Every brand needs to identify and communicate its point of differentiation and its value proposition—however, many times the pursuit of “different” bleeds over into decisions about what services to offer, how to offer them, and what sacred cows to sustain. Consumers will tell you what they want and how they want it packaged, shipped and serviced. Too many organizations take the wrong stand on the wrong issue and the result is inevitable: the consumer wins, the competition wins, and you lose, even if your flag is the last thing everyone sees going under as the boat sinks.
Go where the marlins are.
At a conference for financial advisors 15 years ago, a million-dollar round table top performer explained to me his method for always attracting high net-worth clients. Paraphrased he said, “I only go marlin fishing where marlins swim. Why fish for marlins in minnow ponds?”
Learn MY traffic pattern.
On a vacation visiting family in Toronto, I was on my way to the mall with my mom when she said, “Oh hang on, let me grab my old license plate.” What an odd statement—until she explained that they had kiosks there at the mall (where people went as a destination) where old plates could be turned in and property taxes paid, all in a kiosk the city’s DMV had set up. She laughed when I explained to her about my city’s process: “Where I live, they still make us go to them.” Her reply: “Really? You’re the customer. Isn’t your government supposed to serve you?”
Find the pull, stop pushing.
In the 1950s, when brands like Duncan Hines, Pillsbury and Betty Crocker tried to introduce easy-bake cake mix products, the initial product launches failed. To summarize: there were challenges pushing the product through the distribution channels. Early mixes weren’t reliable and produced inconsistent results. Even more significant is that launching the product post-World War II initally backfired because home cooks felt compelled to return to the way things were, “Like mom used to make.” What made it even tougher was public perception of both the target consumer and what the product boasted (a shorter cooking time). Home cooks, primarily women living in a pre-woman’s movement era, had a difficult time reconciling modern convenience with traditional expectations. After all, at that time, part of a woman’s self-worth was judged by whether she “spent all day slaving over a hot stove,” so feeding families out of a box diminished the perceived value of the housewife and of the product experience.
So the product, designed in essence to “cut the time a woman spends in the kitchen,” failed miserably because it was perceived by society at that time to erode the very same woman’s self-worth.
Pushing the product on a customer base that wasn’t ready to change mindsets yet, or habit patterns, failed. They re-released it a few years later after the woman’s movement, and it was accepted. Interestingly, they also found that minor changes—like removing powdered eggs from the mix—allowed the preparer to participate more on a creative level than just adding water or milk, and so a great compromise was struck, and the brand was pulled through distribution channels by the same customers who had once rejected it.
Change or play catch-up forever.
The government focused too much on the post office, and they missed out on the postal revolution. They kept insisting we go to their building. Private enterprise stepped in, heard the customer, and set up shops—Mail Boxes etc., Fed Ex, etc., and now the post office is playing defense and catch-up in a business plan that’s failing.
My point is this: Find your point of differentiation, your competitive edge, and drive it home in your marketing messages and in everything you do. But don’t get passionate about “different”, stay passionate about delivering your product to the consumer in a way they need it, want it, and receive it.
Challenge your organization’s internal struggle to want to keep things the way you’re comfortable doing them to the point you become irrelevant to the very people you were once passionate about reaching.
After all, he who honors sacred cows goes hungry at night.
