Archive for the ‘Differentiation’ Category

The True Value of Value

A fair number of articles that have been published lately slam the current over-use by marketers of the word ‘value’.  Critics claim that ‘value’ is at risk of becoming synonymous with ‘reduced’, ‘cut-price’ and plain old ‘cheap’.  Value should also be associated with quality.  A product that offers true value is more than just an attractive price; it should meet a customer’s real needs, and go that extra mile.

Customers are tending to watch what they spend at present, but if all companies are offering ‘value’ by simply reducing their prices, they will all end up competing on a level playing field.

Look to differentiate your product or service in some way.  Offer some evidence and reassurance to your customers that they are buying something that really does offer value for money.

For example, auto manufacturer Hyundai is winning plaudits at the moment for its Hyundai Assurance program.  With this program, anyone that buys a new car is guaranteed that if they lose their job, Hyundai will make their payments for 3 months.  If they are still facing financial difficulties after that 3-month period, they can return the car (*subject to various conditions, of course – but you get the idea).  In this way, the company is acknowledging the current economic climate and the fears of some of its potential customers, and offering them greater benefits and extra value.

Posted in Customer Value Proposition, Differentiation, Quality, Service, Value |
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Standing Out From The Pack

What do a cassette tape, a boomerang, and a 1980′s electro-pop song have in common?  In Matt Powell’s latest Thursday Night Insight entry this week, he looks at the impact of ‘thinking outside the box’ and standing apart from the competition, and the lasting impression that it can make.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve come into contact with a few advertising campaigns that have, in one way or another, caused me to devote at least some part of my day to thinking about them.  By that, I mean more time than just taking a glance at a glossy piece of direct mail that goes straight into the recycle bin after couple of seconds.  These pieces of marketing have really engaged me – either through getting me to think, causing me a great deal of intrigue, or just appealing to my inner child. 

The first was a cassette tape that arrived in the post in a brown padded envelope, in a Mission Impossible-esque manner.  On the cassette was a label with a personalised web address for me to visit.  I was not the only one of my in the office to receive one of these tapes, so there was some discussion as to what they were for.  A quick visit to the website, showed that it was a campaign from E-Rewards that centred around constant evolution – the cassette tape being one of the evolutionary step in the personal music player.  The campaign certainly stood out from everything else that landed on my desk that day, it created discussion around the office, caused me to visit the website, and now the cassette is adorning my desk-top.  Certainly more interaction and longevity than standard direct mail would have been afforded.

My second encounter with out-of-the ordinary marketing was on a lunch break whilst in the local supermarket/convenience store.  Whilst I was perusing the assortment of soups on offer, I – and my fellow shoppers – were treated to short minute-long blasts of a very familiar 80′s electro pop song.  I first dismissed it as the slipping standards of the store, probably allowing staff to play their own music through the store music system.  Still, the familiar music was annoying me – I couldn’t remember where I knew it from.  After a few more minute-long blasts it dawned on me why the dated music was so familiar – it was the music that backs Dairy Milk’s latest advertising campaign (with the boy and girl and the dancing eyebrows).  Once I realised that, it evoked the amusing images from the TV advert – by coincidence I was stood at the counter waiting to pay – with an assortment of Dairy Milk products on display in front of me.  Very clever.  Plus, I was feeling slightly jubilant that I had remembered where I knew the music from – something that would have irritated me throughout the day if I hadn’t have figured it out.  Again, slightly different approach to getting the message across, but a memorable impact.

The third piece of marketing that I found particularly engaging is in fact B2B’s latest mailer – not that I’m blowing our own trumpet – it could be a mailer from any company and I would still be writing about it.  It is, as the first sentence of this article has probably given away, a boomerang.   The boomerang is a play on the theme of ‘getting a return on your investment’.  The boomerang has instructions of how to use it on its reverse.  This piece of marketing is now sat on my desk awaiting the day when I can finally find somewhere large enough, and unpopulated enough to throw it without posing a threat to the public.  Indeed, over the past week, whenever I have come off the phone, I usually find that the boomerang has moved from my desk into my hand.

