Is it the deal or the value?
02.01.2010
The economic situation has hit every facet
of everyone's lives and has left all of us thinking twice about how
we spend our money. In this environment, brand loyalty becomes
something that may be "up for grabs" with the winner being the
brand who seizes the opportunity to show a high synergistic
relationship between high value and a good deal.
In my research experience, consumers state that both the deal
and the product's value proposition are the main influencers for
their purchasing behavior. What remains vague is how brand and
value interact with each other during the consumer's decision
making process.
I decided to speak with several colleagues, family, and friends
of various backgrounds to see what the common thread is. Of course,
this was purely observational and anecdotal on my part and by no
means qualifies as a research study. What this does do is offer
further insights into branding.
The bottom line answer that I identified is that many people tie
purchasing decisions with their "time available" to do so. When
people are in a rush (i.e. picking up some items during work day)
they do not have the luxury of time to stop and evaluate the value
of their purchases and are more likely to base their purchase on
brand awareness or to buy the cheapest product available. Whatever
the influence is, it already exists and they do not have to think
about it. Conversely, someone who is not in a rush has more time to
evaluate the actual brand value and is more likely to think through
their purchases. These two consumers, rusher and non-rusher,
represent an opportunity to walk the potential consumer through
their decision process before their shopping visit, so that they
can understand the deal and the value that they can receive by
purchasing specified brand.
In a time-starved culture, the main in-let to the consumer may
be to help the consumer to pre-plan so that they can make better
informed decisions- basically putting back the purchasing decision
into the consumer's purchasing behavior.
Happy Birthday bar codes!
10.07.2009
The bar code celebrates it's 57th birthday
today. The first patent for a bar code type product was granted to
Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver on October 7, 1952. Ironically,
their original patent filing was a system of concentric circles and
not bars. By far the most recognizable bar code symbology is UPC
which is used on almost every product you buy. UPC has also been
used by the coupon industry for many years. However, the industry
is transitioning to a new symbology called DataBar (RSS) which can
encode much more information and can be used on products that were
typically difficult to put bar codes on.
Next time we'll talk more about DataBar and how it's going to
change the coupon industry forever.
Welcome to the Samplesaint Blog
10.01.2009
Hi and welcome to the Samplesaint Blog.
The intent of this blog is not to saturate the space with
useless information that no one really cares about, nor is it to be
shamelessly self-serving, but rather because we have a lot to share
about the advances of mobile delivery systems. Okay, maybe the
masses don't care . . . yet. The fact is, Samplesaint is
innovative, cool and substantially more sophisticated than any
other mobile company out there.
In addition to industry developments, we'll keep you informed of
the goings on here at Samplesaint including speaking engagements,
trade show participation, and other activities.
Initially, we'll post once a month at the beginning of each
month. As a following builds, the posts will increase. We hope to
use this space as an exchange of opinions and ideas. We invite you
to comment frequently. If there is a specific topic you would like
for us to expound on, let us know.
Until next time.