Our status in society influences our decision-making. We use status as a shortcut to decide where to place people and entities.
“there are two types of Social Influence: normative social influence and informational social influence”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718651/#pone.0146536.ref006
“Normative social influence – The influence is based on people’s motivation to gain approval and avoid rejection by conforming with others’ expectations.”
“informational social influence arises from useful and valid information that another’s opinion or behavior provides to improve a decision or judgment”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718651/
When we make decisions on buying a product/service, we are considering its impact on our status.
In the journey from where a customer is to where they want to go, their status is going to change. And can your product or service help with that?
Iconic brands have achieved a level of status that by being a customer of those brands your status goes up. Think Apple. Think Nike. Think Starbucks.
Luxury brands do the same. When customers drive a sports car or wear an expensive watch, it’s a public statement of their status.
When a product or service can do that, it becomes aspirational and desirable.
How do non-luxury goods or a B2B product or service achieve that?
Can owning a piece of software or hiring a vendor, elevate your status? Or do the outcomes from these engagements cause your status to go up and get peer recognition?
If it does, then people are going to tell others about it.
While money and power are two obvious status symbols, status is also very contextual. Dynamics of status in society and status in peer groups are different. The scale differs, but it still influences us in how we make decisions.
Customer Journey maps and Empathy maps are important tools in marketing. Influence maps as Rand Fishkin argues help us understand who influences customers. If status plays a role in decision-making, we should be studying status and changes in status.
A Customer Status map adds another layer to our understanding of the customer. With this insight, we can see how our product and marketing affect a customer’s status.
Some questions we should seek to understand:
- What is their current status?
- What is the status in comparison to you?
- If there’s a status gap how can you help them overcome it?
- Who is the higher ranking status person that influences them?
- Can your service help them fit in or help them stand out in a way that elevates them?
In a B2B scenario, the situation is further complicated because the buyer is not singular. And even the decision-maker is spending someone else’s money (budget).
A visual representation of this complex environment will help us be more mindful of our marketing.