Of course, there are many, many more examples that could be added to the three I have outlined above, but the message is the same.  In order to stand out from the crowd and make a lasting impression, we need to somehow differentiate our offering.   This applies not just to direct mail and advertising, but to business as well – and is even more important in times such as these.  There is no harm in sitting with the pack – but thinking outside the box or offering something different to the competition, can really make the difference in setting a product or company aside from the rest, and create lasting success.

For more information on how to differentiate your offering, why not cast your eyes over the following white paper: Differentiation: Are Product, Brand and Service Still Enough?

Posted in Advertising Research, Commercials, Communication, Differentiation, Innovation, Marketing, Matt Powell, Strategic Marketing, Thursday Night Insight |
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Let The Market Speak

In her latest Thursday Night Insight Article, Business Development Manager Julia Cupman uses the analogy of a particular genre of music to encourage marketers to listen and let the market speak.

I have played the cello since the age of 7.  My cello (and music of course) is a very important part of my life, to the extent that I have called my cello a name: Anya, a German name as it was made in Saxony in 1785.  (There is a picture of my beloved Anya – and my right leg! – on my profile on our website).

As I write this blog piece at home in my living room, I have the cello suites of Johann Sebastian Bach playing in the background on my CD player.  For those of you who are not classical music fans, Bach was one of the greatest composers of all times, was born in 1685, and is often referred to as “the father of all music”.  Bach is like avocadoes, licorice and aniseed – it is an acquired taste.  You either love Bach, or you hate it.

Most musicians can recognize Bach from listening to just a three second excerpt of his music.  He has a distinct and profound style.  Much of what he wrote was for solo instrument, such as the cello suites, which were long regarded as dry exercises until around 1890 when Pablo Casals, a young Catalan musician, came across them in a music shop in Barcelona.  This was a turning point in the history of Bach’s music.  Casals took the cello suites to heart, personalizing Bach into his own style – Bach as Casals wanted him to be – and over 100 cellists have since followed in Casals’ footsteps, recording their own versions of the Bach suites and ultimately announcing their own sub-brand of Bach. 

So why have so many people taken a musical product and given it their own style and identity?

I believe it is because his works allow the musician a huge amount of freedom in interpretation and expression.  His music is simply everything: it is light, intense, morose, playful, and much more.  This is because a musician has, in my opinion, more artistic license playing Bach than playing any other composer.  His music almost tells a story that interweaves through musical phrases each expressing different moods and which often lead to a climax with something almost erotic about it (Bach did father twenty children after all!)  And what is so fascinating to me is comparing different renditions of Bach – like asking a group of people to each dress a salad and observing the end result.

It’s clear that Bach is differentiated and unique.  Whatever the style, whoever the musician, whenever it is played and wherever this may be, his music will nevertheless always be Bach.

You may be wondering what on earth this has all got to do with marketing.  What I’m trying to say to marketers is that your offering is so much more than just a product, just as Bach’s music is so much more than mere dots on a manuscript.  What counts is how you market your product to your audience and how your customers interact with it.  Take responsibility for your product, breathe life into it and regenerate it, just as Casals resuscitated the Bach cello suites and cast them into the public arena, captivating the masses across the globe and uniting them through a common yet idiosyncratic theme.  And what I find so inspirational about Bach is how a master’s works of over three centuries of age have been reborn and are continuing to live through the power of music.

Never underestimate the importance of how your customers engage with your product and always seek views on how it can be improved in order to ensure its long life and constant evolution.  Many composers are nothing without the musicians that let their music speak, just as your product really only exists as a result of market demand. 

With this in mind I can conclude as follows: never stop listening, learning and evolving, and the market will always speak.

Posted in Differentiation, Julia Cupman, Market Research, Marketing, Needs, Thursday Night Insight |
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