Case Marketing: perceptual Marketing of Starbucks

Starbucks' perceptual marketing may tell you how to put the concept of experience economy on the ground.

Enterprises are gradually turning from product economy to service economy, whether it is the traditional manufacturing industry or the emerging Internet service industry, while the traditional service industry is please climb another tall building and is upgrading from service economy to experience economy. We have introduced the book "experience economy" in "easy to read", but after many people agree with the point of view of experience economy, they will inevitably ask the next question: how can we put the concept of experience economy on the ground? This time we will comment on Starbucks' perceptual marketing, because this book tells you how to practice experience economy by introducing Starbucks' perceptual marketing. According to the author's point of view, the classical 4p theory needs to be extended to become 5p in the era of experience economy, and the extra P is a person, mainly pointing to the employees who provide services to customers, of course, this person can also include customers who receive services.

In perceptual marketing, how people who sell goods treat customers plays a vital leading role in buying products, because many products and services need deep communication in order to achieve sales, such as real estate consultants in the real estate industry. for example, salesmen of insurance companies, such as sales engineers of various high-tech enterprises. It can be said that people are the first element of perceptual marketing, because the quality of products is determined by people, the atmosphere of shops is created by people, and the communication and interaction between people has become the key element of sales promotion, so talent is the core element of perceptual marketing. The people here mainly refer to the employees who provide services, because if enterprises want to make their customers happy, they must first make their employees satisfied, so my conclusion is very simple: if there are no satisfied employees, there will be no satisfied customers. The author believes that only employees who are satisfied with their jobs can give customers the warmth and emotion of spring, and there are almost no success stories in companies that cannot satisfy their employees. Of course, success here refers to sustainable enterprises, not star enterprises that "get addicted to it and die".

In fact, "people-oriented" has been shouted for many years, but few enterprises really go to the ground and implement it. These enterprises only regard "people-oriented" as a slogan and shout. However, there are few Chinese enterprises that really put "people-oriented" into practice. In my opinion, Hewlett-Packard 10 years ago can be said to be a model employee-oriented enterprise, and employee satisfaction is the lifelong pursuit of the two founders of the company, and this is also the quintessence of the world-famous "Hewlett-Packard way". Because the two founders firmly believe that everyone has a desire to do a good job, as long as the company can provide everyone with a suitable stage, employees will do their best. In the last two decades of the 20th century, the whole world was shouting: shareholders' interests first, customers first, while the two founders of Hewlett-Packard were able to insist on employee supremacy. The result is that for many years Hewlett-Packard has been the most admired company in the United States, the best employer, and the company of excellence that everyone wants to enter. It can be said that employee supremacy is a prerequisite for customer satisfaction and a basic guarantee for creating value for shareholders. There is a causal relationship between these two elements, so do not put the cart before the horse.

Anyone who has read my book may remember the concept of "complete product", which consists of three layers: core products, peripheral products and extension products. The core products are mainly related to the main indicators such as the function and performance of the products; the peripheral products are mainly related to value-added services, that is, making better use of the core products; and the extension products are the feelings and experiences left to the customers, which have little to do with the products themselves, but can influence the decisions of the customers. In fact, the so-called perceptual marketing is to make efforts on extension products to create a different customer experience and feeling. It can be said that with the development of technology and the narrowing of the technological gap between enterprises, the homogenization of core products must be more and more serious. If enterprises want to make features and make differences, they can only make efforts on value-added services and customer experience. Of course, product quality to meet international standards is the minimum prerequisite, without the support of core products, it is not possible to make a fuss only on peripheral or epitaxial products, both of which are indispensable. This basic principle is highly consistent with the enterprise marketing strategy of sustainable development that I have advocated for many years.

However, to implement perceptual marketing, companies must have unique skills that others cannot imitate, the author of "Starbucks perceptual Marketing" stressed: Coca-Cola has not disclosed the secret recipe until now. Therefore, customers can only be filled with technology and unique service methods that competitors can't imitate. I think everyone will agree that first-class doctors do not go out to find patients, but wait for patients to take the initiative to seek treatment; similarly, first-class service enterprises are not looking for customers in all directions, but customers come here with admiration. This is the highest level of sales. As we all know, Starbucks seldom advertises, whether on TV or in print. They think that the best advertisement is to let everyone see Starbucks coffee shops everywhere and smell the attractive fragrance when they pass by Starbucks doors. to make every customer who comes to Starbucks feel happy.

