A few weeks ago, I was faced with needing to find a new dentist. So, the search began and the more I looked around, the more it showed just how many touchpoints came into play prior to – and after – a selection being made.
As we know, customers experience your brand in numerous ways and each of these touchpoints molds the customer’s impression of your company’s brand. If the brand is a promise you make, then the customer experience is the fulfillment of that promise. The customer experience can’t be left to chance. It has to consistently reinforce the brand promise across every customer touchpoint or the value of the brand itself is at risk.
So, after thinking about what your brand stands for and what sets it apart, it’s time to look outward. After all, if a brand is built and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? In not-so-distant marketing past, reaching consumers meant connecting through just a few channels: a catalog, a radio spot, a store visit, a customer service line, a salesperson…You get the idea. However, the number of channels for reaching customers has exploded in recent years. Think about it: when was the last time you made a major (or even not-so-major) purchase decision, personal or for business, whether a product or service, through a single channel? In fact, it’s more likely that your purchasing decision was made after being reached through a variety of interconnected touchpoints, from social media, to word-of-mouth, to advertising messaging, to conducting research online, to comparison shopping in the store.
Despite the desire to “silo” marketing channels, they’re far more effectively used together than individually. In a Forrester’s research report, it was noted that 33% of new customers involve two or more “trackable touchpoints,” and nearly 50% of repeat customers visit three or more “trackable touchpoints.” And despite the fact that nearly a 50% of the surveyed people believed that social media channels are a great place to discover new products, less than 1% of sales resulted directly from a social media referral. Online search (i.e., Google) and email were much more effective at closing a sale.
That said, your ultimate goal is to have each touchpoint reinforce and fulfill your marketplace promise. The best way to do this effectively is to look at each of your marketing, selling, and servicing processes which then allows you to create a simple touchpoint chart or map that defines your customers’ experiences with your brand.
Keeping this in mind, let’s use the process in looking for a new dentist:
That said, all touchpoints are not created equal. Some will naturally play a larger role in determining your company’s overall customer experience. To determine the touchpoints driving your customers’ overall experience, your organization can use a wide array of techniques ranging from quantitative research to institutional knowledge.
Yes, it’s simple….almost absurdly simple. But stepping into consumers’ shoes is an exercise absolutely too many executives neglect when marketing. We forget to become our own customers–with real, day-to-day concerns–and in the process, we lose sight of the most valuable touchpoint opportunities. Each one is a chance to present your brand and what you stand for.
In other words, having a more refined sense of “touch” has a big impact on how your prospects feel.
Imagine if you had some magical warning sound that alerted you before you made a misjudgment or a social faux pas. You know, like you’re about to bet on a bad hand and, HONK!, so you pull back your bet just in time. Or you’re about to give a future employer one of those cool “street” handshakes and, HONK!”, you think better of it. There’s a clever commercial for the Nissan Altima that plays out this funny notion as it promotes a cool new feature on the car: a warning honk that alerts you before you over-inflate your tires.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9xFgyv8BJI]
Now admittedly, we’ve all managed this long without the benefit of an automatic over-inflation warning, but still, it’s pretty cool. And it dramatizes a point that as a marketer you should be asking yourself: What’s the cool feature you have to sell? What do you produce, offer or do that excites your audience and makes them think “Wow!”
This is a pretty ho-hum world we live in and we’ve all seen ads, commercials, websites and Facebook pages up the wazoo. So the challenge of breaking through today means finding the one or two out-of-the-ordinary things people don’t expect or don’t know about you that fascinates them. We all know that to be the all important “Wow Factor.”
In your specific industry, you already know what the baseline of expectations is (quality product, made from quality materials/ingredients, great customer service, affordable prices). That’s just the opening ante that anyone in your business must provide. But where is the Wow that you alone can talk about? That one thing, or series of things, that is not merely unique but deserves an exclamation point in the eyes of your customer.
