Marketing can be like a train ride with many stops.
The first stop along the route is obvious, and you never want to get off there. Disruptive marketers continue with the ride until they get somewhere new and distinct.
During several months of interviews with entrepreneurs who are in start-up or early phases of their businesses, a theme emerged that was a signal to me of who was on the right track.
Those marketers who took the easy path (the first stop), were exposed to the danger of the obvious. I could see signs that they weren’t pushing their product, their brand or their business model into new space. They were taking the obvious path forward – and that is dangerous.
The Danger of the Obvious
Are you on the path toward something new and fresh?
- Are you the only business doing what you do, in a way that has some eccentricities?
- Did you go beyond the first idea to push harder and see things in ways that others miss? Or are you following the obvious conventional path?
- Will you challenge the traditional approach with a meaningful alternative that fits with the story someone wants or needs to hear?
- Is HOW you do business a driver to WHAT you do? Or, are you just like everyone else?
Clean but not Sexy
A new client asked me to review their product line of cleaning products that eliminate chemicals and use natural enzymes for various household chores. They had stacks of white papers proving the efficacy of the brand. They had hours’ worth of boring PowerPoints that were painful to sit through. They had over one hundred products in the line that they sold through various retailers.
Their packaging was so boring that it screamed – IGNORE ME.
During discussions with their leadership team, I told them about my experiences meeting and interviewing several of the brand folks at Method, the highly successful West Coast company. When we took some Method products and lined them up against this start up, the missing elements were clear. Method’s packaging designed with an elegance and ethos that was front and center. They lived their brand – and didn’t just slap labels on stock plastic bottles. My client was getting off at the first stop on that train ride and the risk was obvious.
Recommendations and Actions
Instead of jumping into design, we begin by creating a manifesto of beliefs. What do you care about so much that you want it to be the filter by which you make all decisions?
This focus on WHY was required before we got into any marketing tactics. This work is still ongoing but I know will pay big benefits.
- A blank, empty, white piece of paper can be scary. You need some constraints and filters to help you create a brand strategy.
- Once you have agreement on the values and belief system, you need to make sure you have a team who is on board.
- Using your WHY as a guide, you can begin to develop, design and delight a community you serve.
- Instead of taking the easy route, you can create a fresh and unexpected path to market that allows you to complete the sentence, “only we ________.”
- The cleaning products company decided to evaluate a range of new ideas from only selling refills – not selling any physical product as a way of living their values of removing wasted packaging from the planet. (think of the bulk foods sections of a store with cleaning liquids).
- By being the only ones who do something – you can be memorable.
As Seth Godin is fond of saying, if you want someone to remark about your brand, you need to be remarkable.
Don’t get off at the obvious and easy place on your trip to building your business. Find something that becomes unique that only you can own and that your customers desire.
The danger of the obvious is, well, obvious.
Are you afraid that your business is stuck at the obvious? Let’s connect and figure out an innovative approach to grow your brand. Email me at jeffreylynnslater@gmail.com
Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/n/users/Benny1900-945674/
