If you’re a tactical marketer and most of us are, we fall into the trap of asking these questions first
- What will our customers buy? (some answers are Pizza, Pins n’ Pepsi, Cosmic Bowling and Quartermania, etc.)
- How do we get them to buy? (Send out emails, Facebook posts, colorful flyers, website landing pages, etc.)
All good stuff to do if you’re looking for quick results, but answering these types of questions won’t help you to build long term brand loyalty. That’s because these are all price specials in some way shape or form. And price will get them in the short term, but not in the long term. Worse, you will have trained them to buy your product only when it is on sale. Would you buy a mattress or furniture if it isn’t on sale?
Of course not and that’s why they are always on sale!!
The better questions to ask, if you want to be “a- long- term – in- the- game- strategic – marketer” are:
- Why do they buy bowling over other potential options and why do they buy my center’s products?
- How do they make that buying decisions
These are much different questions, albeit more difficult to answer, but if you answer them and are able to anticipate your customers’ needs even before she knows what they are, you have a better chance of building loyalty and brand identity than your competition.
Think about this. Your customer wants to buy a “time experience” because she is too busy and is trying to squeeze in some quality time with her kids. And you’re still selling bowling by the game even though she has called a hundred times and asked you, “How long does it take four people to bowl two games??”
If you figure out what she wants before she does, that’s the only loyalty program you really need,
Think about it, OK?
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