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Marketing research has shown that customers follow a pretty general path in their purchase decision-making. Most decisions are based on having their emotional needs met and are supported by rationalization of the emotional decision. Wouldn’t it be great if you could capture their emotions and have them work in your favour to create a win-win outcome for both you and the purchaser?

Start by looking closely at your most important customer group(s). What do you know about them? You probably know more than you think. Analyse where and how they live, what their interests are and what’s important to them. How do they perceive themselves and others that they deal with, both in a business and private capacity? What functional and emotional needs are being met when they make a purchase from your business? Are they the kinds of people that have to feel comfortable with the people they deal with, or are they happier dealing with things and numbers, or do they need to know what the purchase will do for them? Do they like the latest and greatest, or do they like things that are reliable and dependable and of proven quality. Or, maybe they’re people who evaluate whether the purchase is “worth the money”?

If your wish your business and products to be at the top of customers’ minds you need to discover how to win their minds and hearts, to satisfy their emotional needs. Once you discover their needs, you can shape your business and the products you offer to meet those needs. As emotion and impulse play such a large part in purchase decision-making you need to understand how to activate both. Don’t forget reason though, because once emotion and impulse have been activated reason cuts in to act as judge and jury. You need to satisfy both of these needs. Reason is the justifier; it wants to know the numbers, specifications, assurances about quality, reference sites for checking reputation and satisfaction, etc.

Understand the purchase chain
A purchase decision is actually a series of interim decisions leading, if all goes well, to the actual payment for your product or service. These interim decisions follow a path from awareness through purchase motivation, product acceptance, brand preference, and purchase transaction to customer satisfaction. Your marketing and sales activities need to take account of each of these decision steps.

Awareness
People want to be generally aware of what’s available in the market place. A few facts such as company name, product names, some idea of what the product does and an indication of quality and price and appropriateness to them creates this awareness. Awareness is more important than it first seems. It has to create the right impressions. The unconscious minds of prospective customers are continually sifting information and are at work balancing attraction and avoidance and creating expectations of gratification and discomfort that the conscious mind doesn’t yet know about. The rest of the decision process is spent confirming or rejecting this initial judgement.