Heuristics As a Marketing Concept

In a psychological sense, heuristics are simple,intangibles such as services will buy from companies
unconscious rules of thumb that every one of us hasthey perceive as experts. During my tenure at a
created to make decisions and solve problems. TheyFortune 500 technology corporation, we constantly
are "if this, then that" statements that we formulatefaced the challenge of selling our enterprise IT
to govern our actions when faced with choices.services to the customer's executive suite in spite of
Heuristics have been around as long as we have. Butgreat value and expertise. Why? Because we were
as the information revolution continues to flood uscompeting with far more recognizable names than
with more and more details about every subjectours, and we discovered that a common executive
imaginable, and our daily schedules get fuller and fuller,heuristic is "If it's a well-known company, the board
their existence has become more apparent. We needwill easily approve and I won't get into trouble if it
ways to make workable decisions without gettingdoesn't work."
overwhelmed. And heuristics let us do that, at leastWhat heuristics does your market use when deciding
most of the time.whether to buy your products or services? Better
The main features of heuristics are that they:yet, what heuristics do you want used to lead to a
- tend to be simple and easy to mentally compute;buying decision in your favor. If you market to meet
- are relatively few in number; andthe right criteria, you are more likely to get and keep
- are often "surrogates" for other attributes/benefitsthe right kind of customer for your business.
It is worth noting that a stumbling block of heuristicsFor example, my own company is a virtual service
is that they may lead us into stereotypes orbusiness, which means that I want clients who are
nonsequiturs that lead to wrong decisions. Forcomfortable obtaining the kinds of services I offer
example, "if it is popular, then it must be safe," or "ifvia the Internet with little, if any, real time interaction.
it's high priced, it must be better" may not serve asSo I market where there are service companies that
good heuristics, since the first quality has no relationwant to work virtually with a marketing consultancy.
on the second. Overall, though, the benefits of usingI also target what I think of as "personality"
heuristics outweigh the risks, because they help usheuristics. The header of my coaching website,
simplify our decisions into manageable proportions andSuccess in Sweatpants, is a prime example: It is a
more often than not give us workable, if not great,good reflection of my attitude and inclusion of humor
results.in my approach. Anyone who finds the header dumb
So heuristics help us navigate an increasingly complexor unprofessional is not very likely to contact me,
world on a day to day basis without going crazywhich reflects a heuristic of my own: If you don't
from all the stimuli that come at us. What does thatthink that purple sweatpants, pink bunny slippers, and
have to do with marketing?a laptop belching money are at least a little bit
Your customers and prospects use heuristics everyamusing, you shouldn't work with me.
day when making buying decisions, and that includesI assert that it is worth the energy to figure out the
the decision about buying from you. The use ofbuying heuristics that you want to appeal to and
heuristics, and common use of familiarity as one ofevaluate whether you are indeed meeting those
the rules (as in "I know this brand, so I'll trust it), iscriteria in your marketing. You may be surprised at
what makes branding and positioning so important. Inwhat you learn, and it may make the difference
the services arena, concepts like "mind share" andbetween so-so marketing and breaking through to a
"thought leadership" are important because buyers ofnew level of success.