It takes two to tango (Episode Two)

Are you familiar with the process companies have to go through when selling products? Last time I heard about it was in my Marketing class (yes, I do realize I keep posting stuff that I studied in that particular class!). Anyway, the act of selling can be divided into four stages. In the first one, awareness, consumers are aware of the existence of a product. Then there’s interest: companies raise customer interest by emphasizing product’s benefits. In the third stage, desire, customers must be convinced that they want the product because it will meet their needs. Finally there’s action, and customers are stimulated to purchase. Some people think there should be one more stage, satisfaction, in which the customer is satisfied and therefore becomes loyal to the product or brand and recommends it to other people.

That is the companies’ perspective… but what about the purchase process we follow as customers? This time we can mention five steps. First we identify the problem, the need that we want to satisfy. Then we find information about possible products that could be suitable, and evaluate the different alternatives. The fourth step corresponds to the decision of purchasing, and the final one to our behavior once we acquired the product.

As you can see, there is a certain correspondence between these two processes. If a customer is evaluating different products, it’s because he or she knew they existed in the first place. The decision of purchasing is obviously linked to the idea that the product will get the job done. And of course, if the product was indeed what the customer expected -or more-, he or she might tell others about that positive experience. All these concepts can be applied to any product or service, no matter what benefits it provides or how expensive it is… of course, depending on the type of product, consumers will give more or less thought to each stage of the purchasing process, and companies will spend more or less resources on the different steps of the selling process.

These posts are devoted to green products, and as I told you in the first episode there’s not enough information about them… and information happens to be a cornerstone here! Think about it: no information in the first stages means people don’t know that the product is being sold. Supposing customers are aware that the product exists, no information about its features and advantages means customers cannot tell whether it is suitable for solving their problem or not, and therefore if they want to buy it or not. Bottom line: companies develop and produce green goods, but “knowledge barriers” prevent them from being sold.

I invite you to read the upcoming posts and find out more about lack of information in every stage, and what companies are doing in order to remove these barriers… as always, I’m willing to listen to your comments!