Today's consumers prioritize time over product features when making purchase decisions. They have activities they want to spend more time on and others where they aim to minimize time spent. Therefore, businesses can gain a competitive edge by learning to effectively utilize consumers' limited time and attention. Rather than directly battling time barriers, it is more advantageous to proactively leverage time limits. It is crucial to treat time as the scarce resource it is, regardless of future technological advancements. In today's world, time holds more importance than money, brand, features, authenticity, or other typical factors in business plans. It is the most consistently overlooked driver of customer decisions. Consumers now make tradeoffs between the value of their time and various choices. Instead of futilely fighting against these tradeoffs and ultimately losing, businesses should focus on finding ways to utilize them positively. Since everyone has only 24 hours in a day, time will always be a scarce commodity.
Consumers' daily purchasing decisions are influenced by the time and attention they're willing to invest. Products and services can be categorized into four distinct quadrants based on these factors. In the Motivation quadrant, customers devote a lot of time and attention, which is where marketers traditionally aim to position their offerings. However, there's a limit to how much time consumers can allocate to everything. The Habit quadrant involves activities that consume time but not attention, like routine tasks done on autopilot. The Convenience quadrant is for when customers give brief but focused attention to things that save time, such as fast food or expedited delivery. Lastly, the Value quadrant is where customers seek to minimize both time and attention, often making decisions based on price alone, which is where high-volume "white label" products in major retailers thrive. Time is a fixed constraint, with everyone having the same 24 hours each day. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that Americans spend about 28 minutes daily on purchasing goods and services, a figure that hasn't changed much since the 1960s, despite the increase in shopping avenues and product availability. Sellers are, perhaps unknowingly, competing on the basis of time, with consumers worldwide prioritizing purchases based on their time and attention preferences. Understanding customers through the time-value perspective can highlight opportunities that might otherwise be missed. This could involve identifying prospects who are willing to invest more time and attention into specialized offerings or recognizing needs that can be better served through convenience or value options. By analyzing products across these four quadrants, businesses can identify gaps and enhance customer satisfaction. Aligning offerings with customer time-value preferences is crucial. Companies competing on motivation or convenience should consider if their customers would also appreciate habit or value options. Similarly, those who are successful in the value quadrant should explore opportunities to satisfy unmet needs with convenience or specialized offerings that some customers are prepared to spend more time and attention on. Continuously reassessing your product mix with a time-value focus can help discover new prospects and boost retention. In essence, employing a time-value framework can uncover unmet needs and new market opportunities, aiding in increasing sales and strengthening customer relationships. Satisfied customers whose needs align with their time-value preferences are more likely to remain loyal in the long run.
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