Q. Why isn’t anyone buying? A. Check the value (Part 1)

May 15, 2009

This week on the social networking site SmallerIndiana, the CEO of the organization nohome.org, Jerome Greene asked the questions: 

“You have a great new idea, everyone loves it, but no one else is buying it.  What’s the problem?  Is it your message?  Is it your website?”

Being someone who is passionate about marketing, I couldn’t help but offer my ‘two cents’ to him immediately.  But his questions got me thinking …. there are probably many people out there with similar questions.  So to help those facing a similar challenge, I thought I would try to address Jerome’s problem publicly  by suggesting he consider a few things over the course of a couple posts, and in doing so, hopefully spark some answers that can help others.

Before I go too far, let me just say that the ‘obstacle’ to people buying could be all sorts of things.  It could be the message.  It could be the website.  It could be the audience.  But before anyone decides to do a website overhaul, I suggest first checking the value proposition.

VALUE = Consumer Perceived Benefits – Consumer Perceived Costs 

In this post, I am going to talk about ways to maximize consumer perceived benefits using nohome.org as my case study.  The next post will discuss ways to minimize consumer perceived costs.

The case of nohome.org: 

nohome.org offers ‘humanitarian web hosting’.  For every dollar earned, one dollar will be used to build homes for refugees entering Indiana each year.  nohome.org offers 3 plans, the lowest starting at $19.95 per month.

The analysis:

To help Jerome and nohome.org maximize its benefits, I asked a series of questions.

Question 1:  What are the consumer benefits to purchasing web hosting from nohome.org?

Keep in mind that in general consumer perceived benefits include product performance, the service experience, the reputation and image the consumer gets by purchasing, and the relationship experience.

In nohome.org’s case, the benefits appear to be website hosting with a 30 day money back guarantee, no contract, 99.9% up time, and knowing that for every dollar earned, one dollar is used to build homes.  From my perspective, these benefits are primarily product performance and a little service oriented. 

Question 2:  Do consumers understand these benefits and do they perceive them as benefits?

In order for consumers to get the most value from a product or service, they have to understand all of the benefits they are receiving, and they have to perceive them as benefits.  Remember, value is all from the consumer’s perspective.  If the consumer doesn’t understand or perceive the offerings as benefits, the benefits need to be communicated differently or other offerings must be added that consumers do perceive as beneficial.  Jerome might want to consider conducting a consumer survey to make sure that consumers really understand the benefits they receive from nohome.org.

Question 3:  Is there a way for nohome.org to add more perceived benefits for its consumers without incurring more costs?

Given that most of nohome.org’s benefits are currently performance or service related, it seems like there may be some room for additional benefits to be added.  For instance, could nohome.org amplify its reputation/image benefit by giving customers a ‘badge’ on their site that demonstrates their humanitarian choice?  Could nohome.org provide a relationship benefit by building a special ‘community’ for its consumers who have a humanitarian interest in common?  Better yet, could it give its consumers some sort of ‘relationship’ with the refugees they are helping through a newsletter or an event?

Question 4:  Are the perceived benefits nohome.org offers differentiated?

I am assuming they are, but if they aren’t, Jerome might want to revisit #3 to think about other unique benefits nohome.org could provide. 

The other part of the equation

Hopefully these four questions spark some ideas to further enhance the perceived benefits of nohome.org and other products and services that are having trouble ‘making the sale’.  Of course the other area of opportunity for improving the value proposition is by minimizing perceived costs …. and that will be covered in the next post.