What's a considered purchase brand?

My dear readers, I’m so happy to be back in your inboxes after a brief hiatus! We’ve got some exciting interviews lined up for future issues, but in the interim, I wanted to share what I’ve been obsessing over lately in the branded content realm.

So this issue is just a girl, standing in front of her newsletter subscribers, asking them to read her Deep Thoughts on considered purchase brand marketing.

What, exactly, is a considered purchase brand?

So glad you asked! My definition of a considered purchase is anything that requires one or more of the following:

1. Research and complex decision-making

A great example of this is insurance, of any kind. Whether you’re ensuring your life, health, home, belongings, car, or pet, it all requires an exploration of the policies, costs, benefits, etc. I don’t even want to tell you how much time I’ve spent researching insurance for my dog, Arthur.

2. A substantial financial investment

What’s important here is to think of the cost relative to the target market. For some people, an extra $20 outside their monthly budget is a substantial investment. Other people think nothing of dropping $20,000 on a trip to the mall.

For example, dinner for two at The French Laundry, a 3-Michelin star restaurant in Northern California, runs anywhere from $700 (for the basic tasting menu, not including wine) to $5,000 for a special truffle dining experience. For most people, booking that reservation will involve saving money and setting it aside for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. It would be a carefully considered purchase.

But for most people who eat there — rich people, let’s be honest — their assistant snagged the rezzie and they're happy to throw their Amex Black card down without a worry. They’re not checking the prices of wine by the glass.

So is The French Laundry a considered purchase brand overall? I would say no. Or if it is, it’s borderline.

3. An ongoing commitment or contract

Think about your cell phone plan. Your monthly fee could be $30 or $200. Either way, though, you’re locked into a contract for a certain amount of time.

Loan providers are also considered purchase brands — you’re going to be locked into paying them back for an extended period.

4. A long timeline for repeat buying*

For a car company, the repeat purchase timeline could be every few years for customers upgrading their leases or who always want to trade in for the newest model. Or it could be 10+ years for the savvy consumer who relies on longevity. That — and the price tag — is what makes most vehicles considered purchases.

*Timeline is a factor that contributes to the overall designation, but it doesn’t work as the only requirement. You might buy your kid a new Jansport backpack once every few years, but I wouldn’t call that a considered purchase.

The Considered Purchase Brand Matrix

Here’s where I see a handful of popular B2C brands on the scales of Impulse to Considered and Necessity/Bargain to Luxury/Expensive.

Gas station brands, like Shell, are classic impulse/necessity purchases. When your tank hits E, do you care which gas station appears first on Google Maps? No. You might have a preference based on the rewards programs, but I’ve never met a person in my life passionate about the brand of gas they buy.

On the opposite corner, you have ultra luxury vehicle brands like Maybach, which sells $400,000 SUVs.

(I know this because I once clocked a family buckling their two toddlers into the backseat of a Maybach SUV outside a Beverly Hills playground, and I looked up the price and then wondered how you clean Goldfish dust and snot out of a $400,000 car.)

Anyone who can spend this kind of money on a car has their pick of luxury vehicles, and a car this expensive is a status symbol more than anything else. For that reason, I think it’s a considered purchase brand.

Mercedes-Benz, the parent company, could justify spending thousands of dollars per single customer acquistion for this brand, and they probably do. They’re not convincing their ICP on price or value — they’re convincing them to buy THIS status symbol vehicle rather than a Bentley or a Rolls Royce.

Prospective buyer aren’t asking about the warranty or the trim package. They’re asking themselves, what will this car say about me? 

Another great example is UPPAbaby. Few purchases are more intensely researched than baby strollers. Especially for first-time parents.

You can get a perfectly safe, functional stroller for a hundred bucks.

Or, you can spend $1,200 on an UPPAbaby Mesa with Optional Bassinet.

UPPAbaby makes a pricey, cult-favorite, urban parent darling product that competes on brand recognition and quality rather than price.

