In October 2023, Becky Meiser interviewed me for ICSC, the association for the retail real estate industry, about why people choose one store over another. I used coffee to explain it. If the value of Environmentalism matters a lot to you, you'll probably pay 15% to 30% more for the sustainable beans. If the value of Social Standing matters more, you'll reach for the bag in the gold package that says premium. Either way you pay extra. Across the industries we work in, people pay about 12% more for things that match their values.
Becky asked what a small retailer could do with this without hiring a research firm, so I gave her the three questions I give everyone. Why do you go to work? If you won the lottery, why would you give half of it away? If you could write a letter to yourself from ten years ago, what would you say, and why? Train your staff to ask them while they're ringing up a sale, keep notes for six months, and you'll start to hear the same few things over and over. If most of your customers talk about family and the environment, your job is to give them more of both than the shop down the street does.
You can read the original at ICSC.
My new book walks you through all kinds of ways to identify (and use) your values, and it's available for pre-order now. It's called The Values Map, and I would be very grateful if you pre-ordered a copy. My publisher would love it too. ❤️
Everything gets easier when you know What Matters Most.
