Business practices show that having a product is not enough, and making it work for the business – it requires a marketing and sale strategy. In other words, product monetization is crucial for business success, and in this article, we will talk about why people buy products or support their owners/developers.

Before starting, it’s worth mentioning that all products serve some purposes. Some products repeat themselves, others are unique or have a unique component. If businesses target big sales, it’s good to brand the product, if the product doesn’t necessarily have to compete with other brands – it’s ok to create decent quality for a reasonable price.

#1 All acquisitions are based on emotions

Think like a user – all of us buy things every day and most of the time, we have a range where to chose from. Reasons that make us acquire a product from a specific shop, brand, provider – are all related to our feelings and emotions.

So far we can identify 6 different types of reasons for choosing a product, and acquiring it

• Goodness – this happens when you are supporting the product provider even though you don’t have to. The product is for free, but there is also a Patreon link. Most of the time, you can meet such opportunities with content creators (bloggers, vloggers, streamers, freelancers, app developers).
• Brand Association – Paying money for comfort is popular. But the comfort the product delivers has also a huge social impact. Wearing expensive clothes makes people look good, and feel good as well. Sometimes associating yourself with a brand grants access to communities that were locked earlier. The example with Apple products and Instagram is probably the most popular: The legend says you are not a true influencer if you don’t have an iPhone.
• Necessity – Buying products you really need, also generates sales. If your business needs online visibility, and it cannot exist without it – buying a website (as a final product) is a necessity.
• Research/Curiosity – Ordering your lunch from the same restaurant can be exhausting. When a new restaurant occurs, you are tempted to try their products, because it’s new, competitive and looks interesting
• Satisfaction – products that managed to satisfy users, will always generate more users. But at the same time, the same users will come back for it one more time.
• Celebration – That moment when you can’t always afford a product, but at the same time, you want it very bad. So to get the product you either need to make money savings or get a higher amount of money.

What all these have in common is that they generate feelings, or are decisions based on feelings. As a matter of fact, the advantages a user gets from an acquisition are unconscious emotional motivations that open the path to user conversion.

This is why it’s important to research the market and learn how it works, what are the preferences, and based on this data, you can target the audience with your product(s). The data centers used by big retail companies are meant exactly for this purpose. Researching previous acquisitions can help to identify the reasons that stay behind each purchase.

#2 Setting Up Connections

Going back to the feelings we all have when acquiring a product from a shop/store – almost every time we are happy or satisfied. There are as well several things that impact this feeling, and not all of them are directly related to the product.

1. When a product is of good quality, we as buyers tend to feel more comfortable, and satisfied. This is product quality
2. If the store generates a pleasant mood, nice smell, close to perfect temperature, appropriate music, and ambient color, we don’t want to leave the room so fast. This is UI/UX
3. A helpful and nice salesperson which indeed made us chose a better product. This is Client Service
4. When the prices are not too high and we can afford it, even if it’s on discount. Or when we are instantly approached by the staff and got a bonus for our purchase. This is a well-set price policy, and a little bit of marketing
5. When everything looks amazing and we get that premium feel even if our product costs $2. That’s product design

These feelings and the processes mentioned above make the product and the business more attractive and increase the chances to get more customers, improve the reputation, generate more positive reviews, and after all create a brand. Overall, the connection between the business and client it’s extremely important for business growth and development.

#3 To Summarize Everything

Emotions and connections create the image of your business and its products. Delivering only high quality is not enough and convincing the audience to try your products requires time, patience, and investments. Sometimes it may take 1 week, in other cases, you have to work years to get the level you wanted.

Researching client’s behavior is another important aspect. If users don’t feel comfortable with your business, sales will go down. Ask yourself why would you buy products from your own business and not from competitors?! Do you find enough arguments to support your position? Do you trust your business, or you would like to believe that others will trust it?