In books such as Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service, or Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, the authors write about the need to be remarkable or else become invisible. In your marketing, the same rule applies, that you must find the Wow Factor and express it in a fresh and unexpected manner so that it excites the audience and sets you in a league all your own. That way, it grabs people’s attention and has them focusing on the message and not thinking about the other stuff that might come into their minds. They’re engaged…captivated.
In doing so, you start connecting with your audience on a more intimate level, and that better allows you to persuade them, get them to trust you, get them to believe you, and get them to want to buy from you. So when your competitor tries to pull them away, they’ll stay loyal to you.
Back to the example of the Nissan Altima, the commercial demonstrates that promoting one small but really interesting feature is better than loads of features or bland generalities. That nugget of marketing gold for you might exist in one “small” aspect of your operation but demonstrates everything holographically about the way you do business. Whether it’s some unique characteristic about the what makes up the product (i.e., it doesn’t rust…even when submerged in salt water) or a particular service that you alone are offering (i.e., you’ll return every inquiry within 2 hours), it just needs to be a Wow. Anything short of Wow, whatever it is, will be background noise and nothing more. And if it’s a Wow, no matter how small it is, your marketing can make it big.
It’s time to do some corporate detective work and discover – or develop – your own Wow Factor.
And hey, did I mention the marketing director’s daughter who (HONK!!!!) … oh, never mind.
The year is 1913. The automobile is more than a novelty by this time. It is here to stay, and already, in the big cities, cars are beginning to outnumber horses on the major thoroughfares. Every young and growing family of any means has one of these contraptions. And the Ford Motor Company is pumping these babies out as fast as his factory will allow. In fact, if you’re Henry Ford, in 1913, you can’t imagine that ANYONE would want to be without a car, given its obvious speed, convenience and ability to vastly improve commerce.
But that same year, anyone who is over 50 has grown up with the horse and buggy and they are far from abandoning the most dependable and affordable form of transportation there is. Out in the countryside, they’re even more locked in to the old ways. Of course, they’re all a dying breed – literally – and one day, maybe in another decade or two, Mr. Ford will be right. But in the meantime, it still pays to be a blacksmith.
The year is 2013. Social Media is more than a novelty. And the digital universe will continue to play a growing role in how one makes choices in every area. But there’s a market divide here as well: those under 50 who, growing up, depended on television and now the Internet as their major information sources, and those over 50 who grew up with newspapers, books and encyclopedias, news magazines, radio and eight channels of TV to inform their world view. Those gray-haired Baby Boomers and pre-Boomers aren’t ready to give up the old medium forms or use the full potential of Internet the way their younger counterparts are. They still rely on traditional media and the power of face-to-face relationships to form their opinions. It’s how they’re hard-wired, even though many Boomers and older seniors may have Facebook accounts and smart phones.
For the visionary marketer under the age of 50, little wonder that he or she sees the future the way Henry Ford did in 1913. Soon, EVERYBODY will be wired, interactive, and engaged in the multiplicity of online touch points.
But whoa! If you’re reaching buyers over 50, which is the absolutely dominant market for health care, retirement living, destination travel, hospice care and funeral services, it still pays to know how to shoe horses!
I spoke last week to a senior services industry group, most of whom were Boomers or older, and they were very clear on the fact that for the next decade at least, Boomers and the older generations will remain the primary target audience. In fact, it was fascinating to note how many of these industry professionals struggled to understand how to use Facebook. Well, they’re over 50, just like their buyers!
If you’re under 50, you might chuckle at these old codgers and say their ways are fast coming to a close. But do remember, if you’re selling anything to Baby Boomers and older, these old-school marketers are more on-target than you are.
Young emerging marketing directors need to know how to employ the technological and social changes that are underway. But if you’re marketing to Boomers and older, automotively speaking, this is still 1913, not 1930. The changes that should be happening right now aren’t so much about how to use Facebook and Twitter but how to speak to the Baby Boomer better, understand their culture better, speak their language better and show up where they are. That means more relevant branding, more choices of products and services, adroit use of surprise, humor and respectful irreverence in marketing, and the avoidance of anything that reeks of clichés and stock or traditional messages.
