Re-centering the Focus of Marketing

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Re-centering the Focus of Marketing

• August 2001
• Duke University

613 Williamson Street, Suite 209 Madison, WI
53703 608-287-1122 Fax [phone] pam_at_pammur
taugh.com
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Why re-center?

• Too much experience with the
• Unpredictable
• Unexpected
• Unreliable
• Too many signs that conventional marketing was
  off-center

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How I came to conclude that marketing was
off-center

• Consumers didnt respond to what we thought they
  would
• Consumers didnt react how we thought they should
• Marketing research predictions all too frequently
  didnt pan out
• Consumers didnt behave the way they told us they
  would
• Entertaining, memorable advertising had no impact
  on sales
• Likeable, preferred new products failed in market
• Strategies built around persuading and convincing
  became more and more cost-prohibitive, and
  werent persuading or sustainable anyway

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Marketing was focused on a different center than
consumer demand

• Consumers seemed indecipherable
• They told us one thing but did another
• What motivated them was invisible to us
• We needed to find the center of their motivations
• Need-state approaches looked promisingbut they
  only explained what they needed, not why they
  needed it
• Why they seek what they seek, why they use what
  they use, is the source of all demand
• We had to re-center our marketing strategy around
  this demand
• Demand-Centric Strategies

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Why Demand-Centric Strategies get better results

1. Demand-Centric Strategies start with the
   consumers real consideration set

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What is the consideration set that drives your
strategy?

• ???
• ???
• ???

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Consumers consider themselves first

• Consumers are the center of their own universe
• At the moment of usage, consumers consider
  themselves first
• Its about them, not about you
• Its what they consider about themselves at the
  moment of usage
• Their in-moment considerations are what motivate
  their usage
• Situations
• Thoughts
• Feelings, both physical and emotional
• Satisfaction requirements
• This primary consideration set drives your
  in-market results
• It drives your successes and failures because
  its what drives all consumer demand

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Consumers and their universe

• Demand Drivers their own, private, coded
  signals that prompt their usage
• Both conscious and subconscious
• Both internal and external
• Both rational and emotional

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Consumers and their universe

• Demand Drivers their own, private, coded
  signals that prompt their usage
• Both conscious and subconscious
• Both internal and external
• Both rational and emotional
• In-the-moment moment of usage, not purchase
• In-the-moment, they actively consider us because
  they are actively considering themselves
• Other times detached, not focused,
  overthinking, not feeling

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Consumers and their universe

• Demand Drivers their own, private, coded
  signals that prompt their usage
• Both conscious and subconscious
• Both internal and external
• Both rational and emotional
• In-the-moment moment of usage, not purchase
• In-the-moment, they actively consider us because
  they are actively considering themselves
• Other times detached, not focused,
  overthinking, not feeling
• Verb-seeking they want something done for them
  in response to these drivers
• They want their usage to have an impact on them
• They use their products and brands as support
  systems (now more than ever)
• They assess products and brands based on what
  have you done for me lately?
• Let me feel what I want to feel in the moment I
  want to feel it
• E.g. soothe me excite me pacify me relieve
  me encourage me comfort me

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Why Demand-Centric Strategies get better results

1. Demand-Centric Strategies start with the
   consumers real consideration set
2. Demand-Centric Strategies are built on a market
   structure based on the market, not the supply or
   the suppliers

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Market structures

• Most market structures reflect groupings of
  similar products or brands
• The real market structure should reflect the
  market, not the suppliers people, not products
• It should be based on what actually drives usage

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The Demand Map shows whats relevant to them

• The Demand Map captures all the Demand Drivers
  that create the market structure
• It identifies all the moments, feelings, thoughts
  and situations that are relevant to the user
• Each segment is a group of similar Demand Drivers

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Sizing up the drivers

• The Demand Map shows whats of major importance
  to the category
• ...what becomes important only in certain
  situations
• and how much of the market each represents

Primary Consideration
Key Consideration Sets
Discrete In-Moment Differences
Two-step sizing process first, heavy users
second, general population
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Why Demand-Centric Strategies get better results

