THE BIGGEST FRANCHISE EVER, FINALLY GETS IT RIGHT

Well, the biggest in many important contexts. This one may surprise you. First off, it is in the entertainment industry. When I say that, you may think of Star Wars, or Avatar, or Star Trek, or Cheers, or Friends, or any number of those high profile films or TV shows that seem to have run forever. If so you would not only miss it, you would miss the category. Over the years I have been involved in the entertainment category and have worked on many well-known brands. Some of the most impressive performers I know of have been in the video game category. Check it out.

Call of Duty, Black Ops was recently released by Activision and in its first twenty-four hours grossed $360 million. That’s one day. I am fairly confident, that this out-performed all other introductions and it is just getting started. To date, the franchise is well over three billion and is rapidly approaching four. As a marketer, I am very impressed. I am even more impressed that those who market it finally figured out that there is a more significant and meaningful way to position video games than what they have overused in the past.

If you talk to the gamers who have purchased Call of Duty’s past iterations, they will quote you its performance attributes.  All of the conversations that take place - and there are many among gamers - are always about the game’s features. If so, how do you elevate the conversation to something more meaningful? You do it by using its benefit.

The benefit is what the consumer gets out of using the product. This year BMW has introduced “Joy” as what its consumers get out of driving and owning BMW’s. You have no doubt heard George Zimmer at Men’s Warehouse saying, “You’re Going To Like The Way You Look.” That too is all about the consumer. If you get a chance to view the commercials running for Call to Glory, look close. The ultimate form of expressing a benefit in a selling proposition is to literally inject the consumer into the message. More important, inject the consumer experiencing the product in a way that is meaningful to them.

All humans are upwardly mobile and typically respond to experiences that they aspire to. In this commercial, unlike all others that have gone before in this category, we see a hardcore battle scene where the shooters are not military soldiers or super heroes. They are instead, secretaries, accountants, waiters, supermarket clerks and so on. Activision marketers were smart enough to put you and I into the action. Additionally, they used a couple of celebrities, but I promise you the celebrities are irrelevant in this sales message. In fact, I would have left them out and saved the money.

The learning here is familiar to those of you who have worked with me or read much of what I have written about positioning. Most of the selling propositions you and I encounter in life are missing any component of a benefit. Look at your sales message and change it to evolve around your consumer benefit, and you will be the one to benefit. If you think you already have done so, then develop a higher order benefit and change your message. Remember that all consumers want the same thing…to be happy. If you want to move to a higher order of benefit use something happier.


Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

We all have to get old but we don’t have to get irrelevant.

You may have noticed, as I have, that as people get older they tend to slow down and become resistant to change. As they do so, they seem to become more and more irrelevant to those around them who have not slowed down, and to those who are younger. This is so pervasive that I say it qualifies as a fundamental law of human nature.

The nature of most clichés is that they are strongly rooted in truth. There is one I would challenge and it is, “Familiarity breeds contempt”. I say familiarity breeds complacency and in turn irrelevance on the part of the one you are becoming familiar with. This may have a lot to do with the rate of divorce these days, but that is not where I am headed.

Irrelevance is never good. I have a friend whose doctor has decided that owning a computer and using the Internet is just not something he needs to do. If I were a patient of his I could not but wonder if all other aspects of his life are governed the same way. That’s not a doctor I would choose because my perception is that he has become irrelevant…scary.

There are exceptions to this, of course. There are those who stay current and are typically found leading others into what we consider old age. I could name a few but I don’t want to tag them as old even though they are. By the way, I have also noticed that these relevant people are typically healthier than their irrelevant peers. Health alone may be incentive enough for you and I to work on maintaining our relevance.

Beyond maintaining good health, I have observed that simply maintaining one’s relevance may well be an access to becoming famous. There is a direct correlation between fame and older people who maintain their relevance. Think about that. My definition of fame is on a scale of worldwide recognition to that of recognition of any kind beyond the people you personally know. If you were the oldest person on the planet and were fully functional and participating in life fully, you would experience some level of fame. You would stand out from those around you.

