Having written 1,414 blog posts since 2009, this is my first to discuss toilet bowl cleaners.
Before you click away or flush this post into your trash bin – there is a helpful marketing reminder in my story. I promise. And I will resist my instincts to make too many bad dad puns.
Ring Around the Toilet
Having lived in my house for 32 years, I recently noticed a ring around our toilet bowls. I suppose it didn’t bother me before, but there it was – annoying me one rainy morning. I’m not all that handy so I assumed at some points, I’d need to buy a new toilet to remove the stain.
During the last year, I did try several products to remove the stain, but each failed. Bleach, brushes, and even balsamic vinegar. (Okay, it wasn’t balsamic, but I enjoy a little alliteration in my blogging). Nothing worked. I gave up and ignored the problem.
When I relayed this story to my 94-year-old mom, Bea, she mentioned that Bernadette, who cleans her house, recently used a product made specifically for this problem. It is called PUMIE, and it is some form of pumice stone made to remove stains from porcelain toilets. It is only for this one specific job. If my mom was impressed, I figured it was worth a try.
One Amazon click later, the product arrived the next day, and voila – it cleaned my toilet bowl.
Can I say voila and toilet bowl in the same sentence? I just did. At this point, I’m sure you are wondering why is Jeff sharing his story?
Teaching A Class in Marketing Basics
During my toilet bowl cleaning success week, I was invited to guest lecture about marketing fundamentals to a group of startup entrepreneurs. After presenting for twenty minutes, I asked some participants to tell me what specific problem their product or service solves.
After a lot of word salad, I couldn’t understand their ideas, who it was for, and what it did. I reminded them of the need to be incredibly narrow, focused, and specific.
Claire asked, can you give me an easy-to-understand example? This is where Pumie comes back into the story.
I showed the class a photograph of Pumie, a before and after photographs, and told the story. I explained to them that the design of this product is to do one thing exceptionally well. It isn’t an all-purpose cleaner. Its sole reason for being is to get that damn ring off my porcelain toilet.
There was an aha moment and Claire sighed – oh, I get it.
The metaphor worked to help her and the others grab the critically important idea that a product or service must be for a specific community (target audience) who has a discreet and easy-to-understand problem. Pumie gets out the ring around the toilet and that’s why US Pumice is a successful company since 1941.
When your product becomes the hero in a snippet of someone’s day, you have tapped into an opportunity. Pumie and toilet bowl cleaning helped these young entrepreneurs to get this often-overlooked idea.
To many of you, this lesson may be obvious. But how well can you communicate how your product or service will be the hero, solving someone’s problem today? Pumie may have a simple story to tell, but that’s what makes it a successful product. Think how clear is it to everyone on your sales and marketing team about the problem you solve? Do you all tell the same simple story?
My advice is don’t flush this metaphorical lesson down the toilet.
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. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