1. Demand-Centric Strategies start with the
   consumers real consideration set
2. Demand-Centric Strategies are built on a market
   structure based on the market, not the suppliers
3. Demand-Centric Strategies examine real usage to
   determine what consumers seek, not artificial
   research proxies for demand

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What they use whats right

• Real usage shows us whats right
• What demand drivers lead consumers to your
  category, and in which moments
• How consumers really respond to their demand
  drivers, in their day-to-day usage
• Which product and brand attributes drive the
  highest levels of satisfaction

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What they use whats right

• Real usage shows us whats right
• What demand drivers lead consumers to your
  category, and in which moments
• How consumers really respond to their demand
  drivers, in their day-to-day usage
• Which product and brand attributes drive the
  highest levels of satisfaction
• Artificial demand proxies are unreliable
• Liking doesnt predict behavior
• Consumers cant separate what they think from
  their subconscious motivations
• They can only tell us what they think they think
  when asked directly
• They are poor at predicting future usage
• Purchase metrics are disconnected from actual
  usage in time and place
• Sometimes the purchaser is not the user

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What they use whats right

• Real usage shows us whats right
• What demand drivers lead consumers to your
  category, and in which moments
• How consumers really respond to their demand
  drivers, in their day-to-day usage
• Which product and brand attributes drive the
  highest levels of satisfaction
• Artificial demand proxies are unreliable
• Liking doesnt predict behavior
• Consumers cant separate what they think from
  their subconscious motivations
• They can only tell us what they think they think
  when asked directly
• They are poor at predicting future usage
• Purchase metrics are disconnected from actual
  usage in time and place
• Sometimes the purchaser is not the user
• To create Demand-Centric Strategies, we need
  accurate information about real demand
• Different research to assess real usage
  (moments-in-time) instead of proxies (thinking,
  liking, intent)
• Conclusions that are more representative of
  market reality
• Reality-based input for creating strategies that
  work because of their rightness

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Real usage

• The Demand Map reports which products and brands
  consumers really use in each situation
• Real usage talksthe rest walks
• Artificial proxies for demand suffer from biases,
  overthinking, contrived situations, lack of focus
• Real usage looks back at actual consumer behavior
  to determine which products and brands best
  satisfied which drivers
• This reveals the true competitive set, with
  category, product and brand development

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Jobs and satisfaction

• The Demand Map indicates what jobs consumers want
  done (verbs) in each situation...
• How satisfied they are with what they used
• and whats needed to fulfill real demand

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Product benchmarks and gold standards

• The Demand Map pinpoints which attributes are
  right to the consumer, and provide satisfaction
  in each segment
• Satisfiers are only valid when in use
  in-the-moment
• Quality is determined by satisfaction-in-use
• Gold standards emerge from the experiences that
  are the most satisfying and/or unique to a segment

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Why Demand-Centric Strategies get better results

1. Demand-Centric Strategies start with the
   consumers real consideration set
2. Demand-Centric Strategies are built on a market
   structure based on the market, not the suppliers
3. Demand-Centric Strategies use real usage to
   determine what consumers seek, not artificial
   research proxies for demand
4. Demand-Centric Strategies align consumer
   targets, brand positionings and product
   portfolios with consideration set segments

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Strategies centered around demand

• Demand-Centric Strategies recognize consumers
  primary considerations
• Them (not It)
• Why (not What)
• Do (not Is)
• Verbs (not Adjectives)
• Why its right (not Why its great)

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Targeting consumers by targeting consideration
sets

• Segments of considerations in the Demand Map
  represent ownable targets
• Shared experiences, thoughts and feelings (may or
  may not have demographic alignment)
• Situations common to the segment
• Similar jobs sought
• Growth strategies explicitly identify these
  demand opportunities
• Target usage based on demand drivers
• Users already know what satisfies their demand
  drivers
• Non-users also provide growth potential can
  identify the same types of moments and feelings