Visionary thinking is wonderful, but while you’re looking well down the path, it pays to watch where your very next step will be as well.
“Did you hear what I just said?” my wife asked me as I was busy doing the chores this past weekend. Fessing up, I admitted that I heard her but wasn’t really listening. I think it had something to do with the dripping bathroom faucet.
There really is a difference between “listening” and “hearing” as my wife occasionally reminds me. Hearing is passive and requires no effort, while listening, on the other hand, requires focus, attention and concentration. So with that as the backdrop, as a marketer, “Are you merely “hearing” your customers or are you “listening” to them?
In today’s world, we’re all stretched for time and the need to get done everything that needs to be done. But too many marketers are becoming so technology-addicted to their iPhones and email that they forget to listen the old-fashioned way to what their customers are saying and learning what it is that they want. They’re hardly even asking them. Attention spans have compressed to seconds, and face-to-face conversations (where body language plays a big part) are avoided in favor of texting and anonymous Internet surveys. It shouldn’t surprise you then that a Harris survey found that about 25% of all Internet users think it’s okay to be “plugged in” during their honeymoon, and just under 10% think it’s alright to surf the web during religious services. Do you really think that any of these people are taking the time to listen to their customers? Hardly.
So how do you know what your customers want? One of the most common answers I hear is, “Because they told us….” Yet, for me anyway, this answer only calls for more questions. Who? When? What did they tell you? How did they tell you – online? in person? Are you sure you really understood what they were telling you? Have their wants changed?
Think about this: if understanding what your customers want is the foundation of your marketing strategy, listening to customers is going to require more than a one-time investment in classic market research tools like focus groups and customer surveys. (Can I get an Amen on that?)
It’s no big secret that the markets in which you compete are evolving. Customer preferences and wants are continually changing. New competitors are showing up. But the one constant is your customers are talking. The key to truly understanding what they want is continual engagement – through social media, one-on-one interactions, and even sales calls. Getting in front of your customers and engaging them in conversations should be a required part of every marketer’s job – from the CMO down to the marketing specialist. And this applies to both B2B and B2C companies.
Ever wonder what causes customers to flock to one brand while remaining coldly indifferent to another—even when the offerings of the companies in question aren’t substantially different? Well, my experience working with varied sized organizations in all sorts of industries says that the single most important factor that separates the good companies from the great companies is the ability to listen to their customers. Great companies are maniacal about listening and differentiate meaning from the information given. In other words, they’re doing more than hearing what their customers are saying. They’re spending quality time listening. And they’re deriving their direction from what their customers are saying.
On that note, with social media being what it is, here are a couple of things to consider to help bring home the point of how important listening really is: Almost 50% of consumers want businesses to listen to them to improve their products while 60% of consumers want businesses to respond to their complaints. And, 66% of consumers across age groups want companies to respond to online comments on social media platforms.
Here are 5 quick tips on listening to your customers, and please, share this with your staff:
Now that all said, it’s also important to understand that not all customer comments are of equal importance and listening to them without some discrimination can be dangerous. Sure, they provide valuable feedback, advice and criticism, but the stuff some customers tell you can be distracting, unfocused, self-serving and a waste of time. You can’t please everyone and you can’t meet the needs of all your customers. This is when “hearing” them is a better course of action.
At the end of the day, if you don’t care, or can’t convince your customers that you listen, you can bet they will find a competitor who does. Successful businesses walk the walk and listen to the talk,
The life of a hummingbird rarely exceeds four years. The life expectancy of a Marketing Director (or CMO or VP of Sales & Marketing) at any given company is even less than that. The typical tenure these days is a little more than 3 years and this is up from about 26 months in 2004. In fact, as you stroll through the offices at many companies, it’s an easy bet which executive is a dead man (or woman) walking: the Marketing Director.
