I’ve been somewhat quiet on the product sim marketing front the past few weeks, but have been developing an exciting, top-secret concept/opportunity which I hope to seize in early 2011.
My interests have been in using simulation and interactivity in B2B Marketing, but even in the business world, buying decisions are (a) based on emotion; (b) based on what others we respect are buying (or sometimes just what others are buying); and (c) usually influenced by interaction with the product (obviously). When one is faced with a buying decision and there really is just one thing to buy or not buy, the decision is straightforward. However, there are pretty much always options we have to choose from to personalize or localize the product for our needs. I am a big admirer of Amazon’s “people who bought this also bought…” approach and feel I can extend this a bit further in the B2B realm — what if the act of choosing a product configuration was based on a combination of our priorities and features of what our friends/colleagues bought? I think this approach could give a big boost especially for complex sales.