Motive based segmentation for Hyper Personalized products
Would shoppers trying a product, share the same goals.
How may we segment users based on motives, and what benefit might accrue as a result of this effort.
On a visit to the car showroom, I looked at different customers talking to the same sales executive. Some of the interactions lead to detailed Pricing discussions, some to Test drives, and some to just looking around and walking away.
Taking the uncomfortable part I started asking the salesman.
How do visitors to the car showroom differ in their intents
The outcomes shared by car sales person had me thinking. It was not as Basic as buy or just looking around.
Based on the discussion that Ihad, I broke down the motives into the following: Experience, Simulate and Experiment.
Experiential (Pseudo ownership)
Some visitors would love to understand, what it is like to own a product, without actually having enough funds or will to go ahead with it.
Mapping this to online purchases, this would be akin to looking at videos, image galleries, Facebook posts about the product, which is very aspirational.
Simulative
Some are preparing a mental plan on what it would be like if they purchased it, among other things in life. For instance, the car plus house or car plus the vacation etc.
In case of travel and vacations this might be akin to looking at resorts, comparing car rental and fuel prices distances etc. These users are probably doing a lot of math before deciding to buy. They would like to understand, if this fits into larger scheme of things.
Experimentative
Some have true intents of testing before signing up the check. These are like users trying out multiple softwares, who would go after how easy, how fast, and true satisfaction.
In this exploration, i realized, i was doing getting on to something more than funnels.
What is hyper personalization
I did a little study after reaching home. Trying to figure, what i had just experienced. What was Personalization and Hyper-Personalization and how were they different. A lot of Wikipedia’s independent view point, with some industry articles gave me a better understanding of how Icould refine the knowledge acquired through my discussion with the Car Sales person.
Especially the article on the Hyper Personal model, which terms, ‘Exceeding face to face interactions’. What this clearly hinted towards was, Data backed communication.
Listing some of the articles that i had read!
Web Engage, talks deeply about successful use cases of using hyper personalization.
Article by McKinsey, speak elaborately about using behavioral data to shape strategy and using it for scale.
How is this different from funnels
Typically engagement funnels focus on sales. A lot of persuasion strategy is focused on the final business outcomes. As we probably know visitors typically do not follow a linear flow. Not all convert, some reach the final stage quickly, some wander in the same stage for a longer time.
Why were funnels built?
Funnels were constructed to solve and understand concepts on macro-level, what is the behavior of the larger population, what requires more attention. As a result things went missing from the single product experience design. Micro-single product conversion often is very poor in marketplaces, thanks to non comparibility or templatisation possibilities. For instance standardisation, which has both technical and economic value coming in way of giving a custom or unique experience.
My exploration is on segmentation, without actually modelling it around a funnel. There could be value that can be explored each segment uniquely and also calling it and end step, without focussing too much on just conversion.
Harley davidson derives a lot of value not only from people who buy it, but also people who aspire to.. or just love it.
Having value derived from all visiting goal oriented segments, can help businesses reach out to a larger set.
And how is this Model different
In the intersection of Segmentation — which was demographics related, and Funneling, which is ‘Place in the sales cycle’, considering, visitor motive might be of value.
Considering all qualified visitors as customers vs. considering qualified visitors or considering their motives for strategy.
Notes on building an experience for segmentation
The Business outcomes might differ as a result of the goals the car show room visitors had.
Simulate
For the simulative visitor in the car showroom, multiple things mattered – parking space required, mileage etc etc.
I asked the sales person, would it make sense to provide. how the car could fit into their lives. He could only point to the brochures with smiling faces and the tech features which required some effort.
On a travel website, If I booked a hotel and a flight to Nepal, what would be the dent on my pocket? what are the types of locales, what would be the temperature etc etc.
what if users told us what was important to them, building a backlog of what could be
What can we get out of this,
- Understand what feature our segment truly desires
- Build a custom experience
It could be interesting how we treat the experience, aware of the fact that the user is simulating the cost of purchase.
- Promote features by implicit or explicit understanding
- Provide detailed information about the selected features
Experiment
Some visitors directly went for the pedal in the car showroom. They dint need much, they had done the math, or would rather try first and then do the math.
The sales person, gleaned when I asked, how did you handle this visitor. They had the keys ready, the sales person knew exactly how to sell the car, when you were driving it.
Many software brands give us the option to try before buying the whole deal. We have also encountered the onboarding experience. How can we further improve thus segment.
What can we get out of this,
- Understand what feature our segment truly desires
- Build a custom experience
It again would be interesting, how we treat the experience here?
- Provide clear next steps
- Simplify the experience in next steps
Experience (Pseudo ownership)
I have been guilty of doing this often. I like trying cars without really having an acquisition plan.
So what about the visitors who spend time but don’t buy? The sales person smiled, apparently there was a way to know this. they would be extra polite but would loose the visitor to other details if it took more than 10 minutes.
What about mere window shoppers. What happens to people who want to try out things for the experience without owning the product?
What can we get out of this,
- Build a fan base of customers liking the product
- Build a future customer base
It would be interesting to achieve something meaningful from this segment of population
- Have a wish list experience
- Provide a way to achieve in a easier way (rent vs. purchase)
Summary
There is value in observing and applying models from life to virtual concepts. Very often data or conventional research does not lend enough understanding of how this may work.
While writing this article and conversing with my peers I realized a lot of literature is around marketplaces rather than a single product experience.
In a followup article i will explore a framework to understand and build experiences for a focussed product exploration.
