June 07, 2006
The Alpha Marketer
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An interesting thing about instability is that it doesn't matter if it is true or not if people believe it. For example, in America, the economy has been doing pretty good for several years, but because of a couple of things the media focuses in on, people are convinced that it is terrible.
The point for us online marketers is that when people believe things are bad, it changes their buying habits and priorities.
If someone thinks things are bad, they become much more conservative in their purchases. How do we respond to this?
When you think of consumer pulling back, you must think of necessities. You must market in a way that shows necessity. I'm not talking about when a storm is predicted to come and everybody goes and buys their gallon of milk and loaf of bread, I'm talking about marketing to a mindset; showing the necessity of what you have to offer - it's in the presentation.
To present your product or service in a way that implies risk or daring, could backfire for a people looking for more stability and safety.
I think that we are now in the middle somewhere between safety and risk. People are a little fidgety and could be pushed one way or the other by some event or happening. It seems that our marketing needs to reflect this reality.
We also need to have a backup plan in place for when that push comes.
