Your growing pains, have nothing do to with pain.

Susan in Client Services is often heard saying rubbish like 'We need to focus on the audiences pain'.

Casually forgetting humans are quite happy to live ‘in pain’ for decades.

Thanks for coming Susan.

So why do humans live in pain for years? Because we’re stupid and irrational. Yep, even you mate.

Think about your own life. What 'pain' are you prepared to live in? Me, I've been happily, and painfully, making awful coffee for years. Everyday, 5 times a day, I tell myself I should buy a fancy coffee machine (one of those shiny ones with chrome nobs on), but I continue painfully making the worst coffee on the planet.

If your brand focusses on solving a pain, then you’re going nowhere, fast.

Which is great for the biggest brand in your category, because they’re so famous the status quo works perfectly for them. They have the retailer footprint, mental availability and largest contracts to quite happily plod forwards. Day after day.

But Underdogs don’t have that luxury. So what can you do?

Stop banging on about pain, and instead focus on triggers.

Triggers are waaaay more powerful. Research from Ehrenburg Bass Institute shows Category Entry Points are the trigger for your audience.

Focus on why, when, while, with what, with whom and where the public are. Spend some serious brain power thinking about that trigger. Obsess over it. Think deeply about why it happens, and how the public feel.

And then bring it into your GTM strategy, ideally CEP's should be central pillar.

Remember, people don’t buy unless something triggers them, and it's got chuff all to do with Susan and her pain.

Underdog brands, need Underdog thinking.

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