Are You The Antidote?

Are you going beyond solving surface-level problems for your customers, and positioning your brand as the remedy that turns their situation around and encourages them to thrive? 

Positioning your brand as "the antidote" may seem a bit dramatic. How can your little (insert product or service here) claim to be a cure for your customers’ most profound problems? 

Conventional marketing wisdom says the more you understand your customers’ needs, the more successful your business. Simple enough, right? Customer A has acne (the problem). Our brand provides a foaming face cleanser (the solution). But is Customer A’s issue so straightforward? 

Brands shouldn’t try to be the cure for every customers’ pain point. Instead, they should empathize with them, pinpoint the issues their products address, and provide a fix only they can deliver.  

If we really put ourselves in Customer A’s shoes, we’ll discover he seeks more than just an acne-free complexion. Our brand must consider the social, emotional, and psychological ramifications of acne. Customer A suffers from acne and does not consider his condition trivial. Customer A’s acne influences his self-esteem and prevents him from engaging in regular social interactions. 

The problem your brand needs to solve goes well beyond helping Customer A get rid of his acne. Your foaming face wash is the antidote to Customer A’s low esteem. How can your product support Customer A as he transitions from self-conscious to confident? 

Your mission should be to help Customer A, and customers like him, thrive. By using your face wash, they'll never need to worry about acne or endure the stigma associated with it, again.

Whether you’re a business owner or an associate, you must communicate how your brand will help customers succeed. Then, you must articulate how your product will counteract a negative situation in their life. 

You must become the antidote.

This article was originally published on the blog ? maydukes.com https://mayadukes.com/blog ? follow me @Maya.dukes