You Can't Beat $5 Sunglasses ... So Don't Try

In a post at his Influential Marketing blog, Rohit Bhargava talks about walking down the street in New York and watching people as they buy $5 sunglasses from street vendors. He knows there's a rationale for purchasing cheap knock-offs, even though they are of clearly inferior quality:

-A customer might lose or break sunglasses on a regular basis, and so hesitate to spend $100 or $200 for the genuine article.
-It could be an impulse buy.
-Or someone might operate under the mistaken impression that they can pass a fake off as the real thing.

Whatever their reasons, says Bhargava, they point to an interesting lesson: "[F]or some people, good sunglasses just aren't worth paying for." In other words, you can demonstrate the features and benefits of your product or service until you're blue in the face, and still fail to get any traction with a certain audience.

"[I]f a consumer doesn't believe products in your category are worth paying for, you are unlikely to convince them to make an exception for you," he says.

The Po!nt: "Instead of asking if your marketing is selling the right messages, you really need to ask if you are targeting the right customers," says Bhargava. "The real question isn't whether you can compete with the guy selling sunglasses on the street … it is whether you should even be trying to."

Source: Influential Marketing.