UX For Everything: Marketing For What?
There are more opportunities to hear about UX (User Experience) today. What I like the most about UX is it opens my eyes to the fact that everything can be a design above our thought. In other words, everything has an effect on any people even if it’s not consciously designed.
Going back to marketing thing, we see a lot of promotions in any places. Meaning, promotion speaks aloud. On the other hand, non-promotional things such as pricing also speak consciously or unconsciously. Let’s consider this.
The existence of unconscious message tends to become more obvious when promotion and non-promotion say different things. For example,
- Graphic copy for a non-brand product says, “High quality”. Then the price says, “This is in the same category with the lowest quality products”.
- Facebook post says, “Trust us”. But then, there is no response to bad reviews from users.
- Advertisement says, “Exciting experience with affordable price”. However, all the other promotions and product say nothing why it is exciting, or why it is affordable.
When we are unconscious of the message difference, the it will be the caused of;
- Loss of chance to emphasize its “message”
- Loss of chance to find out what you are truly speaking about
There is a classic marketing concept, 4P (Product, Place,Price, Promotion) which describes factors of marketing. Let’s dig more about the above idea with an example: soap.
- Product
If you sell soap and value it as only a soap, it might be recognized as a soap which is simple and its quality is not verified. If the soap is a natural product and you value it as a beauty soap, what do you add/remove to increase the value for customers who is into beauty care? When people see and touch the product, how do they feel and react? - Place
Place means where to sell. If you sell the natural beauty soap online, who can buy the product there? When people see the product there, how do they feel and react? - Price
If you sell the natural beauty soap, what will be the price comparison? When people see the product on the e-commerce site with the price, how do they feel and react? - Promotion
If you sell the natural beauty soap, what is your catch-phrase and where do you use it? When people see the phrase there, how do they feel and react? And what do people expect for product/price/place?
Conclusion
4P is only an example. You may choose a different marketing concept. Or you may not apply this kind of concept in order not to slow down your activity. But if we consider marketing as everything which people can sense, we can also consider what is the priority. As a result, we can find a better or new way and leverage our activity.