It’s also in a unique category of consumer goods that people will likely only purchase once in a lifetime. So UPPAbaby wants every customer to be an evangelist — they probably won’t be repeat buyers, but they can influence their friends and family to buy one.

Marketing, with less measuring

B2C considered purchase brands require robust, thoughtful brand marketing. Traditional advertising and paid media are important, of course. But strategic, long-term drip content, through multiple mediums, is what will support these brands over the intense and often lengthy path to purchase for most consumers.

But this kind of marketing, as we all know, is harder to measure. What’s the ROI of sending a Subaru owner a print magazine issue in the mail four times a year for three years? For some customers, it’s $0. For others, it’s $42,795, the sticker price of a new Outback in the premium Touring trim level. If even 1% of readers purchase a new car partly inspired by reading Drive magazine, that’s a pretty good ROI — if it’s measured at all.

This can make it trickier to get buy-in, but there are still ways to measure success of your efforts. Here are some things to think about:

• Use third-party surveys that ask consumers about the influence of specific marketing channels/campaigns on their ultimate purchase decisions.

• Impressions become nearly as valuable as clicks when your goal is broader awareness. Conversely, website visits won’t convert as highly, because you’ll have people in the info-gathering stage for longer.

• Tracking referrals can be super valuable, because it proves the efficacy of community-building efforts.

Converting buyers into brand evangelists

Marketing to customers AFTER they purchase is just as vital as before, because now they can be converted into brand loyalists and evangelists. When you’re thinking of which real estate broker to use for your home search, or what kind of new couch to buy, would you rather go down a Google rabbithole or ask your friend who just bought a house or a super-comfy sofa?

That’s why considered purchase brands invest in marketing channels like custom publications or enthusiast groups. They might sponsor events or facilitate volunteer opportunities. The goal is to create a community around the brand.

People are more likely to identify themselves in relationship to a considered purchase brand. My husband and I love the brand Pendleton. We have throw blankets, a comforter, coats, jackets, hats, scarves, shirts, gloves, bandanas, mugs, notebooks, and a dog leash from Pendleton.

During the height of the pandemic, we ordered Pendleton face masks, ok? (Some of those purchases were impulses, sure. But we have yet to buy the Big One — a classic wool Pendleton blanket that goes for $400. That one is a future considered purchase.)

The point is, we’re a proud Pendleton Family.

I buy Tide laundry detergent every month of my damn life, but I would never identify as a Tide Girlie.

Influencers vs brand builders

A lot of influencer marketing is about driving direct purchases from a specific activation. “Use my code to get 20% these high-tech bed sheets!” But for considered purchase brands, it’s better to think about who can build their brand affinity over the long term.

When David Beckham posts TikToks of himself drinking Nespresso, there’s no discount code to be found. He’s a brand ambassador, and Nespresso knows that it’s not going to see a direct spike in sales of its $800 coffee machines from one social post.

High-quality content, delivered in creative ways, is crucial

The bottom line of a considered purchase is that customers need information before they make a decision. That information can come in direct ways, like a blog series covering FAQs, or in more subtle ways, like a short docuseries about something your ideal audience cares about (NOT about your product, importantly).

Content for considered purchase brands should be primarily concerned with who the audience is, not what the product is. If you focus on showing up in your customers’ lives in positive ways, it will pay dividends when it’s time for them to consider an actual purchase.

I could go on — but I’d rather hear from you!

Like many things in marketing, this isn’t an exact science. All of the above is based on my experience working with considered purchase brands, and I welcome pushback or other ways of framing this.

So tell me, if you’ve got this far — what would you shuffle around on the Considered Purchase Brand Matrix? What factors did I leave out or get wrong? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Reply to this email or find me on LinkedIn and give me your hottest take.

LYLAS,

Megan

Did a smart friend forward you this newsletter? Subscribe to get the next issue in your inbox!

Do you know someone who wants to read this post?