Branding or Problem Solving? What do Your Customers Care About?

Branding or Problem Solving? What do Your Customers Care About?

What’s your definition of success? Do you want to be rich, or do you want to be famous?

Personal promotion is much more expensive and less income producing than finding the needs of your client and meeting those needs. Self-promotion (branding) is difficult, costly and time consuming.

It’s much faster to meet someone’s needs than to build a brand.

Welcome to the New Marketing.

Today’s strategy – tell customers what you can do to solve their problem. Stand out from the competition by filling a need.

McDonalds is not hamburgers, but fast, consistent, clean, inexpensive. Nike is not tennis shoes, but attitude. FedEx is not delivery, but absolutely, positively, dependability. These companies don’t focus on their product, but create an experience, fulfill an emotional need. Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee, they sell an experience.

First rule? Don’t focus on yourself, not at first, anyway. Better to focus on building relationships with potential customers rather than trying to create a brand that everyone recognizes. People are far more interested in themselves than in you. They don’t care about your name, your pet, or your logo. Their only interest in you is what you can do for them.

Focus on your clients; their needs, their wants, their desires. This is what will hook them and make them your customer. Determine what you can offer to meet clients’ needs and market that.

Here’s something to focus on when creating your marketing: Statistics show that, at any given time, 3% of your prospects are currently in the market to buy your product or service and looking right now to get it. Another 6-7% are open to it, but not currently looking. The other 90% are divided into three nearly equal categories: (a) not really thinking about it now (b) think they’re not interested – but might be if you did a good job at presenting it to them… and (c) KNOW they’re not interested.

How much business are you leaving behind by not peaking the interest of those 30% (b) who might be interested if you did a good job presenting it to them?

Where is your marketing focus?

Read Your Own Marketing. How many times do you say “I” or “we.” If you rewrite your marketing to say “I” no more than once, how does that change your message?

Remember, the best marketing is never about you; it is not personal promotion. Don’t work to get your prospects to know you – work to get to know them. Then present an offer that motivates them to take action.

26,000 new products and brands are introduced every year. What does your marketing say?

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2 Comments

  1. Makes an easy, fascinating study of your own marketing! Sometimes it’s hard to read what we’ve said in our own writing.

    Thanks for the comment!

  2. I love this: “How many times do you say “I” or “we.” If you rewrite your marketing to say “I” no more than once, how does that change your message?” This is a powerful exercise that can lead to impactful changes in the way your message is received.

    Thanks for a relevant discussion, Karen.

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