MULTICHANNEL
I believe the same logic applies to being a merchant. You must know your customer – why does she buy her shoes from you, but not a handbag? In which pocket would a guy working outside all day find most convenient to keep his phone? Tose merchants that know the answers to these questions are the ones whose products generate glowing – and not fake – product reviews, with customers gushing about how you knew what they wanted.
But that is only half the story. You must communicate to the customer that you know them, and speak to their hopes, fears, and aspirations. “Need a little extra room in your plaid shirt? Our shirt has hidden side panels under the arm that stretch when you do”.
As a marketer, my lament is that the merchants often develop great products based on their knowledge of the customer, and those that survive the gauntlet of price adjustments by upper management, often die an early death because no one told the customer how great the product was. Te creative department went off on one of their cyclical lifestyle themes, focusing on palette colors
instead of the features and benefits of the products. (Sorry if that seems like an overly cynical view of the creative process, but I’ve seen that scenario play out too many times!). If you are not going to do it – provide the customer with the argument as to why they need this product – someone else will.
Tat argument doesn’t have to be a rationale delivered through long copy – it could be through fantastic photography. It could be a video. It’s whatever it takes to tell the customer your story.
About a year ago, I saw a webinar in which the speaker praised Warby-Parker, Casper, and Wayfair as being “brand disrupters” that were the “cool companies” that everyone wanted to emulate. Tere’s just one problem with that – those companies are all struggling to make money and be profitable.
Being the cool company doesn’t mean being one that some webinar host thinks is a “disrupter”. It means being a company with long-term profitability potential. Tat comes from unique, exclusive products, priced competitively. Tat’s what a good merchant knows how to deliver.
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