What are some of the reasons causing such a short tenure? What are some things a Marketing Director can do to be successful? How much of that is on the company and how much is brought on by the individual?
Ok, so how much of this is do you see or experience in the world that you live in? If you’re like the vast majority of Marketing Directors in this country, you see any of these issues popping up on a fairly regular basis. Here are a few things to consider in order to make sure you’re not having to call your executive recruiter anytime soon.
While the marketing landscape changes so quickly, the good news is that a Marketing Director can succeed in the face of headwinds no matter which way he/she faces. It may be more challenging than it should be, but stand true to your brand, be current and always in the know, and be bold enough to make a difference….otherwise, chances are, you might be dusting off that resume.
I had a phone call with a previous client last week and during our talk she told me more than once how she felt like the role of her marketing department was being marginalized. Apparently, over the course of the last few years, various internal departments who relied on the marketing team to support their activities are now more or less telling them what they want said and how they wanted it represented in the various forms and channels. They’re playing Copywriter and Art Director. The reason why this has happened was summed up by what more and more people in organizations think: “Anyone can do Marketing.”
Unfortunately, there are people in C-suites around this country, self appointed ‘marketing experts’ on the web (who are generally selling something), etc., who believe that to be the case. In fact, the marketing department is also occasionally to blame. How’s that? Well, have you noticed any of the job postings for marketing people? Some of the position descriptions are impressive and ask for proficiency in a number of specialties like SEO, CRM, social media, Photoshop, along with more traditional marketing areas. And then comes the kicker: 2-4 years experience required. What??? Obviously, marketing management who wrote the job spec doesn’t view its role as that complicated or requiring suitable experience to do the job correctly. No wonder respect is hard to come by.
As we know, businesses depend on professional attorneys to oversee their legal affairs and experienced accountants to manage their finances. But some executive level business people don’t think twice about turning over their revenue-producing marketing efforts to someone who doesn’t have a clue what the 5 P’s of Marketing are. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say “Troy, I know you’re a engineer by training but you took a class in junior college about law, didn’t you? Hey, would you mind doing some international patent registration for us?” Yet a very similar conversation happens with marketing.
Misguided companies everywhere assign the marketing role to anyone who they think is “creative” or can write. And people in your company know people outside of your organization who fit that bill. So why should they think that you’re different? What’s been done to offset that perception?
In the organization I mentioned, the marketing department first let some things go that they shouldn’t have and ultimately as a result they’ve abdicated their role as experts and brand stewards. They’re now seen as mere fulfillers. In their zeal to make people happy, they took the thoughts offered up by the internal stakeholders as the easy way out in order to get through the work in their queue. Having overseen a creative services team for a large financial services company, I know how this can happen and how tempting it can be when it “just needs to get done ASAP!” But you’re just opening up Pandora’s box when you go down that road. So what are a few ways for people to better understand the value that marketing offers? Here goes:
At the end of day, the value of your department or specifically, your job, is more at stake than you might imagine. A so-so marketing plan, a mediocre tradeshow booth or ad or collateral piece, a ho-hum status quo “integrated” campaign…they all make you look more like a fulfiller of marketing needs and less like the marketing professional that the company is counting on to drive revenue, awareness, brand preference, etc. In fact, not showing value is the quickest way to have the work you do be discounted as nothing special.
So if your organization believes that “Anyone can do Marketing,” consider whether or not you have a role to play in that notion.
Over the past 5 years or so, it’s it happen more times than we care to remember …maybe even at a company that we once worked at. (For me it was Countrywide Home Loans.) I’m talking about a company or brand that was once a familiar part of the business landscape which is now no longer around. Disappeared. Gone and forgotten. From Oldsmobile to Borders bookstores to more big city and community newspapers than one can count.
The fact that “going out of business” has become such a growth business, it got me thinking about a question I’ve posed time and again to the marketing leadership of companies during this “New Normal.”
