What do businesses actually sell to customers?

In one of the previous articles we wrote about how the consumer has changed in the “digital age”. It is also very important that the accompanying change in what actually sells any business (including start-ups, web studios, agencies, and their clients) to its consumers.

We consider the understanding of these changes to be very important for companies in our market for two reasons.

• Companies will better understand how and what they sell to their customers. Thanks to this, they will be able to build more effective interaction with their customers.
• Companies will better understand how and what their customers sell to their customers. Thanks to this, they will be able to create more effective tools for it.

So let's see what actually every business sells ... Promise.

Background

The history of the issue can be traced in one example, in the capacity of which we take Nescafé coffee ( wiki ) at our speeches and seminars.
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Instant coffee appeared as a technology for preserving coffee beans in conditions of its overproduction. Simply put, Brazil had to do something with the surplus of coffee, and they learned how to process and preserve it. In the 40s of the 20th century it was a completely new product that was advertised in terms of functional advantages .



Years passed, other companies mastered the technology, and Nescafé had a lot of competitors. Having passed the stage of packaging functional characteristics in the product , advertisers began to indirectly inform the consumer of non-functional characteristics.



After watching this classic video, the consumer imagines South America, hot and exotic, and at the same time quenching his thirst. Of course, in today's advertising realities it looks more like a soft drink advertisement, but at that time the advertisement clearly positioned a non-functional advantage: “real coffee from South America”. And she did it so cool that this music varies from roller to roller up to now.



The next stage was the sale of experiences : physical and emotional. In the process of watching this video, the viewer first feels the cold of the early morning and the dampness of fog over the lake, and then almost physically feels the heat of a hot cup of coffee (by the way, that is why the mug is red, “hot” in color) and the smell of coffee from the smoke above the cup. The final chord - heroes with a classic gesture grab cups with two hands, and this gesture automatically causes warmth in the viewer's hands. Do you often hold a cup like that?

There is nothing in this ad about South America or the solubility of coffee. But on the other hand, the consumer experiences the whole range of physical and emotional (we didn’t even touch on this aspect) of the experiences after viewing the advertisement.



Finally, the pinnacle (for today) of excellence is the 2011 Mexican Nescafé ad. In this video (by the way, winner of international advertising festivals) there is nothing even about experiences.

This advertisement promises transformation, transformation in the future.

Think about it, this ad says: with the help of the protagonist (the guys with the clock, who is the personification of Nescafé), the characters (that is, you) can get rid of problems in the family, from total immersion in work, from loneliness, from lack of positive emotions. The video has a powerful dramatic skeleton, which makes run and buy this damn coffee.

So what?

And the fact that today all businesses somehow sell their customers the promise of transformation in the future , even if the businesses themselves are not aware of this. They do not even sell the promise of a solution to the problem, as we used to think, but the promise of a positive life transformation. If it is B2B, then the promise is given to business owners, management, employees, and so on.

Therefore, selling today is not a stage of attracting a client until the transfer of money to the cashier.

Today, the sale is the promise of the transformation desired by the client and keeping his promise. This is very similar to the non-linear travel of the consumer . Business promises to the point of purchase. But after the purchase comes the stage of experience of use, at which it turns out that the business fulfilled its promise to the client or not. If yes, then the client becomes more loyal, if not - it negatively affects other consumers at the stage of active evaluation of alternatives.

Detuning between competitors now goes precisely to what different promises they can make and fulfill. Take, for example, plastic windows. The product is one, but promises can be very different:

• Your home will become more comfortable.
• Your home will become more secure.
• Your home will become brighter.
• You will not worry at all and waste time in the process of buying and operating.
• Your wife will be pleased with you.

Moreover, all these promises are of interest to completely different people, which must be taken into account when developing a business marketing strategy.

How to apply it?

It turns out that understanding that a business sells (and a customer buys) a promise affects many things in the web studio business. Thanks to this understanding, there are answers to old questions and new ones appear that were not there before.

• A client came to me who wanted a site. What should I offer him?
• We have problems during the project. What to do?
• What to look for when discussing the future of the project?
• What positioning should I choose?
• What should I do if in every project I have problems with a client?

We will definitely talk about these and other issues in our next articles.