The design elephant in the marketing room

(Column) – A designer elephant costing €1495 designed in 1945. A plywood chair costing €1700. A wooden bird for €319. I’ve been dreaming of buying those products for years. But I don’t buy it, my Dutch mind just thinks it’s too expensive.

But Dutch ghosts can be triggered. Because if that designer elephant is offered to you for free on Instagram, will you still say no? Hmm.

Okay, back to my interests. I love art and design. For my fellow enthusiasts, the products I describe were indeed designed by Charles and Ray Eames and belong to the collection of glass.

And crazy about design and art, I don’t just say that. My Pinterest is full of them, I have posted photos of myself in the Vitra lounge chair on Instagram and I enjoy visiting exhibitions on this subject. And then I share the latter on my Instagram. Because if I didn’t already have such a nice job, I would have loved to become a museum influencer.

If I check in at museums, share beautiful places and click through from an article on Meta about design, the algorithm naturally goes crazy. I fall into the category of ‘design enthusiast’ and that is interesting for certain companies.

Also interesting for major brands and web shops stationed in China that offer a very wide range of relatively cheap products. Are some names already popping up? Definitely. At least, if you occasionally open Instagram or search for a specific product via your search engine, you cannot ignore it. The marketing approach is quite aggressive and present.

Smart marketing approach

This column is not about the ever-increasing market share of these web shops, the type of products and their production. I do have an opinion about that, but in this case it doesn’t matter. What I would like to focus on is their marketing approach. Because what they do is smart. Ok, back to that elephant.

They offer me a designer elephant without me looking for it. Free!* Yes, the design piece that I have wanted in my living room for years. (*and fake of course). But what do you mean free, that costs them turnover?

Well, the answer is quite simple. Marketing is often aimed at attracting new customers. This often requires a lot of time, money and media budget. Once that customer has been acquired, you can focus your marketing approach on existing customers and focus on repeat purchases. That’s where you get the actual profit, not from that first conversion.

Let’s make it even flatter. A free product in exchange for your personal information. Because they are worth something and that’s what it’s all about. Next time you order something, and maybe again, that investment in that free product will pay off in no time.

Return after one-time investment

Should we all now implement the Chinese marketing approach? No, definitely not. But it is good to look beyond the costs of that first purchase. A one-time investment ensures long-term returns.

Another example then. Less grand, just as good. He’s coming.

I like to read. An average of one book per week. From thrillers to history books and from non-fiction to historical novels. For this purpose I have an e-reader and a subscription, so that I can read unlimited books for a fixed price per month. Sometimes a book falls outside that subscription. I’d rather not buy, but I’m willing to give in when there’s a discount.

For example, I was recently persuaded to read the first book in a series of seven books. Purely because the book only cost €4.99. Yes, €15 discount! So I bought it, downloaded it, read it and when the book was finished I knew: I wanted to read the other six too. I’ll do the same, but for full price. That’s fine with me, because the book captivated me.

Moral of the story? A one-off €15 discount means I will probably spend €20 six more times. And that is exactly why it is good to give that discount in the beginning.

Doing the sum is fun

So start calculating the customer lifetime. You need a number of numbers for that sum. The average purchase value, the purchase frequency and the duration that customers stay with you. Compare that to the turnover generated by certain product categories and you really know what you are talking about in marketing.

And you know, doing that sum is really fun. Especially if you have to convince clients of the value of a marketing investment.

I see you thinking. Did I order that elephant? No. Not the free version, but not the original either. Sometimes you have to settle for just dreaming about something.