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5 Spur Their Passion For Collecting
Everyone associates collecting with antiques and other niche markets. But, the truth is that every market can use the dynamics of the desire to amass collections of things to spur sales. If you don't believe that then you weren't around when the Beanie Babies craze hit the public. Who on earth would have believed grown adults would run around collecting little creatures made of stuffed bean bags? It became a national craze and those little buggers weren't cheap!
The moral of the story there is that if a manufacturer can create a collecting demand for a product that serves no useful purpose, had a unique and sometimes odd look about them, and you can't even eat or invest it, then how much more can you spur the passion for collecting for items that even have additional reasons to buy? Obviously, collecting isn't just for Beanie Babies or antiques, it's for everything and everyone.
The Strategy
So, even if you are selling bumper stickers or watches, it doesn't matter. You can use this strategy to increase your sales. Don't believe that just because one person has bought one model, it doesn't mean they may not be interested in other models. In fact, people who buy watches, for instance, will often buy several models and collect them for different occasions. Maybe they want a dress watch for when they are at classy occasions. Maybe they want a fun and flirty one for parties and another more professional-looking one for the office. You can sell them all three! Isn't that a great way to boost your sales?
So, the thing you want to do for this strategy is to target your existing customers. That's right, this is a strategy that is going to bring out the collecting bug in those people that have already shown an interest in your products. In order to get people to start collecting them, you need to start highlighting the collectible nature of your product. Why would someone want to collect them? Who else is collecting them? Can you display them on a shelf? Are they great to own various styles? What are the benefits of collecting your products?
If you ever watch QVC, you will see the way they tout many of their items as collectibles. They will take a call and the person on the other line will tell them how much they love the product that they've bought several different models! Then, they start listing either their pride in owning such a great collection and how it good it makes them feel, or they start listing all the reasons for why owning many makes sense.
The Psychology
You would think that the act of collecting is stimulated because of greed, but it isn't. Collecting falls into it's own psychological niche whereby the collector receives a great deal of pleasure and pride from owning many different models of a particular item. It's not because they are unconsciously trying to save up for poor economic times, as in greed, because even things that have no intrinsic function are collected and enjoyed by many people. So, why do people collect things that may not even have any utility in their lives?
If you've ever collected pennies as a youngster, you know that collecting gives one a sense of achievement. Every new penny you find and fit into its pouch gives you pleasure and a feeling of achievement. When the entire collection is done, you can also show that collection off to your friends for them to admire your achievement as well.
In some cases, the history or uniqueness of the collection can also be a source of great pleasure for collectors. That's why people sometimes collect salt shakers in various styles, not necessarily because they need more than one set of salt shakers in their home. Instead, the uniqueness and variety of the pieces bring out great pleasure in the collector who becomes fascinated by each new variation they can add to their collection.
The emotional investment in the collection grows as the collection grows. It becomes a bigger part of the collector's life and may even get a prominent position of display in the home. It becomes a large source of pride. And, once that addiction sets in the collector may not be able to help themselves and be purchasing new items that are far more expensive than when they first started, just to round out their collection. By that time, you almost don't even have to have a reason to sell a collector on a particular piece if the emotional impact of the piece screams out to them "must have!" And, that's the type of enthusiasm and excitement you want associated with your products because it will lead to residual sales that you can count on.
The Implementation
It's funny, but this strategy takes a little setup to implement. If you think about it, why did you get into collecting pennies when you were a kid? Would you have done it if they didn't sell those neat little sleeves with all the dates on each slot that you needed to collect to have the complete collection? So, part of implementing this strategy is to simply offer a display case that people can use to track which items they still need to buy to complete their collection and to give a little history of the entire collection.
You can even offer limited quantities of a specific product and increase the collectible status. That way you can even start by charging more for that product, because it is a limited edition. This is one way to manipulate the perceived value while not really changing the intrinsic value due to the collecting strategy.
Always remember to place the bug in your customer's ears that this is a collectible item. You can send them a display case for free with the purchase of more than one item in the collection. You can highlight how other collections you've offered in the past have increased in value in the secondary market. This will give the idea to your customers that they are buying something that will increase in worth and it becomes "an investment."