You know the song.
“She’ll put on her make-up and brushes her long blonde hair
And then she asks me, do I look all right?
And I say, yes, you look wonderful tonight”
Within Eric Clapton’s lyrics there’s a great little message for your marketing endeavours.
The make-up products. The brush. They all play a part.
Just the same way what you sell plays a part in your own customers’ lives.
It’s about the reassurance provided and how your product makes people feel.
Peter Drucker reminded us 50 years ago, “The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it sells him.”
Your marketing message is your response to the question ‘do I look all right?’
For the fashion retailer. It’s not the clothes you sell. It’s that momentary glance in the mirror as she answers the door to the taxi driver. That reassurance that she looks wonderful. That she feels wonderful in the clothes she bought from your shop. That’s the message you sell. That’s what the customer is buying.
I sat on my bed as a teenager learning, note by note, the opening to Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight. I’m not sure I liked the song that much. I’m sure I didn’t quite get the meaning of the lyrics. But I wanted to hit those notes. I wanted to hit those notes like Clapton hit those notes.
The guitar. The amplifier. The pick in my hand. The strings I tuned each and every day. I didn’t buy them for the material they were made from. I bought them for that feeling of nailing that opening sequence. The wonderful pitch. The wonderful tone. It’s what I craved. It’s why I spent hours upon hours learning the songs of my guitar heroes.
Again, it’s not about the product you sell, it’s how that product makes people feel.
Harvard Professor & Disruptive Innovation Expert Clay Christensen has a brilliant way of putting this. He asks what is the job that your product is hired to do? He advised McDonalds how to sell more milkshakes to morning commuters. They were asking the commuter what wanted. How could they improve their milkshake. They told him about the different flavours they could offer. It didn’t improve sales. Christensen then asked McDonalds customers what the job of the milkshake was. The response? To alleviate boredom on the morning commute. The thickness of the milkshake meant they had something to concentrate on for 20 minutes. That was the job of the milkshake.
So Christensen advised McDonalds to focus on the thickness of the shake. To add fruit to the shake to offer an element of surprise to the bored commuter.
Once McDonalds understood the job of the milkshake they understood how they could sell more. And they did.
This is the problem with relying upon customers to tell you how you can improve your service. They don’t know the answer until you frame the question in a way that relates to them. Ask them what job your product is hired for.
What you sell plays a part in your customer’s life. It’s a meaningless commodity if it doesn’t. It’s your duty to understand exactly what that part is.
In my early days in consultancy I made the mistake of focusing in on what I offered. It’s only through the countless hours sat with marketers and entrepreneurs that I realised what the problem was. What my job was. What part I can play for them. They felt their work was ordinary. There was nothing unique about their message. Nothing to grab hold of and own. Hence my task, now, is to help build their brand less ordinary. Those last three words are the flag I now fly.
To deliver a less ordinary brand you focus your energy on your message. The reassurance to your buyer that your product will do more than make them feel all right. You’re selling the emotion of feeling good, feeling wonderful. If not, you’re simply selling a commodity.
Let your audience know how your product will make them feel
The majority of retailers and makers jump straight into the product sell. It’s why most retail homepages are a collection of ‘best selling’ and ‘latest’ products. They want you to browse and find what you need.
A smarter approach is to address your audience. This is the value of a simple and unique value proposition. A few words that make people know that you’re making what you make for them.
Would you buy a classically-styled motorbike?
Would you buy a motorcycle handmade for discerning hooligans?
Once you have your customer’s attention you can then present your product features in a way that appeals.
Nice and simple ways of placing your product in the context of your audience.
The Gladstone No.1. motorbike has a brass battery box. Nice touch.
Their product description announces a ‘vintage style brass bound battery box hiding the latest lithium batteries.’
Consider that sentence for a moment. The value of the modern ‘lithium batteries’ housed in vintage styling. Blending the old with the new.
Enough to excite the discerning hooligan.
FINAL WORDS
In our haste to create more content. To launch more products. To grab more ad impressions we sometimes forget what really matters. How do we make what we make matter?
How do we make our clients, or buyers, or audience feel good?
Delivery tomorrow? That’s a bonus.
Built by hand? That’s a nice touch.
A free PDF? Stop it, you’re making me melt… [sarcasm. heavy heavy sarcasm]
Get to know what you’re selling your customer. Decipher that feeling into a few simple words. Write it down. Print it. Type it. Sell it. Now, go fly your flag.
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