Are you ready to break convention?

Marketing To Break Convention

Convention stops us from doing what we want to do. It stops us from changing the way work – the tasks we carry out. It’s the way we are told things are done. Like it, or not. By definition, convention is a way in which something is usually done. It’s the routine, the process and the habit by which evolution grinds to a holt. It’s ritual. It’s our comfort zone.

Let’s challenge marketing convention. It’s what the smart marketers and entrepreneurs do for a living.

WHY CHANGE THE HABIT OF A LIFETIME?

When we ask of our business the question raised by Theodore Levitt in Marketing Myopia – “What business are you really in?” it prepares us to break convention. Your answer may relate to outcome. It may relate to technology. It may relate to the service you provide.

Key question to ask – Is the ‘business you are really in’ relate to the business you offer, or the business that you provide?

Convention is broken when you change the buying habit of the consumer. When our groceries are delivered to our doorstep. When we would prefer to spend £3 on a grande latte than 50p on a large mug of instant coffee. When we spend £50 on a small bottle of hand cream when a £5 tub of cream would deliver the same outcome.

Convention is broken when we change the way our consumers behave. When we upload holiday photos to Facebook rather than send postcards. When we Skype rather than spend hours travelling to a meeting. When we save an interesting blog article to Evernote rather than print out a copy to file.

Break Convention

How do you break convention?

Marketers spend too much time contemplating the actions of their competitors rather than the actions of their consumer. Convention shapes that very process.  We ask ourselves:

  • ‘What does our competitor offer that we don’t?’
  • ‘How can our competitors afford to sell their products at such a low price?’
  • ‘Where are our competitors reaching their audience?’
  • ‘Why aren’t we seeing the same results as our products are so similar?’

rather than asking what we could do differently to engage our own audience.

For your audience convention may be:

  • the price they expect to pay
  • the service they expect to receive
  • the results they expect to achieve
  • the problem they expect to resolve

As marketers, our aim is to reshape the perception of price, convenience, luxury, service level or reward. That’s why Molton Brown can sell shower gel for £22 whilst their competitors struggle to sell a similar product for £2. That perception is shaped through the story your brand tells. Here’s the story Molton Brown tell

How Story Breaks Convention

Conventional thinking is what holds us back from marketing our brand through ways that our brands deserve. It’s what stops us from challenging the methods, the processes, by which we portray our own brand. When you ask yourself ‘what story does our brand tell?’ does it resemble the story of your nearest competitor? Is it distinguishable from the next product on the shelf?

WHAT IF YOU’RE NOT TELLING THE STORY OF YOUR BRAND?

Don’t believe that your brand can outlast the competition if your focus is purely on price. Don’t underestimate the startups that are about to disrupt your industry. Don’t ignore the methods readily available to you that will help you tell your brand story to an audience that wants to hear from you. You simply have to know your story and be proud of your story.

If your advertising just about covers the expense, if your message is weak and fails to resonate, if your authenticity isn’t recognisable. Don’t worry about what your competitors are up to. Break convention.


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Ian Rhodes

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First employee of an ecommerce startup back in 1998. I've been using building and growing ecommerce brands ever since (including my own). Get weekly growth lessons from my own work delivered to your inbox below.

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