Some brand categories are shallow engagement. Toothpicks. Three-prong converters. Cotton balls. Sugar. Combs. Whistles.
Consumers aren’t deeply engaged in every category, every brand, and every product. They can’t be.
The best metaphor is to think of a swimming pool. Your brand is either at the deep end of caring, the shallow end, or in the middle based on the occasion.
I may love my iPhone. I may be an avid Starbucks fan. I may be over the top for Target or Dyson vacuum cleaners. I might enjoy drinking Travaglini Gattinari wine or Laphroaig Single Malt Whisky.
But sometimes, I don’t care about your category or brand at all – or at best very little.
The brakes and battery in my car are vital to my well-being, but as Rhett Butler said, Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. Isn’t it amazing that I don’t know the brand of brakes in my car? I just rely on the manufacturer of the car to handle those concerns.
Shoelaces
Shoelaces have always been my default metaphor to describe how some product categories aren’t that important or differentiated.
Do you know what brands of shoelaces are in your sneakers or shoes? Do you care?
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Unless you have a problem with a shoelace that rips or breaks apart, they probably aren’t top of mind. If you need to replace them, you might spend 18 seconds focused on the brands in the category at the store. 18 seconds. I noticed only one brand in my local grocery store – Kiwi. There wasn’t even a private label brand.
From this marketer’s viewpoint, shoelaces are the poster child for low category engagement.
Until now.
Disrupting Shoelaces
Hickies is an elastic lacing system that is seeking to unlace the future.
Their system allows you to turn any shoe into a slip-on. They are paying attention to a category that hadn’t had much innovation since 5500 BC when the leather shoes from the Areni-1 cave were found.
The Back Story
The concept of HICKIES grew from a college student’s idea to a pioneer product. The founder of HICKIES, Gaston, the founder disliked the bow and knot of traditional shoelaces and realized that he was not alone there; laces are every parent’s nightmare and every athlete’s hassle. The answer was HICKIES!
Gaston and Mariquel (Co-Founder) got married in 2011 and decided to take a leap of faith and move from Argentina to New York to start their own company.
They launched HICKIES with a Kickstarter campaign and raised six times the original goal, commanding attention from both the press and retailers. HICKIES is the first elastic lacing system brand and has changed the way people wear sneakers forever. The founders inspire new perceptions and creativity and transform reality with fun and straightforward solutions like HICKIES.
Tying One On
Are you in a blah blah blah type of category that no one pays attention to?
Is there a nagging industry problem that you can solve? Can you disrupt the market and pay attention to a small niche? The marketing difference means that you are paying attention to an aspect of your category that no one else is focused on. It might be the red souls of the shoe like Christian Louboutin or the closing device like Hickies elastic system.
Go ahead, untie a few knots.
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.