Please Me and Address
Body Issues
Emotional Issues
Satisfy Hunger 40
Undo Bad 11
Energize Me 28
Reinforce Good 21
Usage target Please me and address my body
issues by energizing me before effort
Treat After Pleasure 10
Keep It Exciting 11
Indulge After Stress 7
Smooth Over Every-thing 4
After Hard Work 25
Before Play 15
Before Effort 15
To Keep Going 13
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Brand positioning alignment

• Brand positionings are based on relevant
  platforms
• Real considerations that drive real usage
• Satisfying characteristics translate to powerful
  brand elements
• Breadth of positioning coverage is defined by
  level on the Demand Map
• Relevance and rightness are critical to
  positioning effectiveness
• Allows you to own demand

Please Me and Address
Category-owning brand positioning
Body Issues
Emotional Issues
Energize Me 28
Reinforce Good 21
Satisfy Hunger 40
Undo Bad 11
Broad-focus brand positioning
Treat After Pleasure 10
Keep It Exciting 11
Indulge After Stress 7
Smooth Over Every-thing 4
After Hard Work 25
Before Play 15
Before Effort 15
To Keep Going 13
Tight-focus brand or subbrand positioning
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Product portfolio alignment

• Product portfolios are aligned to fit consumers
  demand patterns
• Gaps in our representation represent
  opportunities for development
• Current successful products may have even greater
  potential when optimized against multiple
  segments
• Weak, unaligned products can be redesigned or
  eliminated

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Why Demand-Centric Strategies get better results

1. Demand-Centric Strategies start with the
   consumers real consideration set
2. Demand-Centric Strategies are built on a market
   structure based on the market, not the suppliers
3. Demand-Centric Strategies use real usage to
   determine what consumers seek, not artificial
   research proxies for demand
4. Demand-Centric Strategies align consumer
   targets, brand positionings and product
   portfolios with consideration set segments
5. Demand-Centric Strategies provide consistent
   direction for brand equity, advertising and
   product development, all focused on matching
   consumers primary considerations to own their
   demand

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Demand Equity brand status

• In the consumers universe, they assign their own
  value to your brands equity
• All about them and their feelings, thoughts,
  situations, requirements
• In-the-moment
• Demand-Centric Strategies replace brand equity
  with Demand Equity
• Relevance and rightness are the metrics of Demand
  Equity brand status
• Relevance belief in the brands promise to do
  what is needed in-the-moment
• Rightness - belief in the brands promise to be
  what is needed in-the-moment

• Jobs
• Soothes me
• Excites me
• Pacifies me
• Relieves me
• Encourages me

• Associations
• Strong
• Happy
• Traditional
• Rough
• Heavy
• Light

Is it right for me now?
Is it relevant to me now?
P.S. Category-generic forms compete as brands
too!
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Advertising development

• Demand-Centric advertising evokes the connections
  between consumers, their consideration set and
  usage
• The elements of the consideration set form the
  toolbox of signals advertising can employ
• Analogy, fantasy, or day-in-the-life portrayals
  can all act as triggers to evoke the same
  thoughts, feelings or remembered incidents that
  connect consumers with usage
• Recognition of their own experiences prompts
  their relevance alarm to go off and take
  inventory of the message and their requirements
• Advertising geared toward persuasion assumes that
  consumers primary considerations can be changed
  (expensive mistaken assumption)
• Advertising geared toward engaging or
  entertaining assumes a pleasing message can make
  the brand relevant (free entertainment ? boost
  profit??)