More often than I should, I receive marketing assignments that are solely based on irrelevance. How you know you are irrelevant is that others no longer pay attention to you, or pay as much attention as they did when you were younger. In the world of marketing we measure relevance by “share of market.” So there is a significant value in asking yourself, is my product or service becoming irrelevant? If you are not in a constant inquiry to discover or invent what’s next for your product or service, the answer is likely YES.

You cannot control the fact that your product or service is aging but you are literally responsible for it not becoming irrelevant. Can you see that “Established in 1953”, or “Since 1953”, in this context is a killer. I get asked about adding that to sales messages now and then and it sends shivers up my back every time. There was a time when adding statements like that had value. Take it from me, that time is gone. If it returns, I will blog it.

During my career, I have been handed a significant number of assignments that were based on a period of marketing inaction that led to a diminished share of market. In the consumer goods marketing world, the awareness of this problem is frequently triggered when a retailer indicates that they are about to drop the product.

The single most effective and most economical way to grow your business is typically thought of as adding to your line of products or services. Nothing is further from the truth. By far, the most effective way is to simply upgrade your sales message (your selling proposition) on a regular basis. If every six months you change your sales message and in doing so add perceived value, you will drive your competition batty. You will constantly stimulate your current client base and encourage those who are not currently purchasing your product or service to do so.

The learning here is that it’s ok to savor success in your personal and business pursuits. It is wise, however, to begin an inquiry into what’s next in both, well before it becomes obvious that it is needed.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

GORDON GECKO IS RIGHT!

Gordon Gecko is now out of prison and back in your local theater and more vocal than ever before. He has become famous for declaring that “greed is good.” He’s right. He’s dead right.

For a number of years I have written about “free enterprise,” its origin and its true nature. Contrary to historical accounts, it is not a choice and never has been. And more so, greed is its most critical component.

I remember being taught in college that Free Enterprise was some kind of economic choice, a choice that we Americans were very proud of having made. We claim to have mastered it and promoted it to the rest of the world. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If free enterprise is not a choice then what is it? Well, it does exist. It’s in all of our lives yet we have never chosen it and never will. It was just there. I say Free Enterprise is a fundamental law of nature. There are three aspects of human nature that qualify it as a law of nature. They are always present as is Free Enterprise itself.

The first aspect is that we humans love to collect things. The second aspect is that we like to have more things than our fellow humans. The third aspect is our innate desire to have some if not all of the things that other humans have.

Given that, we humans have two choices. We go to war and take their things. Or, those more civilized of us, exchange some of our things for some of their things. Hopefully, over time, we do less of the former and more of the latter.

This innate urge to gather things is clearly defined by Webster in five words. “A strong desire for more”. If you look up the definition of greed, these are the words you will find. It may well be that greed is the force that is the cause for the existence of free enterprise. By the way, I do not consider any of this bad. It simply is the way it is. Being aware of it is an access to working with it.

I have also noticed that greed is not distributed equally. Most of us have just the right amount to keep free enterprise operating smoothly. There are those who seem to have too much greed and those who don’t seem to have enough. Those with not enough are declared dysfunctional and just don’t seem to contribute to society. They are simply lost. Those who have an overabundance are also dysfunctional and are often, but not always, sent to prison.

What is to be learned here? If we are indeed thrust into this game called Free Enterprise, then learn the game, learn to play it and learn to enjoy it. Ultimately, we have no choice.

I have been a big fan of Michael Douglas from “Streets of San Francisco” to “Wall Street.” God speed Michael, we need you back up there on the big screen.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

NO ONE WANTS BAD SUSHI…RIGHT?

Of all the bad consumer experiences I can think of, being served bad sushi is easily the worst I can recall. Bad sushi is something you can smell coming. If not that, I have also smelled the bleach that was used to clean the stains out of the plastic dishes before they got to my table. That too seems to qualify as bad sushi. I could go on, but the point is the term “bad sushi” resonates with most of us as a strong negative.

