Business Advice

Habits Change in 30 Days

July 7th, 2009

Written by: Dan Santy

I’ve heard that about diets, exercise programs and smoking cessation.  Just do something or stop doing something for 30 days and you can change behavior.

Imagine the behavior that’s happening in consumers who’ve been changing their behavior, in some cases, for over a year now.

Trading down in restaurant selections, trading off to less expensive brands, trading materialism for an “ism” we have yet to see.

These shifts are the symptoms of what I believe will be a fundamental paradigm shift in consumer behavior coming out of this recession/depressions/downturn or whatever you choose to call it.  And the impact to marketers will be enormous.

What habits are you forming in your customers today?  Will you ever get them to break the habit of only purchasing your product with a coupon, discount or other margin-eroding offer?  The marketing behavior you encourage today will have a lasting affect on consumers going forward.

AND did you ever think to thank your best customers with a better offer than all those bottom-feeding freebie seekers whom you never had a relationship with and probably never will?

Take care of your friends; they took care of you before this debacle and will after—but only if you treat them special.

Until next time, try breaking a habit or two.

Cheers.