but it may also be a knee-jerk reaction that is being implemented much too soon.

    Let’s look at showrooming. It’s not a new phenomenon. All showrooming actually is is the latest technology being used to facilitate human behavioral patterns that have been around since the dawn of time. The media coverage is bringing new panic to an old problem.

    Understanding What Motivates Your Customers

    Some percentage of shoppers thinks that they will always, without fail, use price as the single most important determining factor in their purchasing decision. This belief is central to their self-image. In their personal value system, saving money is considered to be a very good thing. There’s often a competitive element to this: she who saves the most wins! Good shoppers save money, but they also earn social capital. In some circles, being the person who always knows how to find the best deals commands significant respect.

    Part of the reason shopping prowess earns one respect and acknowledgement—validation that comes from one’s peer group or one’s own self—is because making the best use of your purchasing dollar can be incredibly difficult. Think back to the earliest days of human commerce, those first bazaars where buyers and merchants came together to trade. It wasn’t easy to compare prices then. If you wanted to know if the better deal on lemons could be here in front of you or at the stall on the other side of the bazaar, you physically had to journey over there and find out what the prices were. Some shoppers were willing to do that; others weren’t.

    Jump forward a few centuries, to the days of printed sales circulars and catalogs. It’s easier for customers to price shop. The cost of comparing went down, the benefit went up. That resulted in more price-driven customers. Then there were radio and eventually television commercials, which were even easier to consume—no literacy required. The ranks of price shoppers swelled again.

    Every time those consumers became more adept shoppers, retailers respond with a price-matching strategy. This has happened time and time again, throughout the course of history. Price matching strategies are taken up with great enthusiasm … and then quietly, over the course of years, abandoned totally or in part.

    The question we should ask ourselves is not when we should start matching prices, but when we should stop. This is where customer knowledge is key. Not every customer sees saving money as a moral imperative. Others prefer using their dollars to make meaningful social change. That’s why there’s a Tom’s Shoes. There are customers who could care less if they pay thirty percent more for their coffeemaker, if they can be seen buying it in the right store. That’s why there’s Williams-Sonoma.

    If you treat every customer as if they’re primarily price motivated, you’re going to lose the interest of those customers—those infinitely more profitable and loyal customers—who choose you for entirely different reasons. Companies that develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of their customer’s motivations don’t necessarily need to price match. They’ve moved their relationship with the customer to a place where price becomes much less central to the conversation.

    Now the use of smartphones has brought the cost of comparison shopping to practically nil. As one would expect, there’s a predictable swell in the ranks of price shoppers. Less interesting than tracking what retailers adopt a price matching strategy is pinpointing those companies that have enough confidence in their identity to choose another road.

    March 13, 2013 by