b-commerce

b-commerce is a concept coined by me to represent my holistic approach to building Sales Flow. The term is a conjunction of brand and e-commerce.

b-commerce is taking a broad and long view to design better processes that help build trust and answer the needs of the consumer so that a sale is a natural win-win part of the process and not an arm-twisting event

Branding

Brand is the total experience the customer feels when interacting with a business. Building a brand is in the detail. Everything that every customer thinks about a business and its products becomes part of the brand.

Sadly a lot of people think that a brand is simply the logo that is put on the top of letterhead and that’s where it all ends. There are two reasons for this misconception if we look at what a brand evolved from

1. Livestock Branding – burn a mark into the side of a cow so that it could be traced back to it’s owner if it ran, or got spirited, away. The Owner’s mark identified the animal’s owner.
2. Maker’s Mark – the mark that identified the craftsman who created a piece of art or a tool. A makers mark came to have great value (so much so that people would stamp false marks to raise the sale price of inferior products). Makers Marks used to be on the bottom of things but now they are loudly displayed on the outside of everything to identify the wearer as rich and part of a tribe.

A Logo is a natural progression of these practices. But a Logo DOES NOT constitute a brand. A logo can represent and encapsulate a brand but is not the brand itself. The actual brand is intangible; the perception of the product, position in the market, quality, service, style, social cachet etc. A brand develops or is developed as a result of the way a product is perceived by customers - not by marketers as is commonly believed.

While McDonalds* and Four Seasons* in New York are both well known restaurants, both offer food that will fill you up and both have a high profile their brands are rather different to each other. One makes you wear a jacket and can make you wait 3 weeks to dine and dinner starts at a $59 ’special’. The other encourages you to drop in at a moments notice whether you are wearing a shirt or not for a dinner that might only cost you $2.

We all have well rounded opinions on how both of these restaurants fit with our lifestyles even if we haven’t been to either. This opinion is the brand that each business carries. The brand message may be positive for some but negative for others. Actually most of us are very aware of how McDonalds is working to change the perceptions that we all have of them and their offering. They are re-branding, or more accurately finding new ways to please customers.

It is those far reaching opinions and feelings that people hold on a business that are the real brand. The logo (like the big yellow M) simply becomes a convenient container or focal point (in web parlance an icon or avatar) for all those feelings floating around in us.

Many marketers place an unhealthy focus on branding. A brand really develops from customer feelings as they ineract with your products not from the top-down approach that is common. A customer likes you because they like your products and you fit their lifestyle and assumptions. The formal Brand has almost no impact on first purchases (so long as it isn't damaging).

Your approach

A real consumer experience grows from the interactions they have with your products and staff. If your product and sales process is hard to understand your stock goes down. If your sales staff are rude and unhelpful your stock goes down. If your product is hard to use then your stock goes down. If your support team don't care then your stock goes down. Get my drift.

You need to really do everything right, not just pay lip service. When all the ducks are lined up things flow:

the right customer for your product, an easy buying experience, an easy to use product and great support

your stock goes up. If you are consistant and true then your customers fall in love with you and your product.

A good web site

A good web sales process will be carefully designed to establish both a look and feel that fits with the lifestyle expectations of the intended customers. The flow and delivery of the information will be designed as carefully. Images will be relevant. Overall nothing will be there that doesn’t answer the customer’s main question “How can these people make my life better?” (my Richer, Sexier, Happier Rule).

Once that vital first question is answered with a Yes (about 2 seconds) then the customer will be taken on a journey to lead them to their goal (and yours) – either a buy now, an inquiry, phone call or a visit to the store. For some the journey will be quick and for others it will be protracted, with many visits over months. Either way, every click has to bring greater value to the relationship or your customer will likely evaporate.

Does your web site and sales process do everything that it needs to create a flow? A good web site will be as thoroughly planned as a high rise building and with as strong and deep a foundation in understanding of customer and sales processes.

*Sadly both restaurants only offer menus as PDF files despite generous budgets.