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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Getting a Competitive Edge

Scannibal is a completely new mobile rewards platform that based the rewards you earn directly off of where you already shop(this is only kind of a plug. I have a point, I promise). The goal is to create a more efficient way for customers to earn, store, and easily redeem any discount they may receive while also providing value to businesses. While most of us hate advertising, businesses spend a lot of money trying to get and hold your attention. We are creating a way for both the customers and the businesses to win. Let's look at each perspective:

Customers

We are all customers, so this should be easy. What are the key things you care about when it comes to spending your money? Here are a few that come to mind (in no particular order)

1. Value - is what i'm getting worth what i'm paying?
2. Service - did I enjoy my experience with this business?
3. Convenience - how easy was making the purchase?
4. Speed - how quickly can I get this item?
5. Price - how much do I need to spend to get this item?
6. Quality - is the item high quality or is it cheap?

Think about how each of these plays into every single purchase you make. These are some of the key drivers of why we buy what we buy and where we buy what we buy (try saying that 5 times fast). So if we were to sweeten the deal on any given purchase, what is the best one of those characteristics to focus on? We think all of them.

Scannibal isn't just about getting a lower price or about getting more value for your dollar, it's also about experiences. When we get into habit or we get pulled in by loyalty points a business gives us AFTER we spend money, we start to limit our options. We get pulled into the big chains and the corporate warehouse stores which isn't always a bad thing, but they are spending lots of money to keep us from seeing whats out there. 

Take People's Market here in Denver. One of the freshest, friendliest, most affordable little grocery stores in Denver and they have to compete with huge stores. Our goal isn't to keep you from shopping at large corporate chains, but rather to enable the small businesses with better goods and services to give you an invitation to break out and try something new. 

Businesses

Business seems fairly cut-and-dry on the surface: make money. That is the ONLY goal, right? Wrong. While making money is important, the people that involved in making that business happen are far more important. Think about when you go to work all day. You work, they give you money. For you it is a positive cash flow transaction but for everyone else, the place you go to work is just a business like any other. Businesses want and need to succeed not only to make a profit and grow, but to support the family of employees they have making it tick. At their core, most businesses are about people and we think helping businesses succeed is about as close as you can get to helping the employees directly.

However, It's easy to think that anything that creates competition is bad. In reality, competition is actually vital to how our economy and our society work. The reason why competition is such a great thing is that it creates value and innovation. almost 100% of the things you see at your desk as you read this are a result of innovation driven out of competition. 

For example, lets say in a fiction town there are only two factors in buying cookies: flavor and price. If every business had the same flavor of cookies and charged the same price, consumers would have no reason to buy them one place versus another. Without competition, businesses (and the livelihood of their employees) is left up to chance. Creating competition pushes businesses to realize their potential and grow into stronger, more mature companies. 

At the end of the day, when a business is working around the clock to figure out how to win, all there competition has to be doing the same or they will lose. This is the equation that brought us all the amazing things we have today like computers, iPhones, and televisions. Our goal is preserve this equation by enabling the businesses looking for a new way to compete. Customers save and explore, businesses compete and grow, and the world spins madly on.

Thanks for reading! 

Check us out online and sign up for release updates:http://scannibal.com/

And follow us on Twitter:@ScannibalApp 

Chris