Gone are the days when manufacturers would channel a new product down the supply chain and it would be an instant hit with the target market, there are the exceptions but business dynamics have shifted over time.
As a manufacturer you might get different reasons as to why your product/service is stuck in a rut from your stockists/distributors and retailers but the success of a product is always determined by its appeal to the eventual consumer.
For instance, you have introduced a new brand of tyres into the market but customers seem to have a bias for the more established products, what do you do from there?
The answer to that it is behavioural science, companies are increasingly contracting private firms to study pyschographics, mannerisms and behaviours of a customer base they want to target.
Factor this, when the tyres you have introduced into the market go by the tagline ‘Explore more” while the target market is middle income earners who want tyres which will last then you might want to consider switching your tagline to “Be African and buy tyres made for African Roads”
Francis Meyo, an engagement director at Busara Center for Behavioural Economics says that the human mind is built to respond to messages that it feels affect them or has a direct impact on their reputation.
Busara Center has worked with leading brands including Safaricom, The Mastercard Foundation, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Meyo says that behavioural science helps companies understand their audiences better, because they make decisions based on informed perspectives.
The behaviour specialist says that a research that his organisation did for Safaricom’s M-Shwari before the emergence of mobile loan firms established that very many people borrow in the wee hours of the night, possibly businessmen and women or revellers who party late into the night. The research established that the two groups borrowed the money and paid a few hours later, before that the company had not factored in such considerations.
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“The human mind is tailored to respond based on context, behavioral economics is a field that businesses ought to consider while making decisions,” said Meyo.
