Buying decisions are about core emotional needs a purchase meets
I recently had a conversation with my good friend, Jackie Morrison, owner of The Business Helper, in Suttons Bay. Later that evening I was in contact with Paul Hassing, in Melbourne Australia, who is editor of :
Small Business Owner
A blog about the lives and times of Aussie small business owners, proudly brought to you by myBRC
This was the post which brought about a comment from me, which I added to their blog. I’ve duplicated it below as well. Thanks for reading!
I thought about this blog post subject yesterday during a conversation with a fellow business owner. We live in a small resort village. She owns a store with the highest volume of foot traffic outside of the local grocery store.
She sells office and business supplies plus the types of business services you would expect - copies, shipping, faxing, etc. And because we are 15 miles from the next bigger city she thrives by being able to provide the convenience of location and time savings. And she provides outstanding customer service. Her customers want her to solve their problems.
We talked about how lucky our village is in spite of our national economy. We seem to be a bit insulated up here. The tourism has been good. Our local wineries, boutiques, antique shops, galleries and gift stores have always served as magnets for shoppers wanting unique items not readily available elsewhere.
Subtle changes have visited our agricultural county over the past decade or so. It used to be families would come and stay for a solid three months. Now, both parents work and they spend a week here and there, perhaps a weekend. Most of the people who owned second homes or cottages have retired and live here all year. That has affected their casual ‘on vacation’ shopping mindset. They are applying the same cost-savings practicality they used prior to living here full time. Their permanent residence has also removed one more vacation rental property from the roster which is affecting vacationers being able to find lodging.
So rather than an abundance of the ‘idle wealthy’, we are transitioning to a population base of practical-minded residents who no longer seem to be buying those high-end gallery and boutique items.
The demographic of those spending freely tend to be a bit older, and while internet users, they are not rabid fans of shopping online. So our conversation led to the topic of consumables. Because pretty soon the age group above our’s will soon be gone. And the age group coming up does not shop for hobby. They shop online. They spend their days on the beach, skiing, boating, golfing, and playing tennis.
Luckily, for her business, she has the perception to see this shift coming and is beginning to change out her inventory to more consumables rather than the trinkets sitting on shelves looking nice and collecting dust.
We also discussed that as this population ages there is less of a desire to collect and accumulate with more of an emphasis on downsizing. Somewhere along the way people are losing the desire to own more “stuff”.
So it was with a sense of foreboding that we said nice things about our fellow merchants and tried not to think of how the fabric of small town shopping is going to change, and not all will be able to survive.
Differentiation will definitely matter. However I think the secret to their survival will be learning about this new type of customer and developing memorable relationships with them. Because regardless of what they value or their generational attitudes, buying decisions are about core emotional needs a purchase meets and fills. Knowing that, and selling to that emotion will be the key to their survival - both online and walking in off the sidewalk.
Continued success,
Cheryl C. Cigan
www.known.com
It is so easy to participate. And fun too! Visit 15 of the 26 Village Participants and receive a stamp and enter to win a $250 Village Shopping Spree! 
