5 ms·

I mostly sell software to businesses rather than selling balsamic sauce to upper middle class women but, hey, if you want free advice: 1) Every e-commerce com

by patio11 13y ago

I mostly sell software to businesses rather than selling balsamic sauce to upper middle class women but, hey, if you want free advice: 1) Every e-commerce company ever will tell you to offer "Free shipping" even if you have to build it into the price of the bottle. Your target customer doesn't care about the difference between $15 and $20 but, oddly, she does care about paying five whole dollars to ship something she could "just pick up at the store." 2) You're currently selling authentic, which is better than selling nothing at all, but authenticity is not the primary driver of the food purchasing decisions of upper-income Americans. Some options which would complement authenticity: exclusive ("not like the kind you get at the supermarket" / (generally not explicit but heavily implied) "better than what the poor people put on their caprece"), healthy (oh God is that a big one), decadent, social conscience (produced by small family-owned farms rather than big evil agribusiness) etc. Yes, there's a bit of tension between someone wanting to use class consciousness as conspicuous consumption, but meet your customer where she is at -- and she is at Starbucks. 3) She doesn't care about your story. She cares about her story. Does this make her better than the other moms of the PTA who buy $5 balsamic at the supermarket? If so, lead with that, support with your story. 4) Get some photos of people on your site. Laura of Laura in the Kitchen, for example, as she is a good stand-in for your customer's ideal self. Failing that, if someone who is involved in actually making the balsamic has camera appeal, use them instead. 5) Do some deep thoughts on where people are in the purchasing process when they find you. If they're sure they want this, you don't put the "BUY OUR STUFF" nearly front and center enough. If they're not, your current focus on persuading them that you're the best balsamic makes more sense.

newobj 13y ago
"upper middle class women" "moms of the PTA" holy wtf dude?
- patio11 13y ago
  Is that like "WTF, the primary market for this is not upper middle class women" or "WTF, you are being very blunt about this." If the second, guilty as charged. If the first, I'd very much like to hear who you think buys premium-priced balsamic.
  - dragonwriter 13y ago
    > Is that like "WTF, the primary market for this is not upper middle class women" or "WTF, you are being very blunt about this." [...] If the first, I'd very much like to hear who you think buys premium-priced balsamic. Upper-middle class foodies. Who are probably less likely to be women than the market for non-premium balsamic.
    - mechanical_fish 13y ago
      This is a fine hypothesis but, without data, it's hard to see why it's probable. In the USA, two-thirds of grocery shopping is done by women. There are studies: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2011/in-u-s-men-are-shopping-more-than-ever-while-women-are-watching-more-tv.html http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2011/in-u-s-men-are-sh... ...which suggest that men make 38% of retail grocery shopping trips. So, if you're going to envision a representative person who is looking for a grocery item, you should probably start out by envisioning a woman. It is, unsurprisingly, difficult to find more specific information online for free. Instead, by googling "market analysis salad dressing", I find approximately six market research organizations that offer to sell me a report. Perhaps the OP has bought such a thing, but none of the rest of us are likely to bother. Of course, what actually matters when trying to convert website visitors is not the demographics of the universe, or of US grocery buyers, or even of US buyers of balsamic vinegar, but the behavior of the people who are actually reaching the website. About whom we really know nothing.
  - newobj 13y ago
    Let's focus on your "moms of the PTA" comment.
    - tmandarano 13y ago
      To his credit, "moms of the PTA" are quite close to our target customer.
    - patio11 13y ago
      OK. Can you articulate why you object to me using those words, now that we're in apparent agreement that the target customer is actually an upper middle-class woman? I mean, I know why it would cause a few of my professors to sputter, but their rationale for that isn't persuasive. Maybe yours is.
- throwit1979 13y ago
  Sorry, patrick cares more about the actual reality of what motivates buying decisions of the target demographic than whatever is nicer to believe.
  - tmandarano 13y ago
    Correct. Thank you Patrick.
- tptacek 13y ago
  Women are more likely to shop for food than men. Upper middle class women spend more on premium food products than lower middle class women. (I'm a friend of Patrick's and have had dinner with him enough to guess that he's not food-savvy enough to know that upper-upper class women wouldn't buy "balsamic sauce" because it isn't packaged in a thimble and doesn't cost $150; he just happened to get that one by accident.) Moms often cook for their families. Moms of the PTA are especially engaged with their family life, and are especially likely to take seriously the process of shopping for premium food products. This is called customer targeting. It's about as sexist as it is ageist to target advertising for American Girl Dolls to 8 year girls. I'm not sure what's so hard to understand about this. Sometimes, by being knee-jerk and superficial in your reaction to gender issues, even in the "right" direction, one can actually come close to betraying a lack of understanding about what the real issues are. (I say this as someone who has spent an embarrassing amount of money on vial-sized jars of balsamic.)
- coldtea 13y ago
  Holy wtf back at you. For calling the Politically Correct SWAT teams into innocent conversation. Can people say anything that does not annoy the PC crowds anymore? Yes, in the real world, women drive more food purchases such as this than men. And mostly "upper middle class" women, or, to be more precise, upper middle class wannabes, buy something like balsamic.
iyulaev 13y ago
You know patio11, sometimes I read your blog posts and get a feeling of lingering doubt, like, "there's no way this guy can be as clever and successful as he claims." And then I see a comment of yours (like this one) and any trace of doubt evaporates.
tmandarano 13y ago
Thank you! Extremely helpful.
colinm 13y ago
6) Don't have an order page that 404's http://www.balsamicsauce.com/collections/frontpage/products/balsamic-sauce http://www.balsamicsauce.com/collections/frontpage/products/...

