If your marketing uses the language of people in your industry, you may not be communicating benefits but features. Marketing echo chambers tend to exist where every product and service is similar to the competition, and the messages are like inside industry jokes.
For example, winemakers talking about the soil when consumers rarely discuss anything but taste, image, and price. When was the last time you had a discussion with your friends about terroir while you enjoyed a glass of wine? If you drink wine, and you don’t know what terroir is, that makes my point.
An excellent way to learn this lesson is to observe a group of consumers, clients, or customers using your website or reading your package. (You can do this during one-on-one interviews at focus group centers).
Suddenly, you get a real-world example of why your message isn’t breaking through to the people you want to reach. It is as if you are talking to industry colleagues, not the intended targets you are trying to reach. What is their need, pain or longing? Are you talking to those you want to reach or speaking the language of those who work in the industry?
Who are you trying to reach?
If you are speaking to yourself and your industry, not to the intended purchaser, your communications effort will suffer.
Company’s like Scott’s learned this lesson years ago.
Their ads and packaging show families rolling in the grass on their front lawn instead of talking about seed technology. The benefit of buying Scott’s Turf Builder products is the story I can tell myself about how my family will feel playing in the grass. As a consumer, we generally don’t care about the features and science behind the product. Scott’s creates “how to” videos on YouTube about their products, but for building brand imagery, they want to show happy families rolling in a plush lawn.
Marketing echo chambers can be illustrated at industry conferences when you talk using acronyms, industry-speak and inside baseball language.
Consumers and customers are different. They want you to solve their problem and help them tell their story, not yours.
Who are you marketing to and how will you break out of your marketing echo chamber?
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com The conversation is free, and we can explore working together.
Photo by Gaston Roulstone on Unsplash
