I love serving on the United Way of Dane County Marketing Committee, because I get to help a great cause and at the same time I always learn something new from the marketing professionals who also volunteer their time.  This week I we were working with Art Barnard of NBS Solutions on what questions to ask in a professionally conducted consumer attitude study. 

One quick takeaway was that if you are conducting a survey and asking customers to rank their feelings about your store or product on a scale, then using 1 to 5 is the perfect number.  Five options is most effective both in terms of efficiency and accuracy. Good to know!

But I was particularly taken by a comment that Art made about deciding what is your primary message and what should be secondary.  He mentioned that a study a few years ago showed that because not everyone feels engaged by issues such as environmental awareness, a product’s impact on global warming or pollution should not be part of the primary message. In selling a detergent, for example, their studies showed that it was important to make the primary selling point the effectiveness of the product.  If it happened to also create less pollution, that was viewed as a bonus.

It is easy to assume that all of our customers value the opportunity to buy products that are made of recycled materials (or are recyclable), or are made in the US. But design, functionality and price are going to be the primary selling points for most products.  If you focus on these, and then add the environmental virtues of the merchandise as secondary selling points, you are more likely to succeed.

The same is true of the Buy Local movement, which encourages customers  to support locally owned businesses.  Our shops and restaurants must first offer value and customer service worth coming back for.  The secondary value of being locally owned will make customers feel good about their choice, and will help keep them coming back.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder