Lip balm, milk, helmets, cold cream, or tooth paste. These products are important for consumers, and their benefits are widely recognised. But if so, why do consumers still refrain from using them? Why does this happen? Lokusdesign’s Love@FirstSight investigated this phenomenon further to understand it on a deeper level and draw conclusions to help brand managers cope with consumer non-compliance.

Non-compliance is when a consumer refrains from taking up an activity or using a product which they know and agree is good for them. If a consumer knows a product is good for their well-being but still refuses or ignores its usage, what can a brand manager do? In this case it’s not about the brand awareness or even preference as the consumer very well knows the product and its benefits. Further, the concept of brand loyalty becomes a moot point. If ‘need’ and ‘importance’ do not work, then what does?

The answer lies deeper than need and importance. Understanding the true reasons behind this would uncover the solution to get the consumer’s attention, and more importantly, their usage.

While it is understood that discovering and identifying the reasons can help to spark innovation and build loyalty, what are the reasons why a product is not used? While Love@FirstSight uncovered very unique reasons for non-compliance, these reasons could be structured under three major emotions, or lack of them.

Lack of addiction Addiction is a condition of being coerced or controlled by a certain activity or a product. Consumers are addicted to a product because of a particular attribute that keeps them going back for more. Lack of addiction is born out of either ‘lack of belief’ or ‘lack of habit’. As a brand, non-compliance can be overcome by creating products or communication which resonate very strongly the sense of belief. Habits can be built be developing a step-by-step behaviour in using the product; this behaviour can lead to an addiction. Understanding consumer usage and behaviour around a brand can help us to emphasise or create a brand addiction.

Lack of Love If a consumer doesn’t love a product, the consumer will never comply with its usage. Lack of love for a brand arises after identifying the aspects behind the consumer’s hatred, dislike or disinterest. To make a consumer fall in love with the product, either transforming the product, changing an attribute or adding one by understanding the psyche of the consumers will help the brand to spark a connection between the brand and consumer. Relevance is the first step towards love and attributes that make the product relevant to customers will enable love. Understanding the reasons why a consumer does not or cannot love a brand will give way to radical innovation to win the consumer’s heart.

Lack of Fear Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm. Lack of fear with regards to a certain product arises due to lack of knowledge, lack of priority, or a feeling of invincibility. To overcome these issues, the consumers need to be taught or make them understand and realise the importance of a certain product and its benefits. Sometimes, fear ceases to be an issue since the customer feels ‘invincible’ or impervious to negative effects of non-usage of a product. Here what a brand can do is fuel that feeling further, adding attributes for status, beauty and self-image, where the reason for product usage surpasses fear and becomes aspirational.

Non-compliance affects brand managers across various industries and product verticals. To give an idea of how this could work, let’s take the example of milk additives as a segment. There is much non-compliance in this segment.

After studying this segment, it was clear that lack of love and addiction are the major causes of non-compliance. Using these reasons, a brand manager can develop and implement innovations. For example, one of the major gaps in love come from the inability to get the right amount of milk additive perceived by the child and added by the mother.

An innovation that helps understand the quantity of milk additive (for the mother to understand) and its effect on the colour of the milk (for the kid to understand) can create love for the product because children do not like milk and an additive helps it go down easier.

This is one example of a solution arising from understanding the reasons behind non-compliance. A deeper study of the exact reasons can help brand managers not only overcome, but cure, the problem of non-compliance for their category!

(Shekhar Badve, Founder Director, Lokusdesign)

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