One of the critical jobs for a consumer product marketer is to make an emotional connection with potential customers, to create a desire to buy that isn’t based on a reasonable evaluation of the costs and benefits of the product. How else does Apple convince everyone to upgrade iPhones every year when each new version has just a few extra cool features but costs just as much as the previous one? Or buy the new iPad 2 when by most accounts, it’s pretty much the same thing as the original iPad?
Now take our industry – home energy efficiency. With a rational consumer evaluation of the costs and benefits, we’ve got a great product compared to Apple. The problem is that consumers don’t make buying decisions rationally. So what can we do to sell our product – home energy retrofits – based on its emotional appeal? (EnergySavvy.com)
