Great Design + Inconsistency ≠ Revenue

For almost a year, Dahl's Foods has been re-building its Ingersol location. The final result? A staggering display of produce and grocery utopia, hailing such names as "Ingerdahl's" and even "Taj-ma-Dahl's." As you work your way around the store, the great appeal only gets better as you come to the 35th Street Café. The interior is attractive, and truly entices customers to sit down with a beverage and cajun shrimp salad.

If you are like most people, you are approaching the Café because you are enticed by the attractive layout, texture and color. You are most likely starting to salivate and can't wait to munch on that salad. Like most people, however, your trip may stop at the Café entrance. Why?

The expectation you have just developed in your mind is crushed when you see the cheap diner-style menu with glue stick moisture wrinkles mounted on an old metal presentation board (pictured below). Upon examination, you don't find the Cajun Shrimp Salad that you assumed would be available, but in its place, Chicken Fingers, fries and A1 sauce. The expectations that brought you in the Café have been shattered and your cash will probably find its way into one of the many other lunch spots on Ingersol.

The Problem? The 35th Street Café successfully pulled you in, but they were not able to get your business. Was there a problem with the diner style menu and the chicken fingers? No. Was there a problem with the great interior design? No. The problem was inconsistency. When customers expectations are not met, the result is a confused customer (and less revenue for you).

The Conclusion? Great Design + Inconsistency ≠ Revenue. Great design is only one piece of the puzzle. If you lack the drive or the budget to keep everything consistent, you are flushing money down the toilet. Your marketing or design doesn't need to be the hottest thing or most incredible display known to man. All your customers need is consistency. If you serve diner-style food, use diner-style interior design or advertising. If you have high-end interior design, serve high-end food on a beautiful menu. Your customer's brain (and wallet) will thank you.

If your brand was a crime, would witnesses be reliable in the re-telling of your story?

Walking down the street with two sacks of groceries in your arms, you hear a loud scream and turn just in time to see a man running at a woman. You watch in complete horror as he assaults the woman shoving her to the ground, taking all her things. Not until it is too late do bystanders come to this woman's aid. Fast forward a week or so, you find yourself being questioned by detectives about specific details of what you witnessed. Even though you watched the entire crime play out, other witness' statements are very different from your own.

This is a very common problem with eye witnesses. Even though they should be the most reliable source, history has proven they are far from it.

Various factors play a role in the inconsistency of an eye witness. The biggest factor is life experience or culture. Because each eye witness has a different life experience, they will recall the crime filtered through the perspective their life experience has brought them. All the witnesses are united in a common goal to bring the man to justice, however, this automatic bias has led to countless errors and mistakes in our court system, ultimately sending innocent people to prison. If witnesses' perceptions are altered at this magnitude for serious matters, how much more are their perceptions skewed during every day tasks?

What about your customers? Don't they come with the vast majority of cultural variance and life experience that our global economy provides? Do you think every prospect and customer will react the same way to your company's marketing design? No matter what decision you make in the design of your collateral, logo, or website, the customer or prospect will view your marketing materials through their own life experiences. These hidden perceptions could make or break your incoming revenue.

If your brand was a crime, would witnesses be reliable in the re-telling of your story?

Your Prospect's Pain Tolerance Threshold?

In this day and age, consumers do business with hundreds of organizations to sustain their daily lifestyle. The number of services in daily use by each individual is quite staggering; between paying bills, searching for solutions and calling customer service, hundreds of hours are consumed annually.

The Merchant Pain Tolerance Threshold.

Because it is inconvenient to switch merchants every time the consumer is burned, they have built up what we call the Merchant Pain Tolerance Threshold. This pain threshold is higher or lower given the industry. Consumers have built up a high pain threshold for merchants such as banks, wireless providers and cable companies. On the other hand, consumers have a very small threshold for household supplies, gas stations, and cereals. If your cereal is awful, you will immediately switch, but if your cell phone company is awful, you may wait, or even not switch at all!

Astonishingly, merchants that charge the most seem to be the companies that consumers have the highest pain threshold for. These consumers will do business for 20 years with a terrible merchant simply to avoid the perceived pain that comes with it. Knowing that ALL of your customers experience life with an acquired pain tolerance threshold should change your strategy on reaching new customers.

Does Your Company Come With Less Pain?

Every prospect is most likely doing business with your competitor (company "x"), thus there is a given pain threshold they are willing to bear before even considering switching. Keep in mind because you are in the same industry, the prospect will attribute the same amount of pain to you in addition to the pain of the switching process. This means you always come in as the higher pain option.

Keep in mind the factor keeping you from new business is "perceived pain" NOT actual pain. Your prospect has no idea that you are more convenient or offer better service, and you can't tell them, because their current "solution" told them the same thing.

How To Eliminate Some Perceived Pain

One crucial step to eliminating perceived pain, therefore acquiring new business is to use design as your pain killer. Humans have already been using this strategy since the beginning of time. We do, in fact, "judge a book by it's cover." We judge perceived pain (or risk) using visual clues. Design allows you to consciously and subconsciously communicate to your prospect that you are a lower pain option.

Wrap It Up Already

It should be obvious by now that lacking professional design could be your company's death. If your marketing material is ugly, your website isn't current or your logo is dated, your prospect will only see pain triggers. Without great design, your prospect's brain assumes your company is ABOVE their Merchant Pain Tolerance Threshold.

Are you going to change that?