by patio11 13y ago

newobj 13y ago

"upper middle class women" "moms of the PTA" holy wtf dude?

patio11 13y ago
Is that like "WTF, the primary market for this is not upper middle class women" or "WTF, you are being very blunt about this." If the second, guilty as charged. If the first, I'd very much like to hear who you think buys premium-priced balsamic.
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  > Is that like "WTF, the primary market for this is not upper middle class women" or "WTF, you are being very blunt about this." [...] If the first, I'd very much like to hear who you think buys premium-priced balsamic. Upper-middle class foodies. Who are probably less likely to be women than the market for non-premium balsamic.
  - mechanical_fish 13y ago
    This is a fine hypothesis but, without data, it's hard to see why it's probable. In the USA, two-thirds of grocery shopping is done by women. There are studies: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2011/in-u-s-men-are-shopping-more-than-ever-while-women-are-watching-more-tv.html http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2011/in-u-s-men-are-sh... ...which suggest that men make 38% of retail grocery shopping trips. So, if you're going to envision a representative person who is looking for a grocery item, you should probably start out by envisioning a woman. It is, unsurprisingly, difficult to find more specific information online for free. Instead, by googling "market analysis salad dressing", I find approximately six market research organizations that offer to sell me a report. Perhaps the OP has bought such a thing, but none of the rest of us are likely to bother. Of course, what actually matters when trying to convert website visitors is not the demographics of the universe, or of US grocery buyers, or even of US buyers of balsamic vinegar, but the behavior of the people who are actually reaching the website. About whom we really know nothing.
- newobj 13y ago
  Let's focus on your "moms of the PTA" comment.
  - tmandarano 13y ago
    To his credit, "moms of the PTA" are quite close to our target customer.
  - patio11 13y ago
    OK. Can you articulate why you object to me using those words, now that we're in apparent agreement that the target customer is actually an upper middle-class woman? I mean, I know why it would cause a few of my professors to sputter, but their rationale for that isn't persuasive. Maybe yours is.
throwit1979 13y ago
Sorry, patrick cares more about the actual reality of what motivates buying decisions of the target demographic than whatever is nicer to believe.
- tmandarano 13y ago
  Correct. Thank you Patrick.
tptacek 13y ago
Women are more likely to shop for food than men. Upper middle class women spend more on premium food products than lower middle class women. (I'm a friend of Patrick's and have had dinner with him enough to guess that he's not food-savvy enough to know that upper-upper class women wouldn't buy "balsamic sauce" because it isn't packaged in a thimble and doesn't cost $150; he just happened to get that one by accident.) Moms often cook for their families. Moms of the PTA are especially engaged with their family life, and are especially likely to take seriously the process of shopping for premium food products. This is called customer targeting. It's about as sexist as it is ageist to target advertising for American Girl Dolls to 8 year girls. I'm not sure what's so hard to understand about this. Sometimes, by being knee-jerk and superficial in your reaction to gender issues, even in the "right" direction, one can actually come close to betraying a lack of understanding about what the real issues are. (I say this as someone who has spent an embarrassing amount of money on vial-sized jars of balsamic.)
coldtea 13y ago
Holy wtf back at you. For calling the Politically Correct SWAT teams into innocent conversation. Can people say anything that does not annoy the PC crowds anymore? Yes, in the real world, women drive more food purchases such as this than men. And mostly "upper middle class" women, or, to be more precise, upper middle class wannabes, buy something like balsamic.

iyulaev 13y ago

You know patio11, sometimes I read your blog posts and get a feeling of lingering doubt, like, "there's no way this guy can be as clever and successful as he claims." And then I see a comment of yours (like this one) and any trace of doubt evaporates.

tmandarano 13y ago

Thank you! Extremely helpful.

colinm 13y ago

6) Don't have an order page that 404's http://www.balsamicsauce.com/collections/frontpage/products/balsamic-sauce http://www.balsamicsauce.com/collections/frontpage/products/...