Hundreds of times every day, people are silently asking themselves 'so what?' as they are exposed to an onslaught of marketing messages. Here's how you can employ the same phrase to get your prospects to stop and pay attention.

Consumers think differently than marketers

When we're in consumer mode, as opposed to marketer mode, there's a sarcastic voice in the back of our head that filters everything we hear and see. It's a defense mechanism against the avalanche of information we face. That voice also helps us be better marketers as we deliberate our strategies and messaging. We need to deploy our built-in bullshit detectors when we're in marketing mode, because customers do it automatically when someone is trying to sell them something.

1962 ad by Freeman & Gossage for American Petrofina

Some things haven't changed

In the 1960's Howard Gossage said “The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it's an ad.” This observation is true whether we're talking about an ad, website copy, blog posts, email marketing, or Twitter. The current level of obsession over which medium is the best way to get out the message is remarkable. Yet, the truth is that what's still most important is the message.

Where will ‘so what?’ lead you?

Hopefully it will lead you to identify the real problem you solve for your customers, and what moves them to take action. Here are a couple of things to think about as you peel away layers of product feature babble and marketing jargon with the question 'so what?'

Are you identifying and solving a major pain point for your prospects? If not, then so what?

Are you showing prospects how to realize their dreams? If not, then so what?

Are you allaying the fears that keep prospects from doing business with you? If not, then so what?

Are you showing prospects how to have more freedom in their lives? If not, then so what?

Are you showing prospects how to get more love, more prestige, more money, or more fame? If not...

Get outside yourself

When working on your marketing messages, ask yourself 'so what' over and over, to get to what other people really care about. It'll help you avoid drinking too much of the cool-aid when it comes to your own product or service. Step back for a minute and let that skeptical voice have the floor. It will give you a glimpse of how your customers feel when they hear your pitch, and help you make a genuine connection with them.

You are no longer in control. The balance of power has shifted.

Your company's brand is a relationship with your customers, and the nature of that relationship has changed. Once, advertisers controlled all the channels of communication because they paid for them. Now that Social Media and the internet gives everybody their own communication channels, other people have a say in your brand and what it means to them.

Are you trying to control what your customers hear, think and say about your brand like a jealous boyfriend? Well, the object of your desire has been liberated and she feels free to to explore other relationships. How can you make things interesting so she'll want to stick around?

One way is to listen better, and communicate better.

That's the power of social media. If you thought, 'oh boy, a new media channel to get my message out, and sell more', you missed the point. Nobody wants to be sold to more. But if you think of it as a new way to find out what your customers need, and serve them better, it takes on a new meaning. By informing and serving a community within social media channels, you've got the chance to demonstrate your ability to fulfill its needs. Which paradoxically can help you find more customers.

It's all about attitude

If you're confused and unsure about what to do in this new paradigm, one simple phrase can guide your program: 'How can I be of service to you?' If that attitude permeates all of your marketing activities, you can't go far wrong, even if you don't know the difference between Facebook , Twitter and MySpace. Delighting and amazing your customers is how you can take it to the next level. But those are just fancier versions of 'How can I be of service to you?'. How simple is that? Take that approach in everything you do and say in your marketing, and life will be less complicated.

There's another side benefit to being as helpful as you can to the citizens of online channels. They will be more predisposed to feel good about your offline marketing, thus making it more effective.

Also, don't forget: How can I be of service, version 1.0.

The single most effective tool ever invented for building successful companies—a unique brand promise—is still the most effective. Can you articulate what you stand for and what makes you different in the way you serve your customers? In a study by Brand Keys, cited by Jack Trout in his book ‘In Search of the Obvious’, fewer than 23% of major consumer companies had any distinguishable differentiating trait that consumers could identify. That number may be even lower in many B2B niches. What does this mean for you? It means you have an opportunity staring you in the face to show customers how you can be of service to them in a way that nobody else is.

Remember George Costanza, the Seinfeld character? He does the wrong thing in virtually every situation, which makes him an endless source of reverse wisdom. In one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, George has a revelation, deciding to do the exact opposite of what his every instinct tells him from that point forward . Immediately, his luck changes and things start to go swimmingly well. Women are attracted to him, he lands his dream job with the NY Yankees, and suddenly, life is great.

This is what I call the Costanza Effect. What worked for George can work wonders for you in your marketing program. To take advantage of the Costanza Effect, do the exact opposite of what most companies do in the following situations.

What most companies do with their web sites:

They try to convey every single, solitary wonderful thing about the company, right there on the home page. We get 42 different ways to find out more, read the press clippings, hear analyst quotes, sign up for something, purchase the product, read about the latest news, and so on—before we even know why the hell we should care! This barrage of self-importance causes most people to get confused and do nothing.

How to apply the Costanza Effect: Make your site all about one simple thing you do to help people, or one simple action you want them to take. Then organize your entire site around that thing. What a breath of fresh air that would be. When I can understand what you can do for me, or what you're asking for, I'm much more willing to consider it. At the very least, I won't abandon your site in a state of confusion.

What most companies do when they promote themselves:

They incessantly talk about themselves. 'We've got the fastest processor. We've got the best program. We cut capital costs by 25%. We've got the biggest selection. We have the lowest rates'. Blah, blah, blah. So the real message is, I'm supposed to translate your list of bullet points into something I care about, right?

How to apply the Costanza Effect: Talk about your customers instead of yourself. 'You can get your work done faster. You can be your best. You can have extra profit. You have more choices. You can save money. You'll look like a hero, you'll get a promotion, you'll spend more time with your family, you'll be sexier'. Now you're talking about what I care about most as a customer: me, me, me. That's the reason I bothered paying any attention in the first place.

What most companies do with their market research:

They do one of two things depending on the size of the organization. Big companies spend huge sums of money conducting far-ranging and in-depth market research, including quantitative, qualitative, focus groups, one-on-ones, account planning, and whatever other new technique is being touted. Then, feeling satisfied, they skim over the executive summary and place it on a shelf in three-ring binders, or on a hard drive where it gathers dust. It's mental masturbation on a grand scale.

Small companies figure they can't afford it. This may be true because they've spent a lot of money to hire a new marketing director from a big company. So they have lots of internal strategy meetings led by the new marketing director, where there's copious and abundant speculation on how to motivate customers. But in the end, everyone in the room knows whose opinion will win out.

How to apply the Costanza Effect: Talk to your customers. Take them out to lunch, ask them open ended questions, and LISTEN. But don't just listen, record or write down everything relevant thing they say, because if you don't, you'll inevitably reconfigure it in your head to match your own world view. Ask customers what reservations they had about doing business with you, and what they felt once they became a customer. Ask about all their pain points, and rank them from 1-10.  After you've done that, have the internal strategy meeting once again. This time make your customer's opinion the most important one in the room.

What most companies do with their products:

They start off with a fundamental product or service that defines the company's brand—it's what they stand for. Think McDonald's hamburgers. The product or service fulfills a specific need for their customers and everyone is happy. As the company grows, the pressure is on to maintain growth and increase revenue, so management decides to expand and compete in another related area by adding more products or services which seems to make sense, but often leave customers scratching their heads. Think VW Phaeton. Soon, customers can't remember why they liked the company or what it stood for in the first place.

How to apply the Costanza Effect: Every time you're tempted to create a line extension,  or add new services, ask yourself  'what am I known for, and does this new product make me more famous for that one thing'. If not, resist the urge to do so because you'll only confuse your customers and weaken your brand. Your best bet may be to improve what you're already doing so your customers will be happier. If you have a new idea that's so great, but doesn't fit with what makes you unique in the first place, start a new company to support it.

What most companies do with their media tactics:

They treat the latest marketing trend as a puppy dog regards a passing fire truck. Last year it was You Tube, this year it's Twitter and Facebook, next year it'll be mobile video and crowd-sourcing. Whatever tactic is the flavor of the month is enthusiastically adopted, dabbled with, and then ultimately neglected in favor of the next one that flies by, sirens screaming. In the meantime, there's only a vague notion of why it's been adopted, usually expressed in web 3.0 babble .

