Marketing The Buyers Intent

In this world of technology we have become accustomed to enjoy the world of vast volumes of useful data.  Data we did not have access to in the 70's or 80's, now becomes second nature in this millennium.  I know, sometimes too much data can be overwhelming.  In fact, we have become prone to waste too much time chasing useless data just because it exists.  I am guilty.  This effort can become a terrible waste that easily drains the profits business efficiency offers.  It may not sound like sucking down profits but it sure ends up shorting up the checkbook.  Wasted time is very expensive.  If you are a business owner you know exactly what I mean.  Employees get paid the same, regardless of their time wasted.  Owners pick up that tab.

We need to be very careful how we pursue the assembly of important data.  We also need to make the best use of what we find useful.  In the world of marketing, this is where the most waste can occur.  Marketing is not a very exact science.  Some would argue against that point.  They are either blind to the real cost of wasted time or they do not live in the world of ownership.  

Wasting valuable time in the pursuit of useless data can become very easy to do.  Marketing is not like accounting.  It does not have a finite set of rules to follow.  Marketing does not remain steady in a closed circuit world like accounting prefers.  Marketing ideas and methods love to wander about the map where consumers get lost.  This reality has a tendency to suck in the sellers of goods and services.  They, too, become lost with the customers they are trying to attract.  It is a funny game to watch unless it happens to you and your own business investments.  A chewed up wallet is not a very funny matter.

Our technological world has delivered data mining efforts that scour anything from rubber band use to rocket fuel efficiencies.  We have discovered within our ability and virtual files reams of consumer research and information that describes how consumers indicate what they prefer to buy.  Consumers say stuff about what they want as well as tell us how they want to shop for it.  They reveal how they suggest they want to shop.  Consumers tend to share their buying intent.  It becomes an important part of the virtual world of technological discoveries.  Sellers love to work these files.  Sellers love to mine this data.

In the virtual world; manufacturers, distributors, investors and retailers alike compile these consumer notions into patterns they feel they can use to improve the capitalization of their production efforts.  It all makes good sense.  It fits very nicely into the mode of thinking we feel we can quantify.  There is one problem with this whole idea.  We all can boast how well we know what the consumer says they prefer to do, but in reality, they don’t.  Buyer intent is a moving target.  What one consumer group says they will support and buy from the screening tests and questionnaires they complete is often quite a bit different than what they really support and buy.  A good deal of the suspected data does not always pan out to be accurately projected.  Consumers often go left when they indicate right. 

This happens because consumers do not always tell the producer the truth.  Consumers sometimes do not exactly know what they are truly wanting to do.  As a result, they say what they do not know will be how they really move.  They also are prone to move in ways they do not actually support.  This kind of misleading data can easily confuse the supplier, and it does.

What's more, there are reams of proof that can be found that contradict what these consumer supported patterns promise.  Much of what we learn about how consumers say they will support something they plan to buy can be as fickle as not knowing anything at all.  Often times the descriptions they suggest they will support rarely pan out as becoming part of the real truth in sales we expected to see.  The buyer’s intent turns out to be quite a bit different than the actions they promised to deliver.  Wow, bummer if you bought a ton of the wrong stuff to sell.

There is no shortage of surveys that suggest what the buyer says they will support.  There is, however, a real shortage in matching these suggestions with the performance of what we expected them to buy.  The two worlds do not collide as often as we might think they should.  There is a real shortage to the matching of these promises to the reality of what sells.  This is what provides every marketplace with an element of guesswork that still remains to be conquered.

We just do not always know exactly what to develop, what specifics to produce nor which types of items to supply.  Golly, gee whiz...some of the greatest companies, like Apple and Dell, miss the mark.  We do not always know what price lines will work, what colors will sell or what functions may dominate how the consumer ultimately moves.  There is still a good deal of mystery added to the methods of marketing.  Consumers have and will continue to prove how fickle they can become.  It is the nature of enterprise.  It is a staple of enterprise that will likely never go away.  Get used to this kind of business diet.  It will likely dominate your plate.

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To become an accurate predictor of which items will move is a crap shoot at best.  If you do not believe this to be true, go pick one item that is a sure bet for consumers to support and buy all that your market can purchase of this one item?  Place it in your stock, fully paid for and wait to see if you are right.  That is what we might call…stupid.  I do not find very many sellers perform this kind of marketing.  This kind of inventory purchasing looks much like economic suicide.  Some business owners know exactly what I mean.  They have lived through this problem first hand.  It can be a very expensive marketing mistake.

The ‘buyer’s intent’ is not always accurate.  Be careful when you decide to provide what they request.  This style of marketing has produced some limited growth patterns to millions of businesses in the past two centuries.  Learn, instead, the art of reserve.  Learn how to control your thoughts about what your buyer says they will support.

Affordability, convenience, competition, timing, perception of value, presentation, connectivity, media, world conditions, macro economics, weather, lack of trained staff, poor supply line support, delivery issues, customer service failures and much, much more can become part of the slippery landscape that determines how well the buyer supports what they intend to buy.  The whole package of marketing product movement becomes involved in the slippery connections that can change exactly what the consumers say they will support and buy.

In the end, the best predictor of what will sell is what the sales register shows it sold.  Those were the items the consumer supported on that day of sales.  Hopefully, your business was well stocked with those items that were subsequently purchased today.

One more thing.  Practice the Pareto Principle.  It still remains as true today as it was when it was first defined.  Get the right information about product sales, buyer intent and marketing practices.  Then apply the Pareto Principle when you go to stock up for what you believe will happen.  Your risk for loss will be considerably diminished.  Your expectation for gain might become better than what was first expected when we listened closely to the promises our customers shared.

Watch out for fickleness in the buyer's intent.  They do not always know how to share what they really use as their final criteria for making that purchase.  A left turn can be headed in the wrong direction.  Give your marketing efforts a lot more respect.  Study your choices with a cleaner approach.  Remain controlled and invest with the Pareto Principle clearly in mind.

Until next time...