If you’ve ever seen a sharp increase in orders for your products that seemed to come out of nowhere, you might be wondering what caused it. Customers gravitate to brands that they connect with. This could be anything from enjoying a company’s social media presence, resonating with a recent commercial, or connecting with the company’s origin story. Data shows that consumers are influenced by a brand far more than most other purchasing factors. So, if you’re seeing success, that means that you’ve done something that’s sparked a connection with your audience, and that’s something you should hold onto.
Brand Above All Else
As an example, PEAK Strategic Insights conducted a survey of almost 9,000 archery consumers and found that 63% of archery consumers use multiple resources to drive their purchasing decisions. Consumers indicated that they are most influenced by a company’s brand and the products themselves when asked to choose what factors impact their purchase intent, at 80% and 79%, respectively. So, that shows us that when a customer is faced with a choice between buying the exact same product from Company A or Company B, they’ll choose whichever company’s brand they connect with more. Brand recognition and loyalty weigh much more heavily than a price difference. Price was only a factor for 65% of participants.
Be Respectful of Price While Maintaining Necessary Margins
While the data shows that customers are more concerned with a company than about price, that shouldn’t give you a free pass to price your products outrageously. Pricing your products respectfully, while still maintaining a solid profit margin, will enhance your brand’s reputation in the long run. Customers are acutely aware of when they’re paying a premium price for a less-than-premium product. If your products are of premium quality, price it accordingly, but don’t try to stretch into a price bracket that doesn’t fit your product. That said, the data does show that if you and a competitor are providing similar products of a similar quality with slightly different prices, customers won’t automatically choose the cheaper option. They’ll pay a bit more for a quality product if the brand is something they identify with and want to support.
Buying Only What They Came For
The data also shows us that customers are much less inclined to make a hasty, knee-jerk decision to hit “add to cart” as perhaps they once were. Only 23% of customers said that an emotional response of needing or wanting a product factors into their decision. They’ll buy something when they need it, from a company they trust, but won’t make impulse decisions. If you have a feature on your website that suggests relevant products during the checkout process and you’re not seeing results from that, know that the data supports that it isn’t necessarily anything you’re doing, it’s the nature of industry buying decisions.
Customers recognize great brands and quality products when they see them. As long as you can keep up a positive and relatable presence and maintain the quality of your products, the data shows that customers will stick with you.
Do you need a study or survey done for your specific customer list? Reach out to PEAK and we’ll create a custom survey for your business.
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