At the beginning of the article, ask yourself a question: Do you think you are a rational consumer? Economics is called the "economic man" of consumers, that is, consumers are absolutely rational when making purchase decisions and pursue the most profitable purchase results. Imagine a scene. In summer, we often buy cones, and some dessert stations will serve ice cream in spiral stacks. Although consumers have swallowed three times, they feel a lot and are very valuable, so the repurchase rate will be high. We often believe our eyes, and merchants will use people's desire to get more psychology to create the illusion of "looking beautiful". Indeed, consumers will have a comprehensive evaluation of their purchase behavior, which is rational, but this "rationality" is limited, because consumers will have preferences for different products, such as demand, cognition and emotion, and people can't collect all the information of products, which will be limited by information processing ability.

In the ever-changing Internet era, operators and product managers are faced with new demands, new technologies and new models ... How to bring forth new ideas in such rapidly iterative competitive products, improve user coverage and make products have a good prospect, here we can use prospect theory to explain.

What is prospect theory? The prospect theory put forward by Camanni and Tevsky describes the behavior of users that is different from traditional expectations when facing risk decisions. It is the research result of psychology and behavioral science.

Prospect theory belongs to descriptive theory, which explains consumers' attitudes and preferences to risks and uncertainties from the perspective of cognitive psychology, and fully explains consumers' decision-making behavior. In view of the theoretical framework and content applicability established by its evaluation, prospect theory is widely used in marketing scenarios.

Let's use the conclusion of prospect theory to explain why marketing promotion is more difficult now.

First, the deterministic effect: when faced with certain benefits and risks, most people are reluctant to gamble any more, and everyone tends to avoid risks. For example, in a customs clearance game, you get a certain amount of money after customs clearance and lose everything. In most cases, people will win a few games in front and accumulate a lot of wealth, but they will shrink back in the countdown for fear of losing their previous gains.

The second is to avoid losses. In layman's terms, the pain of losing 100 yuan will cover up the happiness of getting 100 yuan, and users are less sensitive to gains and losses.

The third is reference dependence. Gains and losses are relative references. For example, if your annual income is 120000, your colleague's annual income is 1 100, and your colleague's annual income is 130000, most people will choose annual income 120000 out of the psychology of comparison.

From the product point of view, we need to find a balance between user churn and gain. We basically divide the products that need to be marketed into three categories:

First, the acquisition cost of users remains unchanged, which solves the pain points of users to a greater extent;

Second, the user's acquisition cost is reduced, and it is the same as before in solving the user's pain points-fighting price wars and reducing product prices;

Third, the acquisition cost of users increases, and at the same time, it provides users with a higher quality solution-users spend five times more price and enjoy ten times better service, that is, consumption upgrade.

In the first case, let's not talk about whether users can perceive and recognize the benefits brought by product optimization, and how to confirm and recognize the effect of this product. Faced with higher trial and error costs (whether the product is more effective), users are more willing to use existing and some products.

The second situation is easier to understand. You can refer to the taxi and take-away industries that used to be subsidized by red envelopes. Now the e-commerce platform with discounts and groups is one of the easiest ways for users to convert, because users are very sensitive to prices.

The third situation is often the most difficult to do. As mentioned above, consumers are often more willing to trust their eyes and make decisions according to their own preferences. In addition, in many cases, users shrink back because of trouble before estimating the cost and benefit of choosing this product.

So, is there any way to help new products not to be lost?

(1) Introduce reference objects to highlight product advantages.

When making consumption decisions, users will have a psychological process of comparing products with reference objects. For example, the e-commerce website will create an atmosphere of substantial price reduction in the Double Eleven, which will arouse users' desire to buy. There is a saying in users' minds that it is not worthwhile to measure the product value according to the comprehensive factors of market and preference. Changing the user's reference object, this method can be divided into two small points, one is to divert the user's attention to the price; Second, by comparing with other products, let users feel that your products are worth the money. Specifically, when a fitness product launches a 99-yuan monthly card, users can exercise unlimited times (not in a store). Suppose users exercise 8 times a month, with an average of more than once 10 yuan, and split the seemingly high fitness expenses at the price of once 10 yuan, and enjoy professional group classes and equipment, and the user's acceptance is improved. On the other hand, 99 yuan-the price of eating a hot pot is not enough, so it is used for fitness. With the contrast between eating and losing weight, users feel guilty and urgent. In short, users are often hesitant and tangled when making decisions, and the marketing that makes your products break through the threshold of users' desire to buy is successful and effective.

(2) Combine or transform products to create a comparative environment.

For some kinds of products, users usually have little or no reference, that is, products driven by user preferences are characterized by low decision-making cost, obvious user deviation and no reference from others' experience, such as some basic foods and oils; And highly innovative products such as luxury goods. For the above two kinds of products, the failure rate of marketing behavior is relatively high because of the influence of users' previous preferences. Is there room for improvement? In fact, we can consider changing its positioning or combining it with other products to create reference conditions. For example, when coffee first entered China, it was an innovative product. Users don't know much about coffee as a drink, so marketers have slightly changed its positioning and turned it into a gift. As a special product, the gifts were sent out, and the users themselves were not sensitive to the cost-benefit of the products, so coffee gradually entered China.

At present, the more common form of product sales is bundled marketing. Users can not only directly perceive more goods, but also enjoy a more convenient shopping experience, such as buying a water emulsion bag and giving away a cotton pad.

(3) Use the past experience of users

Prospect theory tells us that when people are faced with unknown new things, they are often risk-averse, so when they are faced with promoted new products, the conversion rate will be very low. At this point, we can use the past experience of users to create a positive and high-yield effect. For example, at the beginning of the rise of knowledge payment, many lectures full of dry goods were ignored. In the eyes of users, firstly, they are unfamiliar with the form of knowledge payment, and secondly, the cost of attending classes is determined, but the acquired knowledge is not clear, so many users will give up these learning opportunities. At this time, users should be reminded of the past experience of wrong choice, such as the inefficiency of self-study, and the benefits of knowledge payment are amplified, so that experience can guide behavior more easily.