A few weeks before Christmas my mother and I were chatting about ideas for holiday gift giving and she semi-casually mentioned a shiny gizmo she'd like to have. The next day I was killing honey-dos at Costco and walked right by the exact shiny gizmo we'd discussed the night before. [Cue Angelic Choir Music] Quick inspection revealed it did exactly what I wanted, made by Sony, reasonable price and simple enough for mom. Sold! One more thing off the list...
As I put it in the cart, the questions started in my head... Is this really the best one? I wonder how it's been reviewed? Is this really a good price?
With an internet connection I could resolve these doubts in about 60 seconds, but I was pushing a sled through Costco and no relief for the nagging questions could be found. Reluctantly, I returned the shiny Sony gizmo back to its home on the shelf, and moved on.
Now I am not an indecisive shopper, in fact quite the opposite, and I wondered about where this sales process broke down. Eventually it dawned on me that I've come to trust the opinions of often unqualified strangers more than the promise of a brand. This is where the tried and true sales models like AIDA really start to break down. The product got my Attention, I was clearly Interested and had Desire, but in the end didn't take Action.
Why mention a century old sales model? Because I still see it used and referred to all the time. Most recently it popped up in Call to Action, an otherwise great book on persuasion architecture for the web. The model's had tremendous longevity because it does work in many cases and has proven effective for focusing and improving sales results. But it fails to explain why I hesitated and ultimately decided against purchasing that shiny Sony gizmo.
For me, this potential purchase was missing Confirmation from a trusted source. My trusted sources take many forms; user reviews of movies, user reviews of restaurants on Yelp, knowledgeable friends, user reviews on Amazon and some expert reviews. Most of these are people I don't know, probably will never meet and likely have little "expertise" in the area reviewed. Yet I've come to trust their opinion because more times than not, I've had good results.
A brand or an expert used to provide the confirmation and trust that's often necessary to complete a purchase, but no longer for me. I'll take the opinions of strangers over the stamp of Sony and be better for it. Interestingly, about 15 minutes later, I walked into the wine section of Costco where they prominently display the Wine Spectator "score" of nearly every wine they sell. I picked up a few bottles of a 93 pt. cab without a second thought.
So I have to ask, does it make sense for Costco to label and score hundreds of cases of wine, yet not provide the same confirming information on the few dozen electronic items that cost 10 times as much? Is there something you're forgetting to confirm that could make the difference between sold and passed by?
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