If you’ve hung around me very long, you are familiar with my constant reference to developing and using remarkable triggers in your sales message. Remarkable triggers are words or graphics in your sales message that illicit an immediate and positive response from your target consumer. They occur to consumers as a breakthrough in your category.

Located within a ten-block radius of my office are no less than fifteen sushi restaurants. There are three in particular that are nestled within one fairly small block.  One of them is named En Sushi. I ate there about six years ago only to discover something moving in my salad. I never got to the sushi that night. The second is named California Roll Factory Sushi. I have eaten there and can honestly say it wasn’t bad. The third is new, and I heard about it as soon as it opened when one of my sons insisted we try it out. This one is named BAD Sushi. No kidding. Check it out for yourself.

What do you think? Good idea or bad idea? I say it depends on one thing. A close look at the sign and you can see that BAD is an acronym for “Best And Delicious”. Let’s take a look at it from a marketing perspective.

Clearly the name is remarkable in that it has enough character to be considered a breakthrough in the category. The question remains, is it so remarkable that it won’t wear well? By wear well, I mean will it hold up over time without becoming trite. This occurs when the first impression is considered “cute”, or “funny” or “outrageous”, but on an ongoing basis it becomes irritating and falls out of favor with consumers.  In this case I think “Bad Sushi” may wear well over time. It serves as a strong identifier and is very memorable. There is, however, one more hurdle for such remarkability.

There is one issue the owner needs to be very aware of. Of all retail businesses, customers of restaurants are among the least forgiving. One bad experience and it will likely be a very long time or never before a consumer will return. Beyond that, consumers seem to pride themselves in spreading the negative word. The name BAD Sushi goes beyond an identifier and becomes somewhat of a challenge. “Try me and I will prove to you I am not bad,” is perhaps what it is communicating. Over time, I have learned that all consumers have the same operating state of mind, “what’s wrong here”, meaning they are ready for this kind of a challenge.

As it turns out, my son Eric and I were up for the challenge. We went to BAD Sushi for lunch last week and were clearly there to see how good or bad it was. We could easily have gone to any of the other fourteen or so sushi restaurants in the area but we responded to the subliminal challenge. We ate a lot of sushi and it was all great and some of it was extraordinary. As far as we are concerned, we find it easy and kind of fun to recommend BAD Sushi to friends. I am also very clear that we were in a critical state of mind when we were there, and if the sushi had been average we would have “tagged” it as bad sushi, living up to its name.

The learning here is that it pays to characterize your business in a remarkable way as long as you can support whatever it infers. This is a strategy I have been marketing with for my entire career. How do you feel about bad sushi?


Cheers, 

Keith Chambers
Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com


follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

TARGET CONSUMERS WANT TO BE LOYAL, BUT RARELY ARE

The reason loyalty is so scarce is that most marketers don’t understand what truly fuels it. Most marketers are so concerned with communication the virtues of their products and services, they simply don’t think about loyalty as something they can pursue. My experience is that you can encourage loyalty and I have a clear sense of how to do it. 

There is a distinction I refer to as character. Character drives and extends business yet I rarely find marketers aware of its existence let alone its value or its origin. One reason is that I am the only person that I know of who has distinguished its existence. Character is difficult to comprehend and even more difficult to explain. Nonetheless, character is very real and there is a big marketing advantage in understanding it. It is solely responsible for target consumers becoming loyal to your selling proposition. Little character produces little loyalty. Conversely, lots of character produces lots of loyalty.

My definition of character is “anything physical, copy or graphic in its form that target consumers will develop a relatedness to. In this regard, generic is the opposite of character. Character stimulates interest on the part of target consumers while generic typically does not. It is best understood by example so I will provide several.

Let’s look at the Go-Gurt package below to get started. It’s a good one because it uses all three of the forms I mention earlier. Try to imagine the first day it was introduced. Remember its just yogurt that they wanted to sell to kids. The same yogurt they were selling to moms.

