Earlier, marketing was all about making tall claims, brag about your product or services, or strive to make bigger impressions.
Though things are different today than they were in yesteryears.
It is a change in customer habits, purchasing preferences, and selection behaviors that technology has brought. The increasing shift of marketing on the digital platforms bombarded the customers with a string of ads.
Social media, mobile phones, tablets, desktops, smart gadgets, or any—ads are flooding from each of their digital avenues and screens. The excessive interruption and intervention caused by the ads irritated the customers and they switched to the solutions where these ads won’t halt their online experiences. Over time, it had started the marketing targets and promotion goals and coerced the marketers to focus on creating ‘Value’.
Brands inclined their efforts to come up with creative, useful, and relevant marketing solutions that attract customers to their spaces without intruding their personal spaces.
Thanks to automated and intuitive marketing tools like HubSpot, Google Analytics, InfusionSoft, Active Campaign, Mailchimp, and many more, marketers found the opportunity to influence the customers by inducing utility in their marketing efforts.
But, the question here is how do the marketers do it?
Content is the tool that allows marketers to provide customers with persuading information based on ‘utility’.
And, this is called utility marketing.
This article encompasses the introduction of the concept of utility in marketing and discusses why utility marketing matters and how different forms of utility help to create customer value in marketing efforts.
What is the ‘Utility’?
‘Utility’ is an economic term that is used to explain the value and advantages of a product or service customers get when they acquire or consume them.
Utility as well as value, both terms serve the same meanings in the business processes management and can be used interchangeably.
A company creates and then distributes a product or offers a service to several customers that can create value to the end customers and their marketing is responsible to spread the word in the context of the utility that satisfies the needs of their customers.
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What is Utility Marketing and How It Works?
Utility marketing may be defined as the marketing process used to communicate the usefulness or value of the product that a customer can get when they buy the product or service.
In simpler words, we can say utility marketing is used to make things simpler for the end-consumer to understand why and how the product or service can serve them in different ways.
Utility marketing influences consumers to buy a product or subscribe to a service. It is more focused on providing useful information while also delivering the marketing message.
Impacts of Utility Marketing
In one word, utility marketing is nothing but ‘Value’ that marketers strive to garner the attention of their customers without disrupting their spaces.
When the marketers are cleared with the value their product or service is going to offer to the customers, they can better create the marketing campaigns as per the customers’ interests and can predict their spending scales.
Utility marketing is not about selling a product, it is more focused on selling the utility that drives the customer trust and brand loyalty associated with the product or service. When the customers are offered more functional and useful information for the products or services that provide a specific benefit or can be repurposed to serve multiple functions, there are more chances that they can be converted.
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Understanding the Different Types of Utilities
Make your marketing communication more effective by implying the right utility that can satisfy the need of your would-be-customers and push them to go for it. Understanding the different forms of utilities allows marketers to add more value to their products or services and create a more impactful marketing message.
Five different types of utilities are there that can be incorporated into the marketing messages to attract the customers based on the value associated with the product or services. These include:
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Utility of Form
It is too cold outside and you are looking for some hot and sizzling soup to be delighted with. You have two options; either you gather the ingredients and get it cooked yourself or you can order it to be delivered in a few minutes at your place. What do you choose?
Of course, it is easier, better, and faster to order a pre-cooked bowl of soup rather than to cook it yourself. This is called the form utility.
The pre-cooked, ready-made, or a finished form of a physical or digital product is the utility of form.
Instead of assembling a raw product, a customer prefers to get a product that is finished and readily available. This readily available form of a product is more valuable to the customer because it costs less, provides a better experience, and takes no time or less time.
Some of the examples of the utility of forms include pre-cooked foods, meal kits, electronic gadgets, furniture, SaaS solutions, and more.
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Utility of Time
The utility of time is the availability of a product or service at a given time when it is required. Time can be a value in two ways; first, when it is associated with the needs subject to a specific period of time or season, second, when it is required urgently.
Some products or articles are valuable in certain months of a year. Cold Beverages, Cotton Clothes, and some food staples are the needs of summers whereas warmer clothes, dry fruits, and hot beverages are the articles associated with winters. These are year-specific items and their availability during the specific period when they are in need is the utility of time with the seasonal value.
Instant delivery of groceries or food and quick access to a digital service are examples of the utility of time with the value of urgency.
These values can be the Unique Selling Points for the products or services and they can be marketed.
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Utility of Place
The utility of place is quite similar to the utility of time. It refers to the availability of the product or service at a given location when it is required. It is the ease of availability at a certain location that pushes the buyer to opt for a product or service.
The utility of place is the convenience of a product or a service availability offers to the consumer. Placing your physical products in multiple stores at multiple locations or providing them at their place so that customers must not look for the product is the utility of place. The customizable SaaS product that can integrate with multiple applications in one place is also the utility of place that makes it convenient for the user to manage all through one channel only.
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Utility of Possession
Owing something is the reliability and stability that one can have. To give your customer possession for a product or service is providing them the utility of possession. It is not associated with upfront cost only. If you are an automobile manufacturer, car leasing is the utility of possession. If the customer wants to own a house, the mortgage is the utility of possession. If you are a SaaS services provider, the subscription plans to own a platform that can be customized as per the customer needs is the utility of possession.
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Utility of Information
It is the latest edition in the utility list. It can be understood as the convenience of getting the right information at the right time in the oversaturated, overwhelmed, and over-competitive market.
It is the utility for the consumer as well as for the merchant that improves market utility and increases the chance of sales conversion. From content on websites to knowledgebase and targeted marketing campaigns to well-trained sales and support agents—all are the utilities of information that drive the buying decisions of consumers.
Techloyce offers the utilities of place, time, form, information, and possession with its services. We are a team of experts and implementation geeks that can optimize your business processes and streamlines the workflows in no time with 24/7/365 support. Talk to our consultants to learn more about automated CRM, ERP, sales, marketing, and support solutions.
