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Influencing Behavior
It is an artificial enterprise to evaluate brand and marketing without looking into a much broader spectrum of human behavior. Most marketing research studies are therefore deeply flawed. They attempt to understand a purchase behavior or preference in an artificial context — one with limited vision and limited success.
It is akin to placing an isolated human population, a population that has never seen or heard of an elephant, into a dark room arming them only with a laser like flashlight and asking them to describe what they find there. What you might get back from such a group would be an odd mix of descriptors speaking of a large four-legged animal with a tail on both ends. It is interesting information but it is not very valuable or accurate.
For this reason, brand strategy and marketing strategy today is more closely aligned with anthropology than it is with traditional marketing science. If you are trying to influence human behavior and grow market share you need to better understand the human condition and you need to see it in the context of a broader palate than just the palate of your category.
Do You Want To WIn?
This all supposes that you, as a marketer, are interested in using your brand to influence the purchase decision and increase market share. As elementary a question as that may seem, you would be surprised to learn how many marketing strategists that Stealing Share® comes across that see brand as a static stand alone. They do not as of yet see it as the basic building block for all purchase decisions and the catalyst for growing market share. They think about brand expertise, not as the organic and dynamic germinal seed that it is, but as some artificial convention invented by mass marketers like P&G.
If your desire, therefore, is to use your brand to help influence the preference choice and increase market share, then it is a given that you must have a better understanding of your target audiences (see Preceptive Behavior Modeling to understand how it is done). It is not enough to understand their usage and attitudes as it relates to your product, service or category unless you believe that it is OK to understand an elephant as an animal with a tail at both ends — you need to know the customer in the broader context of their life. You need to know what they believe to be true about their life, values, aspirations and goals. You need to better understand the belief triggers that guide their lives and direct their purchase decisions. Growing market share demands more than simple branding — traditional brand development that has become endemic in marketing circles today — it requires the acute vision of an anthropologist.
Branding as Anthropology
In order to make our branding work persuasive and influential in the market, our dynamic and active strategists act as anthropologists as well as marketing experts. The precepts of customers', basic beliefs about themselves and the world at large dictate “who they are” when using and choosing a brand. Precepts are different for every target audience and as a result, our strategic specialists focus on specific targets based on deep expertise in many diverse target groups. Each of our teams specializes in specific groups that directly influence the equity of your brand.
However, the focus is always upon developing brand strategy and messaging that changes behavior and increases market share. Here are just a few of our focused areas of brand/consumer expertise:
Baby Boomers
This over-studied and under appreciated group embraces cultural precepts that are distinctly different from other target markets. Baby boomers approach purchase decisions and arrive at conclusions differently from all other groups, which, in turn, results in specific brand development necessities to target this group. Our experience with this group runs from marketing consumer package goods to the brand messaging of oil changes to exposing legal preferences.
Female Influencers And Decision Makers
Understanding and characterizing the female decision maker sets Stealing Share apart. We have mapped the preceptive structure of this powerful audience and have found ways to influence the purchase decisions via brand messaging in everything from bottled water to real estate. This group defies stereotypical categorization and approaches consensus from a distinctly right brain perspective. This group has concerns that are firmly held, often remaining consistent despite cultural changes. Targeting female consumers is a common branding goal, but is often misled by inside-out marketing strategy that is so rampant in the marketplace.
Male Influencers And Decision-Makers
Contrary to popular thought, the male consumer has changed his preceptive bundling more than his female counterpart. The preceptive modeling for male decision-makers is as unique as that of the female model. Our branding and marketing experience with this audience runs from beer marketing to automotive marketing and technological messaging (computer marketing). The male consumer will often change his preceptive structure, so this group is often difficult to narrow the brand focus. It requires expertise in cultural currents and an understanding of values, consumer behavior over time, and how the male market has changed over the years.
Maturing Populations
The mature market is complicated because it overlaps the preceptive models of male, female, and baby boomers. However, the branding issues facing them and the precepts that guide their decisions change suddenly, and the sensitivity to brand messaging and promises also transform. Our experience with this group runs from corporate decision makers to marketing healthcare.
Cultural Trendsetters
Understanding the cultural trendsetters provides the preceptive foundation for cultural change. More than early adapters, these consumers represent uncharted trends and direction and provide early access to cultural currents — currents that lead and influence others. Our branding experience with this group runs from financial branding to marketing health spas.·
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Brand strategy is more about anthropology than traditional marketing science.
Influencing human behavior requires a broader understanding of the human condition.
To reach customers, you must uncover their beliefs as it relates to their life, values, aspirations and goals.
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