Have I ever told you my hat story?

Okay, here goes. As we do our day-to-day job things, we wear two different hats (well, probably 100 different hats, but let’s focus on just the two). One hat is our business hat🎓. The other hat is our shopper hat👒.

While our business hat is on, we might be trying to sell something, convincing someone of something, or gaining awareness. With the business hat on, we usually try to persuade with logic. We get so used to marketing, selling, and creating our products and services with reason—we forget about the shopper hat.

When shoppers have their shopper hats on, they are certainly aware of the logical reasons to purchase - price, quality, features, benefits, and outcomes. But logic is only one part of the shopper equation. The other part is emotional. With our shopper hat on, we make decisions with the logical part of our minds AND the emotional part of our minds. Many buying decisions, including business-to-business decisions, are partly intuitive and partly driven by our feelings.

If we are “shopping” for a community, association, group, networking, or, as many engaged members say, “a professional family” or “intellectual home,” these decisions are especially feelings-based. Potential members will rely on their perceptions of the shopping experience. Design, tone, customer service, ease of purchase, personalization, and more play a role in the shopping experience. (Gosh, as I read these words “design,” “tone,” “and personalization,” they seem too business-like and too sterile for what I’m trying to communicate. Fundamentally, shoppers are using all sorts of subtle cues to feel their way into the answer to the question, “Do I belong here?”)

I like to talk about hats because we tend to take one off before putting on the other. When we put on our business hat, we forget what it is like to have the shopper hat on. We forget about the intuitive and emotional side of the decision. We forget that experiences drive these emotions, which drive our decisions.

Remember to wear both hats the next time you are creating, selling, marketing, innovating, or communicating with your shoppers, stakeholders, or members. 👒+🎓= engagement! 😉