The Difference and Truth About the Considered Purchase
At Smith-Dahmer Associates, we call products that are durable and long lasting, and services of solid benefit and enduring value, considered purchases.
Compared to packaged goods and impulse items, consumers think differently about considered purchase products and services.
As you well know, consumers’ shopping behavior, relationship to the product or service, and purchasing dynamics are radically different—for a multitude of reasons.
| From the consumer’s standpoint, considered purchases: |
From the manufacturer’s/service provider’s standpoint, considered purchases: |
|---|---|
|
Demand a large financial outlay and, sometimes, emotional commitment |
Demand large investments in R&D, tooling, production; implementation |
|
These products and services are owned/utilized over a long period of time |
Have long repeat sale cycles, during which products/services/needs change |
|
Shopping involves many steps and stages; thus, more time is required |
Can involve numerous channels and influencers out in the field |
|
Call for knowledge gathering from many sources, influencers, networking |
Call for promoting features/advantages/benefits through multiple vehicles |
|
Entail more interaction with product/service; a more complex relationship |
Require complex manufacturing processes; more service program variables |
|
Involve risk and living with the consequences, need post-purchase support |
Assume risk, warranty and liability exposure; require satisfied customers |
It’s no wonder then that marketing research performed for considered purchase products and services must be designed, executed, analyzed and presented differently.
And the truth is, only marketing research companies who specialize in finding, engaging, understanding and interpreting the considered purchaser can deliver the insights, “intelligence” and actionable results crucial for today’s manufacturer and service provider.
SDA is precisely such a company. Seventeen years ago we were founded on, and today are dedicated to, the power of the considered purchase. We specialize in capturing and translating research findings into practical insights and actionable steps for considered purchase product manufacturers and service providers around the world.
“Considered purchase research has to be carefully designed so you don’t kill ideas before they should be, so you kill them for the right reasons, or you move them forward for the right reasons,” says SDA co-founder Joan Smith.
“Our expertise is evident throughout the marketing research process,” emphasizes co-founder Ann Dahmer. “We deliver high quality data from which rich understanding can be mined, produce unique insights that drive actions, and it’s all done using our custom designed tools.”
That thinking has led SDA to pioneer numerous innovative and proprietary tools and methodologies. To learn more about SDA’s various considered purchase focused methodologies, go to smarts. Finally, SDA excels at the art of questioning the considered purchaser. We not only know what to ask, and at what precise point to ask it, but how to ask the question to illicit responses of depth, dimension and discovery.
We invite you to learn more of our depth and dimension, to discover SDA: the full service, custom marketing research firm whose experience and expertise, tools and techniques, people and passion is galvanized on considered purchase products and services.
To learn more about SDA, contact us or go to our home page.