The question is simple and insightful — and it’s worth taking seriously as you evaluate your approach to strategy, competition, and innovation. Here it is: If your company went out of business tomorrow, would anybody really miss you and why? Let that swim around in your brain for a bit.
If that question didn’t concern you…maybe it should. What’s being done in order to make your brand important enough and invaluable to your customer so that they feel they could not live without, or at worst not want to live without you? Here are 5 ways to help make your company or brand so meaningful that your various customers would notice if you went out of business.
First, you must provide a product or service so different that it can’t be provided nearly as well by any of your main competitors. Mercedes would certainly be one, maybe even Ritz-Carlton and Southwest Airlines as well. But really, how many products or services fall into this group? Do your customers see you as a “must” or a “they’ll do”? How many viable options are there to what you offer? Do they trust you to follow through on what you’re telling them? What makes you so special…really?
Second, meaningful brands are created by people with a vision and a passion, and destroyed by “caretakers.” Perhaps the founder of a company identified a niche or angle that was unique and pursued it with passion. But once the brand is relinquished into the hands of “caretakers” more focused on the financials and preserving the status quo, it can tend to be slowly destroyed. Marketing, and I mean the kind of marketing that moves people to act, is something seen getting smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. Former President Reagan once said “Status quo is Latin for the ‘mess we’re in’.” Amen.
Third, make sure that the company continues to innovate and not stand still when the brand realizes some success. When something works, either because it was thought through or, more times than not, by other factors, the “don’t fix it if it is not broken” philosophy kicks in. The growth of the brand or company stalls, instead of constantly trying to evolve, improve and adapt to the changing world. One cannot win a race by standing still. Vanilla/mediocre advertising is a big contributor to — or perhaps the result of — standing still.
Fourth, your company must forge a uniquely emotional connection with your customers that other companies can’t copy. Apple is an obvious passion brand in the performance-obsessed technology world. HBO is a brand in the fussy media market that doesn’t just have viewers but devoted followers. But in a world of endless choices, how many companies and brands do you know that have achieved the status that inspires “loyalty beyond reason?” Is there a reason why your brand shouldn’t one? Can your company be an Apple, Starbucks or HBO to your customers? If your answer is “we can be a brand like that”… good for you!
Lastly, look at the marketplace and understand who you’re competing against. Many companies and brands define their business too narrowly just like stagecoach owners did. They focused on offering the best stagecoach service, the cheapest stagecoach service or the fastest stagecoach service. Eventually other forms of getting people from “A” to “B” came along, like when the jet plane destroyed the lucrative transatlantic ocean liner business. You need to define what business you’re in and who the competition really is. Food for thought: If Google’s the one ranking your business against your peers, then it makes sense to understand who they think you’re similar to, right? Type in your own URL in the search bar and see what comes up. You may be surprised.
The fact is, a very few companies meet any of these criteria — which may be why so many companies feel like they are on the verge of going out of business. So the next time someone at work urges you to think small and settle, ask them why they believe that playing it safe is playing it smart. That’s what they thought at Saturn, E.F. Hutton and House and Garden magazine — and look how it worked out for them! For, as they found, their customers could live without them.
At the end of the day, if your customers can live without you, eventually they will. If you do business the way everybody else does business, you’ll never do much better. If your answer to the question of whether anyone would notice if your company or brand went out of business is “no” or “not sure” – you need to focus on how to ensure it doesn’t happen. What is your marketing doing to make sure that doesn’t happen?
The most dangerous place to be in your marketing is in the middle of the road.
We had a client call last week telling us that she had received a letter from someone stating how much they were put off by an ad we were running. She was wondering if we should hold off running that ad and instead run another one we had produced. My response was “Heck no. I’m thrilled that someone felt that way. I hope we get a few more letters.” Why would I say that, right?
You see, your company, like 99.9% (there’s always that oddball out there) wants to be loved. You want adoring customers, enthusiastic vendors, committed partners, etc. Yet in reality, few companies are really appreciated. In fact, most companies and marketing messages are tolerated at best, and at worst, ignored. And do you know why? It’s because most company messaging is too forgettable and too dull to spark any type of reaction.
