Customers don't buy WHAT you sell

Part of a branding company's job (or marketeers job) is to make sure their clients’ customers choose to buy from them instead of their competitors. Hell, we all want that, we’d all rather not have any competitors.

Well, that utopia may be easier than you think if you start to think like an everyday consumer and not get so bogged down in how you can make your product or service more attractive than your competitors.

Sure, your product or service has to be good and have a relative value to it’s price, but seriously how much better can your cup of coffee be, compared to a competitor 2 doors down the street at ￡2.20? Or how much better can your bank cash a cheque for 67p than another bank.

Part of enabling your business to appear to have no competitors (and that’s the part branding helps with!) is to make aspects of your business 'scarce'. There’s literally no real advantage to banging on about WHAT you do, when it's exactly what your competitors do.

My advice is to talk, promote, market, present and PR the things you do that your competitors don’t. Bang on about something that creates a difference to your competitors and keep doing it consistently.

Branding and marketing companies (however evil some people think they are) are here to give you that difference, give you the ability to stand out, the tools to be remembered by your target customers, to an ultimate point where you become the only choice in your market.

Here's 2 examples of brands, where talking about the WHAT, doesn't help at all...

Guess the company - 1

Which bank offers a current account?

Didn’t get it yet? O.K, I’ll be more specific...

Which bank offers a 15% cash back with their current account?

Still not there yet? I’ll try again...

Which bank has has a black horse? Got it now?

Guess the company - 2

I’ll make it easier as there’s probably only 4 choices here...

Which company offers you the ability to compare car insurance prices?

Need more product info?

Which comparison site offers an average car insurance saving of ￡274?

No clearer?

Which one has the Meerkats?

If you still didn’t get them it was ‘Lloyds Bank’ and ‘Compare the market’. You may not have got them if you weren’t the target market, but I’m pretty sure you got the second one, even if you don’t use the company.

WHAT each company offers isn’t irrelevant, but as a consumer you already know what they do or sell, so banging on about the product or service isn’t going to distinguish them from their competitors. Promoting they offer current accounts or that you can compare insurance is very secondary or tertiary to what you want your customer to remember.

‘Compare the market’ want their customers to choose the company with the Meerkats, not the Opera singer, it’s literally as ‘Simples’ as that!

So, how can you start to distinguish your business through branding and marketing to make you stand out from the crowd?

Jason Flinter www.theflint.co.uk 0117 9790588