Note that I’m no (nowhere near) marketing expert nor professional business analyst. All the remarks followed by are purely personal (open) thought.
I’ve been trying to wrap up The Tipping Point; first chapter wasn’t the best (like I complained previously), but subsequent sections have been a blast so far. Especially, I’ve enjoyed reading up sections where it talks about skateboarding brand against mainstream market and how it just destroyed itself.
Speaking of which, I wouldn’t dare consider myself non-mainstream consumer, for many of the product types that is. So it may sound ironic that I try to advocate uniqueness, and personalities throughout. That is why I will be focusing more on certain subject only.
First of all, to me, I feel that the term, shopping is different when it comes down to individuals. Each person feel differently about what and how to shop. I’m not talking about personal tastes, but something like attitudes towards shopping. Say a person may limit his/her spending on meals or drinks, but would spend extras on jewelries like watch.
Having said that, (for the sake of simplicity) let’s look at clothing. To be more specific, individuals who go a slight more extra mile on it; those who think clothing is more than a tool or a way to cover up one’s body, and yet don’t push it too far so price tag still matters to them. For them, (dare I say) clothing is part of life style and means to express personality.
So what about these people? They will be the ones who buy clothing not because everyone else wears it, but because they like the brand, fitting, uniqueness and styles. To get the satisfaction, they may have to spend a little (or much) more, or sometimes have to find a (local) store instead of department store, but they’re willing to take all these extra efforts. Even then there are something that may throw them off; turn them away from buying certain things. For that, I think some of following may apply.
– that (clothing) is my favourite. I might buy that one too.
When a store owner tells you that he/she has the same thing and it’s his/her favourite, then most likely, assuming you’re familiar with the person, you’d take the remark as an approval and perhaps gain confidence in buying such item. It’s like having someone acknowledge your (delicate) tastes and share a mutual feeling of having nice/cool clothing.
However, when a clerk, (sometimes someone you’ve never acquainted before) tells you the very same thing, then it may throw you off. It’d be like “sure, you go ahead buy, I want to stay unique so I’ll stay away from it.” In most cases, it’s nothing personal. It’s just an attempt to stay away from the awkward moments where you and he/she will be wearing exactly same thing. Imagine you two wearing exactly same shirts are standing in the bus or subway. I know I don’t want to be in that situation.
– what do you think? it’s nice, isn’t it?
Once again, I’m no expert, but seriously, as a buyer, I think I’d prefer hearing something like it looks good on you; it doesn’t make you look wide at all. If you want to sell the clothing, you should compliment the person wearing it, not the clothing itself.
There probably are couple more things I initially have thought about putting into writing, but I’ll just stop here. (The problem is, without proper structure in place, I always end up getting carried away or sidetracked. I have to admit writing really isn’t my strength; not that I can speak any better :D)
With the current turbulence, everyone will have to go extra miles when it comes down to business management. I just want and hope that all the local stores I know of will survive. I try to be loyal, but really, business management and philosophy behind it has to work out as well it seems. Sometimes, you just can’t survive without paying attentions to radical things. Alright, I think I’ve rambled enough for a day. 🙂