The typical customer referral program offers a monetary reward for customers of a product or service who find other customers to buy that product or service. In most cases, the referral program is public: that is, the recipient of the referral knows that the person who recommended the product is being compensated for the referral. […]
Subject: Sales Management and Strategy
How CRM Reaches Customers’ Social Networks
The results of the study showed a 35% increase in usage by the targeted customers and a 10% increase in usage by the connections of the targeted customers. In addition, suspensions decreased for both target customers and their connections, and churn decreased for the connections (the study did not include the targets’ pre-paid churn, because the six-month process […]
Why Customers Put Up With Rude Luxury Shop Assistants
Any consumer who has entered a high-end luxury shop and been treated with disdain by the sales clerks will understand the meaning of ‘retail rejection’. Many luxury companies are trying to change the attitudes of their salespeople, encouraging them to be friendly and welcoming. Previous research on social rejection, however, indicates that retail rejection may […]
Read More… from Why Customers Put Up With Rude Luxury Shop Assistants
Mapping Brand Strategy: Balancing Centrality Vs Distinctiveness
Companies struggle with two apparently contradictory goals. They want their brands to be central in their category — in other words, the brand of record, similar to the position held by Coca-Cola in the soda category or McDonald’s in fast food. At the same time, however, they want their brands to be distinctive, standing out […]
Read More… from Mapping Brand Strategy: Balancing Centrality Vs Distinctiveness
Incentivizing Older Consumers to Adopt New Technologies
Companies marketing a new innovation or a new technology are rarely interested in older consumers, and for good reason. Past research shows that older consumers are much less likely to adopt new technologies or innovative products than younger consumers. The most common reasons given for this reticence are that older consumers have a psychological barrier […]
Read More… from Incentivizing Older Consumers to Adopt New Technologies
How Price Expectations Drive Customer Purchasing Decisions
Before going to a store, consumers have an expectation in their minds about how much the product they want to buy will cost at that store, and at other stores. Once they see the actual price in the store, they will update their expectations about the prices they might find for the product at other […]
Read More… from How Price Expectations Drive Customer Purchasing Decisions
Markdown Vs Everyday-Low-Prices: The Impact of Regret and Availability Misperceptions
Özalp Özer of The University of Texas at Dallas and Yanchong Zheng of MIT Sloan researched the role of regret and availability misperception in shaping a retailer's pricing and inventory strategies. They found that forward-looking consumers who see a product they want to buy will hesitate: should they buy it now, or wait till later when […]
When Showrooms Help Online Companies
As more and more people prefer to shop online, an online presence is almost a requirement for just about any kind of bricks-and-mortar company from any kind of industry. Some online companies, however, are discovering the surprising benefits of traveling in the other direction: opening up bricks-and-mortar showrooms, allowing customers to feel and try on […]
The Overlooked Longevity of Experiential Goods
More and more people are feeling financially constrained. In the U.S., half of American families recently surveyed considered themselves ‘financially fragile’. Financial constraint does not refer to income level, but to the feeling that the income is insufficient to pay for desired discretionary purchases. Awareness of financial constraints pushes people to reflect on the longevity […]
Read More… from The Overlooked Longevity of Experiential Goods
Is New Product Exclusivity Always a Good Idea?
In 1995, Japanese telecommunications giant NTT agreed to distribute a new product featuring new technology, but rejected the offer of exclusivity to the Japanese market. Going against the conventional wisdom that the less competition the better, NTT actually wanted more competition. The reason: the product was unfamiliar and untested; as a result, the more customers […]
Read More… from Is New Product Exclusivity Always a Good Idea?