You can think about this: which famous big hospital advertises on TV, advertises on the body of cars, and advertises in newspapers? No, there's no one! All the hospitals that need to advertise are second-rate hospitals or third-rate hospitals. As early as ten years ago, I have always stressed that the best marketing method is to succeed without advertising. As a consulting company, we always adhere to such a business philosophy and never take the initiative to look for customers. our enterprise has neither sales staff nor business personnel. what we do is to grasp the deep-seated problems common in various industries, understand each customer's special problems in operation and management, help customers really solve the problems, and help clients to be consulted to succeed for a long time. These successful enterprises have become our model project, and the effect of word-of-mouth communication has led to more customers coming to the door. This is because once a customer has a satisfactory experience and feels that it is worth it, they will tell others about the feeling and experience. Of course, to achieve this, enterprises must have their own unique skills, that is, they have incomparable advantages and characteristics, and we have two characteristics and advantages: one is that the chief consultant personally does strategic consultation for clients to ensure that they think at the height of entrepreneurs; the second is to teach them to fish and teach customers the methodology and tools of strategic planning, that is, the combination of training and consultation.

In China, many enterprises like to make high-quality and inexpensive products, thinking that all consumers are price-sensitive, but they are not. For subsistence consumers, it is normal to care about price, pay attention to price, and even take price as the main factor in decision-making. However, for well-off and middle-class customers, they are no longer price-oriented, although on the surface, they also care about price and like bargaining, but this is completely different from the price orientation of subsistence type. The reason is very simple. The reason why well-off and middle-class customers care about price is that most of the products on the market are homogenized goods, since there is no difference between different brands, there is no difference, of course, it depends on who has a low price, so this is the common phenomenon of winning the bid at a low price. In my opinion, the reason why products or services have no personality and differentiation is that consumer price orientation is the result, and winning the bid at a low price is a helpless choice.

Therefore, the breakthrough to solve this problem is to have a deep understanding of what customers need. Recently, I often ask entrepreneurs, how many end customers do I visit in a year? Some people have never met the end customer at all, and some people occasionally see a few end customers a year, so they are farther and farther away from the customer and have less and less understanding of the customer. According to the definition of complete product, customer demand includes three levels, namely, core product level, peripheral service level and customer experience level. Although many enterprises are shouting "customer first", most enterprises don't really do that. They don't even see the final customers and don't even know what they need. How can they achieve "customer first"? Therefore, it is suggested that entrepreneurs and senior managers can identify with the value of customer supremacy from the bottom of their hearts and improve their own realm. If the enterprise exists to make money, then such entrepreneurs can only be regarded as successful businessmen at best, if it is to create unique value for customers, help customers solve their problems, and provide different services and customer experiences. even to change the world, then such enterprises can really understand the word "customer first".

With the emergence of a large number of well-off and middle-class consumers, middle and high-end products are gradually favored, because customers actually pursue value, which is why there are many good cars, good watches, and good cosmetics. Good digital products can be much more expensive than similar products. You know, to create a brand that customers like, so that customers feel that the use of a brand can represent their identity, there is a sense of pride, a sense of superiority is the goal of the enterprise. Many entrepreneurs envy Apple, want to learn from Apple, and hope to make world-class products that can be sought after by customers. However, under the guidance of the thinking of high quality and low price, it is impossible to make excellent products. Here I might as well ask these two questions: first, are companies willing to spend 50 times the cost to recruit world-class designers to design world-class products and services? Second, can companies think, like Apple, that "it's a shame to be the same product as everyone else?" Today, when counterfeit products are popular in China, it is not easy to achieve these two points. I think today's Chinese enterprises are not short of money, and Chinese people are also very hard-working, but why don't we make money from the world? Why is there no pricing power, initiative, dominance and control in the world market, whether as a seller or a buyer? Because of our lack of world-class business philosophy and understanding of modern marketing, many people like to cross the river by feeling the stones, doing things based on experience and taking them for granted.

I hope that by reading this book, "perceptual Marketing of Starbucks", you can learn the business philosophy of excellent enterprises, see how they implement "customer first", and see how they think of their employees and customers in everything. I firmly believe that at the technical level, many things are easy to learn, and the key obstacles are the way of thinking and business philosophy. This is why many excellent management ideas have been popular in China, but it is difficult to be perfectly implemented, because different ways of thinking, different business ideas, no matter how good things can not play a role. Have the courage to deny your past success and believe that success is the father of failure, you can have an open mind and often let yourself go back to zero. Only in this way can you really surpass yourself.