Check out the Strategies Security Equipment Vendors Use to Market to You
Study shows how campuses and other security equipment buyers make their equipment purchasing decisions.
I just came across a study by the Security Industry Association (SIA), which evaluated the marketing effectiveness of security equipment suppliers.
Although the target audience of this report is security equipment manufacturers, I thought you, our Campus Safety readers, might be interested in learning how you and your peers make your equipment purchasing decisions. The report may also prompt some marketers to change the ways they try to attract you to be their customer.
Here are some of the study’s findings that apply to hospitals, schools and universities:
1. Trade magazines are the preferred source of professional information by a wide margin
2. The industry is not a big fan of social media, although it does like LinkedIn
3. During the buying process, supplier websites become a top destination, while social media has little impact
4. Security managers prefer live on-site demos
5. About half of security managers ask their IT department to assess the network impact of product purchases
6. Most of the buying process occurs before sales people are contacted, and by then, almost half of buyers have already decided on a product
7. When buyers switch brands or products, more than half of the reasons are NOT about product performance
8. Brand awareness is more than twice as important to end users as dealers and distributors think
9. The most persuasive promotional content for motivating customers to buy is about new products
10. Comparative information is the second most persuasive promotional content for motivating customers to buy
11. Webinars and white papers are the most persuasive forms of educational content for motivating customers to buy
12. Educational content is as effective as promotional content in motivating customers to buy
13. Customers are more likely to be influenced by marketing from the companies whose products they already own
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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