Do you remember your first paycheck? You’d been dreaming about buying those smart pair of shoes or new pair of Wrangler jeans from the shop in the high street you walk past on your way to work every day.
My first paycheck was way before the days of online shopping so off to the high street I went. An intrepid shopper navigating his way through the retail landscape. And I bet you’ve been there too, after a few milliseconds of browsing the racks of clothes, you reach out to take those jeans of the rail, which triggers a previously idle sales assistant into action. They appear, as if by magic, from behind the t-shirt sale rail.
“Do you need any help there!?”
They think, but do not say
“Are you looking for a pair of hip trendy fashionable jeans to make you look amazing”
- as they eye you up and down scanning your existing lack of style.
“Oh, no thanks, I’m just browsing” - admit it, you’ve said it and then gracefully left the store.
It is apparent that we don’t like being sold to.
Not Selling Online, just Buying
The early days of ecommerce solved that problem of forced selling. You were able to browse websites in the comfort of your living room. Well probably on the PC sat on its desk under the stairs. There was no one pouncing on you to buy something. They offered a plethora of items for sale which you could decide to buy.
Sell, Sell, Sell
Well that bubble of buying bliss couldn’t last that long. Today we have the live chat assistants popup a few seconds after landing on a page. Hi, I’m Melissa do you need any help today, we have amazing half price [insert totally inappropriate items, not on your wish list] on sale - blah, blah, blah.
Go away Melissa, I’m trying to browse your website in my own time at my own pace and every time I visit a new page you pop up and obliterate the viewing experience. Bye Bye.
You’ve navigated through to adding something to your cart to be bombarded with psychological inadequacy. You don’t just want one of those, if you buy 3 you get one free and people who did that also bought loads of other stuff they didn’t want. Well, you might as well buy all that, otherwise your social media feeds with be flooded with remarketing ads to keep on at you to buy stuff. No wait, you’ll probably still be post-checkout targeted, regardless of what you did or did not buy.
Annoying, isn’t it?
Creating desire
I’ve always considered marketing as creating a desire to buy. I can’t remember the last time I sold something, as I keep myself busy creating desires.
I drop pebbles in people’s curiosity ponds which entices them to find out more.
Remember, push may get you everywhere apart from a door marked pull.
A customer wishing to pull open your door is far more powerful than you trying to knock down their door.
