Not All Considered Purchases Are Alike

“If you build it, they will come” worked well for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams.

But it wouldn’t work for your considered purchase product or service.

Why? Because products that take thought, consideration, and investigation before purchase are different. You can’t just tell people you exist. You need to tell them why they should care.

Thus the communications program for considered purchase products is less about persuasion and more about laying out a lawyerly argument advocating purchase.

If you are a loyal reader of our past blog posts, first of all, thank you. You know that today, with the proliferation of information readily available at the consumer’s curious fingertips, The Gate defines considered purchase not by how much something costs, but by how much thought and comparison people invest before purchase.

There are 280 brands of bottled water. If water has become a considered purchase, everything is a considered purchase.

That being said, not all considered purchases are alike. In fact, there are three types of considered purchases: Emotional, Practical and Complex. And each should follow a different approach to communications.

First, there are emotional considered purchase products. For instance, the limited-edition Lexus F Sport 500 HP LFA that sold all of its 500 cars at $375,000 each. There is no rational reason to own one. None. Come on, people; a car is just transportation! And a lime green VW bug can get you to the Darien train station just as reliably. Owning a Lexus F Sport is all emotional.

For an Emotional considered purchase, the role of communications is to create desire.

Other predominately emotional considered purchases are rare jewelry, a weekend house and a high-end grill like Kalamazoo Gourmet Grill. (I desire one. Highly.)

Second, are Practical considered purchases like mattresses. They need to meet several practical criteria: not too hard, not too soft, fits in one’s bedroom, right for me, right for my partner and more. But because we spend 1/3 of our lives on our mattress and it lasts seven+ years, we have to live with our purchase for a long time.

For Practical considered purchase products, the role of communications is to help customers feel confident, emotionally and rationally that they are making (and made) the right decision.

Other Practical considered purchases are financial services, travel, insurance, vacuum cleaners and kitchen appliances.

And third are Complex considered purchases like TVs.  TVs have become surprisingly inexpensive. For instance, Best Buy is offering a 48” Westinghouse TV for $79. (Better act fast!)  Price is no longer the driving factor when buying TVs. So why are they a considered purchase? It’s not just about size: 55” versus 60”. They require a lot of research to wade through, understand, and prioritize such as LCD, LED or OLED, HDTV, UHD, or HDR (4K) as well as 720, 1080, 2160 or 3840 resolution before making an educated choice.

For Complex considered purchases, communications need to provide detailed information that educates, describes and demonstrates their features.

Other Complex considered purchases are phone services, smart thermostats and categories which are going through rapid change often driven by technology.

Because people go through a different thought process for different types of considered purchases, it’s important to understand what will motivate them to buy. Each has a different Reason Why and Why Axis and hence, communications need to play a different role.

In future blogs, we’ll talk more specifically about each of the different approaches and how to develop communications programs for each.