An Unfair Fight

I've written briefly about consumer behavior and how we are all creatures of habit, but it's hard (if not impossible) to quantify the true impact of our habits from a shopping perspective. What most of us do not realize is that each of our purchases does not exist in a vacuum. Each purchase is part of a much larger picture big  business is building to understand and influence your future purchases. In addition, each of those purchases can have a dramatic influence on our internal decision-making process.

We will almost always be more likely to repeat a behavior once we have engaged in it a first time. This means the first purchase is the hardest for a business to generate (we plan to fix that) and if you are a small or new business, most if not all of your customers are going to be first time buyers. This is also why loyalty programs for huge retailers want to trade reward points for second and third trips to the store. It's like a drug: the retailers know you have already overcome the huge obstacle of the first purchase and now you just need a tiny nudge (your reward points) to keep coming back for more.

It makes sense, therefore, that over time as we continue to accept the reward in exchange for the additional purchase, we become more engrained and predictable in what decision we will make when it comes to that particular good or service. Over time, the "decision" erodes away to a default, learned behavior that has been engineered by that large business. Once they have created a predictable usage pattern like this, they can slowly pull away the actual value (the purchasing power of those reward points) without most customers noticing. Now they have the best of both worlds: a repeat, predictable customer who is also paying full (or nearly full) price. How is that fair?

So what's missing? If you are a small business owner, you may say "well that's true for big corporations but not for us!" and you are most likely right. The fact is that there are thousands of small or new businesses that cannot compete with the large corporate players. Some will differentiate and some will offer higher service standards, but they are all still facing the challenge of the first time customer, a problem that the corporations have a billion dollar head start on. They already have nice cozy spots carved out in the minds of almost all consumers. How to you compete with that?

That sounds bleak, but we have a solution. There will always be major players, huge marketing budgets, and engrained consumers psychology to make succeeding an uphill battle, but we intend to make it a significantly more fair fight. Scannibal provides your business with an opportunity to access new customers and drive that first interaction and transaction in a completely new, direct, and measurable way. We think small businesses are creating tremendous experiences, amazing products, and unprecedented value. We think it's time to provide a gateway to all the spectacular things small business has to offer.

Thanks for reading!
 Chris @ Scannibal


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