The Yoplait marketers added physical character to the delivery system when they put it into tubes. They added graphic character with the edgy looking kid depicted on the skateboard. They added copy character when they named it “Go-Gurt” and defined it as “portable yogurt”.

In the late 70’s the supermarkets of the world answered with “plain wrap”. Plain wrap was packaging printed in one color. The inference was that it could be priced significantly lower if it did not use sophisticated printing. Take a look at the Ralph’s plain wrap and you will see a total lack of character. The plain wrap movement was an abject failure. First of all, it did not actually generate a particularly large reduction in the cost of goods. The supermarkets had to price it low to fulfill their promise and therefore made little or no profit. Target consumers soon characterized its user as a cheep or poor person.

Notice that plain wrap did not make a comeback in the recent recession. In fact, all supermarket chains have boosted their private label brands in ways to have them match that of the well known brands. Take a close look at the Van de Kamp’s bakery packaging below. Van de Kamp’s was a family owned bakery on the west coast that folded in the early 90’s. What you are looking at is more Ralph’s private label. The name was purchased by Ralph’s in the late 90’s. 

 

Now can you see the correlation I referred to earlier between lack of character and loyalty in the plain wrap with that of the presence of character and loyalty for Van de Kamp’s. Can you imaging developing loyalty to plain wrap? The punch line.

Character is effective on two levels. The first is that it causes initial interest in the selling proposition. What marketer wouldn’t want that? The second is that of loyalty.

If you have a lack of character, target consumers base their purchase decisions on price or location. Products like gas and services like laundries are notoriously devoid of character yet they have the most to gain by injecting some into their selling propositions. Isn’t it ironic that gas stations are federally mandated to post their gas prices prominently? I have a friend who owns a dry cleaners and I choose to patronize one that is more conveniently located. Maybe, with a little more character, I would. 

Below are three brands to consider when evaluating character. Ben & Jerry’s, Starbucks and Newman’s Own are all three great examples of the presence of character and you can see that loyalty follows.

The learning here is of course to look for ways to add character to your selling proposition. The bonus here is that you benefit in two significant ways. Both are responsible for driving business forward.


Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com
follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

CONSIDER ELEVATING YOUR BENEFIT…IF YOU HAVE ONE

Elevating your benefit is a marketing move that should be under constant consideration. I am referring to the benefit that you may or may not have included in your critical sales message. In the branding world, that message is referred to as your selling proposition. In almost every product or service I have positioned, the benefit, if properly supported, has turned out to be the strongest trigger to cause consumers to purchase. However, as I plough through the world of consumer goods and services marketing, I rarely ever see benefits used in the selling propositions I encounter. I think it’s because business owners are so focused on their businesses they forget what’s in it for the purchaser…the benefit.

This shortage of benefits is good news for you. Even though you too are not likely using one in your current selling proposition, your competition is unlikely either. Let’s assume for the moment that one of you, either you or your competition, is using a benefit effectively. If it’s your competition, you are likely suffering at the effect of them having done so. If it’s you that is using a benefit…congratulations. In either case, now is the time to elevate.

A number of years ago, the children’s educational software category was dominated by a brand that used a benefit to drive its selling proposition, and in turn, its sales. The brand is Reader Rabbit and the selling proposition is based on the benefit its brand name infers. The benefit is essentially that your child will be more likely to engage in the process of learning if it is also being entertained by a rabbit. That selling proposition was very effective, and for a long time allowed the Reader Rabbit brand to dominate the category until a new brand was introduced that used a higher order of benefit. Let me demonstrate what I mean by a higher order.

Years ago I discovered that if you asked business owners or their consumers to tell you what the benefit is for any product or service, they will generally give you a performance attribute or a very low form of a benefit. If you then tell them to consider that they have that benefit in their lives, and again ask what the benefit of having that is, they will begin going up what I call a benefit ladder. At the top of all benefit ladders, no matter what the product or service is I’m happy.

That makes sense if you think about it. Here are two different ladders, one for cat litter, the other for allergy medicine. Start at the bottom of each, work up the ladder and you will get the point.