How to apply the Costanza Effect: Don't forget the reason you're in business—because you provide customers something they need. Forget about media tactics, and figure out your strategy. For instance "Reach disillusioned office workers and help them find a new career", or "Show System Admins in mid-sized technology companies how they can be more effective in their jobs, and improve their status". Once you've got a viable strategy that fits your company's mission, picking the media is easy. It's a matter of being in the best place to reach (and help) your customers. Once in a while, the perfect way to support your strategy might be one of those sexy new Social Media channels—if that's where your customers are when they need your help.

Thanks, George

Whenever you get an instinct about a new marketing direction, or a new program, ask yourself this: what would everybody else do? Then, apply the Costanza effect, and do the exact opposite.

You need to start by walking the walk

Don’t know about you, but I could never hire a personal trainer who looks out of shape.  It doesn't matter how great their program is, I’ll never get past their appearance and the message it's sending me. Same principle applies to your brand. If you claim to be an expert in some area, you need to look the part in order to inspire confidence.

For instance, a software firm that claims well-engineered and easy-to-use products should have a well-engineered and inviting web site. Wouldn’t you think? Otherwise it's seriously undermining their marketing message. All the slogans, conversion tricks and SEO in the world won’t convince people to trust them if their site is clunky.

Ever seen a company claim their product is hard to use and it's poorly designed?

Probably not. But how many companies have you seen that visually convey that message through their site design? Granted,  I’m more sensitive to this than your average Joe, but why wouldn’t you spend as much as it takes to make a beautiful, usable site? It’s like the cheapest and most effective insurance you could ever buy. And to be honest, I’m not the only one who’s sensitive to this stuff. We live in an age where you can buy famous designer household items at Target for 4.99.

  Here’s an even more important part of walking the walk

How are you clearly, uniquely differentiating yourself from your competitors? This is like the grad-school level of walking the walk. In the remedial level, feminine-related sites all have cute designs with really well coordinated soft pink-orange colors and designerly use of script typefaces. Technology sites tend to be logical, serious, and have subdued, industrial designs with charts and statistics. All those things convey competency and intent, but do they demonstrate any actual difference between one company and another.

What's your difference?

In his book Differentiate or Die, marketing maven Jack Trout contends that the most important tenet of building a successful brand is (...drumroll, please) differentiating yourself from competitors by creating a distinctive perception in the minds of your prospects.

So tell me, how exactly would that be possible with marketing materials that look nearly identical to those of competitor’s? Yet, strangely, over and over rivals within business categories endlessly emulate each other. When one company is successful, the others assume that if they want to be as successful, they need to fashion their style after the leader—but be just different enough so they can't be accused of plagiarism. Ahem, wouldn’t a much smarter idea be to look as different from any of their competitors as possible, within the boundaries of customer expectations? Herd behavior within a business category creates an opportunity that can best be expressed this way: ‘Oh, boy! Virgin territory’. And from what I can see, herd behavior is the norm.

It all boils down to this

If you want to be perceived as professional and serious, you'd better look the part. If you want to be known as playful, casual and expressive, obviously you need a whole different style.

Your company resides in a space full of suitors who make products or services roughly perceived as similar to yours. This space is in the mind of your potential customers. And they would like to kick out as many uninvited guests as possible. First to go: those who obviously aren't good enough, based solely on their appearance. Next to go: that big group of contenders who all look alike, sound alike and tell the same old stories.

Will you be one of the few left?

1. Design a web site that looks really slick, in the same color as every other site in your business category.

2. Make sure your tag line is broad enough that it can encompass every customer’s possible need and desire.

3. Study your competitors to see what messages and styles seem to work really well, then use those in your own marketing.

4. Make sure potential customers know about every wonderful thing you do. Never miss an opportunity to list every single benefit and feature you provide—you never want to turn away any potential business.

5. Never take a stand that will allow you to be labeled or pigeon-holed in any way.

6. Create your brand style with the same approach you take when you dress for a funeral: tasteful, understated and unobtrusive.

7. Avoid overly emotional statements at all cost—especially if you’re selling a logical product

8. Never admit to making a mistake or having a weakness—always appear to be strong and in control.

9. Use your marketing to convince people of your superiority with lots of charts, statistics and bullet points.

10. Don’t be overly swayed by customer opinions about your business or about your marketing—after all, you’re the expert, not them.