What's in your ‘maybe bag’?
What I learnt about digital marketing from a visit to the Maasai Market in Nairobi.
Our rather nervous looking taxi driver pulled up next to the entrance. He knew the ‘community chairman’ of the Maasai Market. It was one of Nairobi’s ‘places to visit’, so we’d been told.
Tom and I had just been travelling in South Sudan, capturing stories for an international NGO as famine had just officially been declared in parts of the country. It was March 2017.
From scarcity to abundance – the market was full of what I can best describe as rural arts and crafts. Before I knew it an arm rested over my shoulders. The chairman offered to show me around and be my guide. ‘Sure!’, I puffed anxiously.
As we walked around it became more tense with every step. I just wasn’t sure what I wanted, what anyone I knew would like, and how long the chairman and now also his chums would be following me around.
It didn’t feel right to say ‘leave me alone, and let me look around’, so I just tried to go along with the experience.
I picked up a wooden bowl and looked at it. I clearly wasn’t sure… I mean it was nice, but by this point I noticed something both alarming and confusing: nothing had a price tag. Nothing in the whole market had a price tag.
I asked how much this was, to be told not to worry and if you like it we can sort out a price at the end…
The tension rose.
I felt like I was the only person shopping and everyone’s attention was on me. I had no idea where Tom was. He was there, but my vision had become very limited.
A black carrier bag appeared. ‘Let’s put it in your maybe bag’, the chairman reassured me.
15 minutes later or so, my maybe bag had three items in it and I was ready to sheepishly pay. I was taken to a claustrophobically sheltered area of the market and after the chairman had totted it all up, I didn’t expect to hear the words ‘that’ll be 330 dollars’. I mean the items I’d selected were nice and seemed decent quality, but what? Wait? How much?!
I said I didn’t have that much, and that I’d just take the rolled up canvas painting, if that was OK?
The tension was super high now, over and above my comfort levels. I only really wanted to get a quick souvenir or two for my family back home in the UK. Now I was just hoping to get out of the market in one piece.
It all ended up fine, really. We agreed on 30 dollars for the painting only and he smiled as we left.
But looking back, even all this time ago, it was such an extraordinary experience in marketing and sales that I decided to – rather cathartically – draw some learnings from it here.
Here are some good and bad things I think we can learn from this:
Don’t be creepy
The first impressions people have of the products or services you offer are so important. That’s why I hate pop-up ads which catch you cold with their very direct copy, or chat bots which appear so friendly when you’ve only interacted with a website for a few seconds. It’s like a chairman’s arm suddenly around your shoulders making your experience suddenly more intense.
So if you are going to use pop-up ads (but I’m not sure I think you should) make sure they are sensitive to where your majority of website visitors are at. If you’re going to pop-up with something, do what you can to make it be clearly highly valuable and inoffensive. Or don’t bother.
As for chat-bots, consider the context too. I think chat-bots work best on places like banking, insurance and tech support sites. Stick one on a run of the mill corporate website or an e-commerce site and I’m not so sure.
Help your customers feel good and they’re likely to stick with you
Yes, I only had a small budget in the market, and yes the whole process was rather uncomfortable. But people who have a service to sell have a living to make. There often needs to be some degree of pressure and uncomfortableness to help customers down the funnel. That’s expected and I don’t begrudge the chairman for his methods, despite not liking them.
But because I didn’t like the methods, it means I’m not likely to be a return visitor. I don’t want to go through that again. And as many businesses today rely on an MRR (monthly recurring revenue), creating brand affinity is so important – or we go elsewhere.
I’m clearly not a big advocate of the Maasai Market. I’m not going to tell all my friends and family to go there – even if they do want souvenirs of their visit.
So if you are selling a product or service online, consider how the customer is likely to feel at every touchpoint they have with you. Are you clear in your offering? Are you transparent with prices and the direct benefits your product or service will have for them? Do you have excellent customer service and fast query response times? Is it a good experience?
If so, they're more likely to become advocates for your brand and do a good amount of free marketing for you by recommending you to others.
If you give your customers a ‘maybe bag’, let them hold it
Amazon, of course, is the king of the ‘maybe bag’. You put something in your basket and if you don’t buy it within a few days, you’ll get an automated ping or email reminding you that you didn’t complete your transaction.
What I found very disconcerting about the ‘maybe bag’ at the Maasai Market was that the chairman kept hold of the maybe bag for me. It seemed like a decent gesture, so I could ‘get on with shopping’ but in reality I wasn’t really sure what was in there and l lost some autonomy to ‘own’ my shopping experience.
This is crucial. Let your customers have the autonomy to own their shopping experiences. It’s fair and courteous and will help your customers feel more comfortable, if they have control of what they are about to review and buy. Let’s face it, if your customers find out they’ve been duped to some degree, they’re unlikely to return.
Give as much control and transparency to your customers and it’ll pay off long term. If you really do have a valuable product or service for them they’ll find that value, don’t worry.
Well that was what I think is called a ‘long read’! I hope you found it helpful. I’ll be back in February with some more Digital Wisdom.
Take care,
Andrew x