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Product development

• The feelings and thoughts of users-in-the-moment
  lead to varying satisfaction requirements,
  depending on the situation
• Demand-Centric product development models
  different product experience profiles by segment
  to match these requirements for the targeted
  usage situations
• Satisfiers-in-use provide benchmarks for product
  optimization and development

I feel hungry before I go play
I feel hungry after that hard work

• Optimal Product Experience
• Rough
• Catalytic and active
• Not dense, not heavy
• Lands light in stomach

• Optimal Product Experience
• Smooth
• Non-confrontational
• Dense and satiating
• Lands heavy in stomach

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Why Demand-Centric Strategies get better results

1. Demand-Centric Strategies start with the
   consumers real consideration set
2. Demand-Centric Strategies are built on a market
   structure based on the market, not the suppliers
3. Demand-Centric Strategies use real usage to
   determine what consumers seek, not artificial
   research proxies for demand
4. Demand-Centric Strategies align consumer
   targets, brand positionings and product
   portfolios with consideration set segments
5. Demand-Centric Strategies provide consistent
   direction for brand equity, advertising and
   product development, all focused on matching
   consumers primary considerations to own their
   demand
6. Demand-Centric Strategies focus on sustainable
   business development, emphasizing
   satisfaction-in-use, repeat usage and
   demand-based brand growth

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Sustainable business development

• Conventional marketing can become a money pit
• Strategies act as if brands primary consideration
  sets
• Product development spends time and money in
  creative trial-and-error
• Unique but irrelevant positionings struggle to
  create real connections with consumers
• Trial can be bought, but repeat doesnt always
  follow
• Advertising and promotion costs escalate but the
  business only maintains growth doesnt
  materialize
• Demand-Centric Strategies provide a means for
  sustainable, long-term business growth, because
  owning demand ensures repeat
• Strategies fit consumers behavior patterns and
  their primary considerations, instead of
  attempting to create new ones
• Positionings leverage consumers already-formed
  associations and feelings
• Product experiences and brand associations are
  engineered for maximum satisfaction-in-use, to
  ensure repeat use

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Re-centering yields unexpected efficiencies

• Today
• All functions share strategic focus consumer
  fit and strategic fit
• Brand and product functions build from same
  database and same consumer motivation / target
• Shared language for brand and product development
• Enhanced ability to manage advertising
  development
• Tomorrow
• Solid, shared basis for decision-making
• Sustainable, long-lasting strategic guidance
• Momentum from cumulative learning
• New sources for optimization and growth

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Moving from Brand-Centric ? Demand-Centric
Demand-Centric
Brand-Centric
Consideration set
Brand, product or category
All in-the-moment thoughts, feelings
Strategic objective
Differentiate from competitors
Serve demand best
Equity
Unique imagery and associations
Triggers that evoke demand drivers
Target
Exclusive groups of people
Inclusive segments of usage
Message
Persuade why its great
Show why its relevant and right
Metrics
Trial, preference, expert panel
Repeat, satisfaction-in-use
Research
What do you think is great about it? Would x make
it even greater? How much do you prefer it? How
likely would you be to buy it?
Re-centered research
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Re-centered research makes it possible

• Starts with users and recent / actual moments of
  usage
• Discovers all the in-the-moment thoughts and
  feelings that are the Demand Drivers specific to
  your category
• Seeks and describes linkages between Demand
  Drivers and resulting usage
• Brands considered in-the-moment
• Satisfiers in-the-moment
• Communication cues in-the-moment
• Employs new tools to get truer information and
  draw more powerful conclusions from consumers
• Lets consumers reveal the depth of their
  experiences as reporters not evaluators or
  opinion-holders
• Gives consumers a format and language to
  articulate feelings they experience intuitively
  and subconsciously, not cognitively
• Translates category-specific Demand Drivers to a
  quantifiable market structure
• Analyzes situational and psychological data and
  derives business implications and directions

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Greater ROI, less marketing waste

• Future growth stems from understanding demand and
  serving demand why they use what they use when
  they use it so that through branding, you can
  own demand
• Your business benefits
• Greater return on marketing, product development,
  research investments
• Stronger brands real equity
• Better, faster, more confident decision-making
  power
• An end to one-off, pass/fail projects less
  wasted money and effort
• Profound understanding of the motivations that
  shape and propel your category
• Proprietary insulation via innovative demand
  strategy
• Strategy becomes more than next years business
  plan
• Real power to shape your category
• Total direction for your business functions
• All centered around consumer demand