Here is what happened to the rabbit. I am going to say that the benefit for Reader Rabbit is SMART KID. At about that time a second marketing team, one I happened to be a part of, identified a new selling proposition that was based on the perceived mindset of parents. We launched a brand called Jump Start. The Jump Start positioning was based on the perceived benefit of a parent’s desire to give their child an advantage over other kids. I am going to say the benefit for Jump Start is PROUD PARENT. If we had the advantage of showing you a benefit ladder for the children’s educational software category, the Jump Start benefit is clearly elevated and above that of Reader Rabbit.

Sales for Jump Start Kindergarten, the initial product offered by this new brand, were extraordinarily strong. In short time, The Jump Start brand took over the category, and the Reader Rabbit brand became a shadow of its former self. This is an event that happened well over ten years ago. There is a double learning here.

The first is that of continually perusing the next elevated benefit. You should not only be looking for the benefit that will drive your product or service forward, you should be looking for the elevated benefit that will drive it beyond that. If you can get into this mind set, you will alter the success pattern of your business forever. If you are a small business thinking I have just disclosed a secret marketing tool commonly used by the big boys, I have a news flash for you. The big boys are too busy being tangled up in their every day marketing issues to stay present to this critical marketing distinction just like the smaller entrepreneurs. No one is minding the store where this marketing distinction is concerned.

The second learning illustrates this point very well. In the ensuing years, after the introduction, neither of these brands has attempted to elevate beyond the status quo. I cannot say why because I am not in contact with either brand. Perhaps neither brand has figured out what took place. Stay vigilant.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below






visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

LOOKING FOR AN ENDORSER

I’ve written about endorsements before but never experienced their power until last weekend. I’m normally an avid moviegoer but have been involved in so many other activities lately that I’ve not seen a movie for several months.

Friday afternoon a friend sent a text message asking if I wanted to join her to go see Knight and Day, the new Tom Cruise movie. Having been a victim of Mission Impossible where anything, no matter how ridiculous, was possible, I cringed at the thought of another Tom Cruise action film. When I asked for another suggestion, my friend explained that she was out running errands and the task of finding a great film was in my hands.

I quickly sent messages to my two sons who are usually great sources. No response. They were not wired up at the moment. I tried two additional friends, also to no avail. In the dead time that followed, I became aware that I was literally looking for a third party endorsement. It was only a few blogs back that I wrote about the potential power of incorporating endorsements into your selling proposition. That blog was with the idea of imposing an endorsement on your consumer, never thinking that they might already be looking for one much like I was at the moment.

The experience I was having was strictly two parties, the product (the movie) and me. I needed a third party to recommend a good movie and there were none around. My next move was to pick the local Landmark Theater. At least I knew the experience of the theatre would be great. I can reserve a seat, they have great snacks and there are no aggravating commercials.

Their site on the internet provided a listing of twelve movies. I started at the top and one by one clicked on the titles and began reading the write-ups on each. As I quickly realized I didn’t fully trust what I was reading knowing the natural tendency toward hype. I still needed that third party endorsement.

After working my way through the first eleven, I got relief on number twelve. I felt like I had found a friend. In fact I had. The film was titled Winter’s Bone, which told me nothing. The same was true of the write-up except for one thing. This film had won the 2010 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. I confess, I am not familiar with either of those awards, but that was all I needed to make the choice. I booked it and guess what? It was great.

The learning here is that I have under estimated the power of the endorsement as a marketing trigger. The issue is finding the one that works for your product or service. You may be surprised how easy that may be given that consumers are so open to them. What you are looking for is one that has a certain, but not too much, familiarity.

I frequently include the Good Housekeeping seal in the work I do when I expose new selling propositions to consumers, but it seems to have lost its charm. I think it is so widely used it has lost its appeal. On the other hand I have created fake endorsements with what I thought were compelling names and they too have failed. What I know for sure is that endorsements are worth pursuing. What I have just learned is that in the corner of the minds of consumers, they are likely looking for them. If you have had any interesting experiences with endorsements that you can share, I would love to hear them.