If you want your company to have passionate customers, dedicated partners, etc., you must first inspire strong responses. Only then can you convince people to love your company and become raving fans of your brand. But here’s the kicker: as you attract fans, you’re also bound to get the critics, or “Haters.” As we learned in physics: Every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. These Haters are the ones that write nasty letters or post negative comments on sites like Yelp or Angie’s list. That said, here’s something which might also cause you to recoil a bit. Experience has taught me that it’s OK to have some not like your brand (not a lot, of course). Yup, you heard me right. In fact, having a few critics is essential. The undeniable reality is that if you’re not eliciting a negative response from someone somewhere, then you’re probably not that fascinating to anyone. No one remembers lukewarm!
Fresh, imaginative, and original ideas come across as unfamiliar, even uncomfortable, which means that not everyone will like it. But unfortunately, most companies spend too much time worrying over damage control for the Haters that they never get up the nerve to be exceptional in the first place. In short, Haters are the price one pays for being special. Apple has Haters. Starbucks has Haters. Accept their presence but do not let them stop you from moving forward.
On the other hand you have the advocates, evangelists, loyalist…the Lovers. They don’t just buy your product or service, they also accept price increases and forgive occasional “issues.” When your product is sold out in one store, they’ll drive to another store to find it. When the competition tries to appeal to them with an incentive, they stay loyal. Lovers also do your marketing work for you — for free. They write nice things in online reviews, and even occasionally re-post your content online. In every aspect of your company, Lovers will reward you with new business and higher sales. They’re not just buying your products for price or utility.
So you now have the Lovers on the left and the Haters on the right and between them you have a set of customers who give you little loyalty or value. Let’s call this group the “Lukewarmers”. Maybe a good way of describing this group is like that friend of yours that would come over to watch a game but as soon as the beer ran out…so would he. Kind of like a friend…but not really. In the same way, these indifferent customers make a purchase here and there but don’t add much of anything else.
The Lukewarmers also have a really bad habit of not caring. They won’t buy your product unless it’s the cheapest or most convenient option which means they’re only buying you until a cheaper or more convenient alternative comes around. So in addition to not being loyal, they’re also expensive to maintain because you’re spending money to get them as customers and they never really pay out over multiple purchases.
In today’s marketplace, this middle ground is death!! Not caring is not buying. Not caring is inaction. The Lukewarmers leave for just the smallest of reasons. So how do you get people to quit being Lukewarmers and start actively choosing you and your brand?
Simply put, if your company wants to influence purchase decisions, you need to provoke strong and immediate emotional reactions so that people bond with your brand or company. The goal isn’t to create, or even stay away from controversy, but to avoid creating legions of people who simply don’t care.
The world is not changed by people who sort of care or don’t care at all. Stop focusing on the Lukewarmer. And don’t let the Haters keep you from your goals. Start accumulating the Lovers. And it all starts by having your marketing and advertising being original and captivating. There’s no middle ground here.
It happened to us again. We were working with a client, taking them five steps forward when without warning, they took six steps back. They went fleeing from the banks of the Promised Land back to where their advertising wasn’t producing maximum results, but at least it was “safe” and nobody in management would complain.
Holy smokes, they were almost there, with a new campaign that would cut through the clutter like a hot knife through butter. Instead, they opted for the same direction they’ve always followed. We don’t take it personally. We’ve worked with this client for a number of years, and we really like the people. But each year, we pray this time maybe they’ll take the path less traveled and finally move their brand from a me-too to a me-only! And then the bugle blows, “Retreat, retreat!”
There’s an old saying: “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.” I hate that saying. I hate that is pardons marketers from being exceptional. It only contributes to the soggy, bland mess that fills 95.6% of the available ad space. It makes people hate advertising and love the fast-forward button on their DVRs.
