How to Get Your Product or Service to Sell

“I want it and I want it now” – this is the mantra of today’s society. And our cry is getting louder.

The need for instant gratification in all aspects of our lives has never been better illustrated than in our growing love affair with the many gadgets and gizmos offering to give us just that. It might be considered something of a paradox that the world we live in today generates its own need for speed by the constant reinvention the very products we were all perfectly content with before another faster, younger model began to ‘strut its stuff’. On the flip side of the coin, the world has never been better connected. As a result of today’s technological advances in all forms of communication, distances seem to melt away to nothing at the touch of an icon, making the world considerably smaller and our RAMS considerably larger as a result.

There are many aspects that require analysis in order to understand consumer motivation in a way that has a positive impact on marketing endeavours. My primary objective when working with a client is always the end consumer. By this I mean that I centre my research and investigation on the consumer environment. This is because one of the most important aspects of consumer psychology that directly affects purchasing behaviour is the decision making process. It comes about on a primal level as an attempt to solve problems which, in this particular sense, can be described as a need or desire that is, as yet, unfulfilled.

Consumers will often create their own problems by drawing internals comparisons based upon what their life is like and what they ultimately want it to be. So, with this in mind, creating problems for consumers however unethical it may seem will undoubtedly increase the sales of a product or service if an aspirational lifestyle model is at its root. This is when consumers are given a glimpse by marketers into the perfect lifestyle where attributes of your product or service are seen to be the key to finding a better way of life. Figure 1 shows the cycle of consumer problem creation and resolution.

In a nutshell, the successful introduction of a new product or service begins and ends with understanding the consumer. However, this understanding shouldn’t focus purely on the behavioural psychological elements of the buying process but should take into account the various situational elements of life today that will ultimately build customer aspirations and ultimately influence the buying process.