              
Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below

visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

SELLING IS MUCH MORE PERSONAL THAN EVEN I THOUGHT

Last week I did a guest spot on The Big Biz Show, a national and international radio and TV simulcast. CBS is the primary carrier. I had been asked to share topics I think will work for both big and small businesses. That has turned out to be very easy to do as I’ve discovered that literally all of the marketing distinctions I have created while working on the big brands, are just as applicable to small businesses.

This was my eighth appearance, and as a result of a positive reaction from their audience, I am now considered a regular. This is all very new to me and while I was very intimidated at first, I now find it exciting, a lot of fun and I truly look forward to the next broadcast. I confess, I have been very surprised to discover that I am well suited to it. Given my limited experience, I can only conclude that training for such a thing must be secondary to simply having some degree of innate ability to just do it. I feel very lucky.

At this point, the hosts introduce me and I am allowed to take the show in whatever direction I choose. They jump in and it seems to go in a direction of its own. My first appearance was characterized to me as one segment in length, about ten minutes. That appearance went so well they held me through two. Last week they found the subject so interesting it went for three segments. I was blown away. After the session, while on the way home, I realized that I had learned something very valuable for myself during that appearance. While my intention was to share that “selling propositions have a gender,” I discovered much more for myself. I will share it here with you.

I began the first segment by suggesting that it is useful to look at your product or service as if it were alive and had a personality. I did so because consumers literally encounter hundreds of them on a daily basis. These selling propositions are quickly evaluated and either cast aside or acted upon. That’s very personal and I am clear that when a stranger encounters your selling proposition, it is a personal experience on many levels.

To begin with, I recommend you consider that your selling proposition is a one-way conversation with your target consumer. Right off, you better say something about them or they will think all you care about is yourself. The best thing you can possibly say about them is how they will benefit by using your product or service. Men’s Warehouse, “You’re going to like the way you look, I guarantee it. " Enough said there.

Our lives are very gender-centric and so are our products and services. Women respond to our selling propositions differently than men. Women are very comfortable with their sexuality while we men are less so. Given that, I recommend you make sure your selling proposition is somewhat more masculine than feminine if you want to be safe. Notice the Trojan package and how masculine it is. It is a fact that approximately 35% of all condoms are purchased by females…apparently comfortable with its gender.

I find it fitting that years ago I chose the word character to define what I say you should add to appropriate elements of your selling proposition, to make them appear remarkable to your target consumers. My definition of character is anything structural, graphic or words that cause the target consumer to develop relatedness to your product or service. Check out the abundance of character in the Go-Gurt package and imagine how remarkable it was when introduced years ago.

All marketers want their target consumers to be loyal and continue to purchase on a regular basis. Loyalty is of course a very human trait as is character. What I can share with you here is that there is a very direct relationship between character and loyalty. You show me a selling proposition with lots of character and I will bet that product will have lots of consumer loyalty.

I could continue talking about many more human characteristics but I am committed to a short blogging. The learning here is to remember to stay present to the idea that your selling proposition is human and in a one-way conversation with your target consumer. I promise, that mindset will be more a part of my own marketing context as I move forward. I’d love to know if it is part of yours.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below







visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

HOW IS YOUR SELLING PROPOSITION TRACKING?

My son Eric likes to refer to me as a “clicker.” He has frequently observed me clicking away on my computer as I have become impatient to the point of not wanting to wait more than a split second for it to respond. He is right by the way. I think I’m simply a product of the times where we are all very impatient. This phenomenon is pervasive among humans in general and if you are not careful, it can affect how well your selling proposition is perceived.

When working on a positioning assignment, we break the total message down into its communication elements. We then dedicate ourselves to creating the most powerful means of communicating each. element We do so knowing that it is essential to developing a powerful selling proposition. This is true irrespective of whether it is a product or a service. It is just as correct to assume that you must make your selling proposition both fast and easy for your target consumer to encounter and comprehend, or you will lose them.