I have a challenge for you if you’re the one responsible for advertising at your company. Pick up the next five magazines you encounter, go through each one and tear out the ads that really stop you, that speak to you on some gut level, that make you salivate for the product. I don’t care if they’re ads for panty hose, shaving cream or body bags, just as long as you love the ads. Tear out the ads and put them in a folder. Then the next time you have an ad to create for your company, pull out those ads and see if these don’t inspire you to do better. And the moment you feel the need to retreat, look at those ads again for inspiration to boldly stand apart and be noticed.
It may help you to remember that they’re the ones that caught your attention while you ignored the other 95.6% which lost their respective companies lots of money in production and media expense.
We say, again and again, Dare to be Different. Maybe it would be better if we said, Dare not to be invisible. Dare not to retreat into marketing nothingness. Dare not to do what everybody else does and blend into the background by your own choice.
We Dare ya.
Each week I probably look through 5-10 trade journals within various industries that our clients do business in. And each time I finish going through a trade journal, I’m astounded at how many companies/brands paid good money to run ads that have no impact…no appeal…no creativity attached to them. It’s as though the people making the advertising or marketing decisions were genetically incapable of creating messaging that stands out, and so they defaulted to their risk-adverse flavor…vanilla. Having been in the business a while, dealing 
with all sorts of companies and people, I believe the number 1 reason for these boring “vanilla” ad messages is a result of trying to please all the people all the time.
On that last point, we all know you can’t please all the people all the time, so why do so many organizations try to do so? What intrigues me is just how much effort some folks expend trying to do just that. Like myself, I’m sure you’ve seen these sad attempts to please “everyone” on every type of messaging canvas there is…from websites to ads to sales support material to tradeshow booths, etc., Pick an industry, any industry. From packaged goods to retail to professional services to consumer goods to non-profit…including the one you do business in as well. Vanilla is by far the favorite flavor.
I think there has been a retreat from being bold. In the public sector and the private sector, from CEOs to politicians, being inoffensive and bland in communication appears to be a highly valued skill. The issue with this is that, once everything becomes vanilla, it loses power and uniqueness. It lacks any special flavors. It lacks any pretty colors. It’s just ordinary. Worst of all, there’s nothing about it that makes it stand out from all the other plain vanilla marketing efforts of every other business that’s competing with you. To stand out, to be different, to be memorable, takes boldness.
Let me put it another way: How many people outside of your organization have either written or told you that what you’re doing and saying is the type of approach that they wished their own company did? You see, herein lies an important message for brands: if you always play it safe and try not to surprise anybody, it’s highly unlikely anyone is going to get really excited about your brand. Vanilla brands might not have enemies, but they also don’t have passionate advocates whose enthusiasm spreads. I remember being told a marketing truth when I first started out in this business that’s worth sharing: “In order to win the race, you can’t stand still. Vanilla marketing is standing still.”
In today’s world, people get so much plain vanilla marketing shoved in front of their faces every day, they’ve developed a natural immunity to it. Vanilla marketing almost becomes invisible to them. They subconsciously block it out. Your marketing dare not have the monotone delivery of Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: “Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?”.
People want to feel something after reading, hearing or seeing what you have to say. So excite them, educate them, annoy them (if that’s your style and it fits your brand), surprise them, make them laugh! Do anything but bore them.
You can be unique by doing things differently that everyone else. For example, instead of sending out a typical direct mail piece, try mailers that have unusual shapes like messages in a bottle or coconuts. Instead of an ad that shows a “catalog” of your product offerings, focus on the one most unique feature of your one most unique product with a short, crisp headline and almost no body copy. Go for impact.
The bottom line is fighting the desire to be all things to all people yields the following benefits:
So, however you go about it, stop dishing out plain vanilla marketing and start scooping out interesting flavors (think “Cherry Garcia”; “Chubby Hubby”; or “Chunky Monkey”, etc.) that stand out and are uniquely your own. We’ll all pay more attention to what you want to tell us.