I was sitting in class this morning listening to my teacher when it occurred to me that I had not had breakfast, and I knew that I was going to have to get something to eat.
There are a few good places to go for food near where I go to school, like Pizza Hut, Domino's, Dairy Queen, McDonald's, Subway, and a few others. Now I like each of these places as a brand of fast food, but when I wanted to decide where I was going to eat, I realized that I go through a specific decision making process.
For most categories of decisions that will need to be made, I have about 3 different choices ranging from my favorite, second favorite, and so on. When it comes to fast food, McDonald's has always been my favorite fast food place, and therefore becomes my first choice. A second choice is Domino's, as I work there and have access to a discount, which is nice. Subway is a good choice if I want something on the healthier side of things.
I make these decisions with an overriding principle: I want to be happy with what I spend my money on. I have never been to the Pizza Hut near school, but I'm very hesitant to go there because I've never been there before, I'm not sure of the specials or menu items; I'm not sure that the workers there are pleasant or even competent, and for some reason, I'm not willing to risk dissatisfaction to go there and try it. Even at the places I will want to eat at, I always order the same thing, because I KNOW that what I'm getting will be good, and I will have spent my money on something I'm happy with.
There are always going to be people like me, who can only be pleased by what we know we can trust, what we like, and what we will expect to receive. If you do any less, we will most likely be annoyed, and may avoid doing business with that place, at least for a certain period of time.
Is this wrong? Maybe. However, it's simply MY go-to decision making process.
There are others, though, that always want to try new things, go to new places, eat what's different off the menu, etc. They will ask for the specials, invite their friends to try new things, and go tell others about the risks they took.
The question that comes to the marketer is this: will you try to draw in the risk taker, who will try everything and tell others, or will you market to the routine buyers, who will take more effort to try to convert, but once you do, they will be your customers for life?
It's a difficult process and a difficult thing to try to predict how people will behave, react, and decide which business they will support. What about you? Are you the risk taker or the blissful routine follower?