Assuming you do not have money for sophisticated eye tracking research, I offer the following. I will discuss the critical elements that will be initially exposed to your target consumer. You will want to consider all elements you feel are necessary to complete your selling proposition. Your selling proposition may be communicated at any one of many impact points. You could be working with a billboard ad, a yellow pages ad, a bus bench, a package, a radio or TV commercial, a billboard, the cover or first two pages of a brochure or whatever your impact point is. The process is exactly the same.

The most important element is almost always your benefit or a bold statement. Your benefit is a two or three word statement of what your target consumer gets out of using your product or service. An example is “Less Work” on the 3M Sandblaster sandpaper package seen below. A bold statement is a significant claim about the performance of your product or service. An example is “The Most Interesting Man In the World” on the Dos Equis billboard ad below.

Your brand or your generic descriptor can be the initial elements that target consumers are exposed to because target consumers encounter them without judgment. They are perfect to function as an attention getting element. Target consumers encounter them then move on quickly to the next most prominent element. The next element should be your benefit/bold statement. Beyond the benefit or bold statement, you will add supporting attribute drivers. They should be located in close proximity. Close enough that they function as one design element as in the 3M sandpaper package. Notice the statements directly adjacent to “Less Work."

This methodology sets up one of the strongest communication scenarios I know of. Your brand/generic descriptor works as your attention getting first element. Your benefit/attribute drivers work together as your second element. Assuming you have developed strong communication elements, you will have a powerful selling proposition and your target consumer has only had to encounter two elements. Additional subordinate elements should be added carefully.

The learning here is that you and I are responsible for how target consumers encounter selling propositions. Simply having all of the elements present is not enough. We must manage the order in which the elements are exposed. If we force them to sort it out they will tune out.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

follow my blog by clicking one of the links below







visit my site, www.pullbizbook.com

DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH CHARACTER?

The answer is, not likely. Character is the secret ingredient used in creating a remarkable selling proposition. A remarkable selling proposition, as defined by me is one that is perceived as a breakthrough by your target consumer. It can manifest itself in one of four ways when conveying your selling proposition. It can be in the form of words, graphics, sound or structural. The procedure for adding "remarkability" to your selling proposition is simple. You try adding character to the different elements of your selling proposition until one or more work. By elements I am referring to a sub-brand, a generic descriptor, a key graphic, an endorsement, a benefit, an attribute and so on.

Some categories are all but void of character. Gas stations, plumbers, dry cleaners, drug stores, hardware stores, and shoe repair shops are among many others. Have you ever noticed when you drive down the street, how generic the information is that you are exposed to? Retail stores are the worst offenders but there are those few who pull it off.

There is a shoe repair shop about ten blocks from my office. The owner turned his car into a giant boot that he parks in-front of the store daily. He added character.

 There is a plumber in Los Angeles  CA who created a tag line that adds character. He says, “I guarantee my plumbers will show up on time and smell good.” He added character. There is a national men’s clothing retailer who added an advertising tag line to his selling proposition. He says, “You’re going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.” He added character. When the Yoplait marketers wanted to sell yogurt to kids, they added character to the delivery system, the sub-brand, the generic descriptor and the key graphic, they too added character.

There is a significant residual benefit to adding character that is very important. There is a direct relationship between the presence of character and that of loyalty. You show me a selling proposition with little character and I will show you a group of consumers with low loyalty. These consumers will likely bail out in favor of a competitive product or service that has more character appeal. If you stop and review the brands and products that you are currently loyal to, chances are they have character that you relate to. Brands with little character are frankly boring. You and I don’t collect boring friends nor do we warm up to boring brands and products. If you look even closer you will notice that the products and services you patronize, those that have little character, are most likely very convenient or very cheap.

The learning here is that you can add power to your selling proposition simply by adding character. You don’t have to increase advertising or sale promotion or change your product or service in any way. Simply take exactly what you are currently selling and look for positioning elements that you can alter to add character.

Cheers, 

Keith Chambers

Keynote Marketing Speaker
Creative Marketing Consultant
(310) 473-0010
www.chambersgroup.com

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