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.

How many of these do you occasionally feel: fear of being alone; fear of looking foolish; fear of being cheated; fear of being unpopular; fear of not being desirable; fear of not being smart enough; fear of being too ordinary; fear of being too different; fear of being taken advantage of; fear of getting old?

If your brand can allay any of these fears, it will be warmly accepted.

How the big guys do it

Think about the iconic companies that everyone recognizes, like Apple, Sony, Nike or BMW. We feel comfortable when we buy something from them. Even if a competitor makes something a little bit better, the general perception is that you've bought the best. Nobody is ever going to look at you and say "what a dupe, he bought a BMW". Those brands have taken away one of their customers' biggest fears.

But if you haven't already reached this plateau with your brand, you can't afford to pretend that you have. So how can you overcome customer fears?

Here are some examples of brands overcoming fears

Citizens Bank helps overcome the fear of being alone by building their brand around personal service that makes customers feel important and welcome.

Mariner Software allays our fear of not being smart enough by building an interface so intuitive that we never need to open a manual.

Boston University School of Business overcomes the fear of not being smart enough in a different way: By packaging a master’s degree in technology along with a master’s degree in business, and calling it the MS•MBA.

Oil of Olay cosmetics diminishes the fear of getting old by designing all their cosmetics specifically to firm your skin and make it look younger.

Mini Cooper helps alleviate our fear of being ordinary with a unique body design, a fun driving experience and the option to create your own customized paint job.

Harvey's, my local hardware store overcomes my fear of looking foolish by not only having the right tools and parts, but by showing me exactly how to use them to make a repair.

Healthworks fitness club overcomes women's fear of being judged while they work out, by making it exclusive to women.

Nordstrom's Department Store overcomes the fear of making a bad decision by allowing customers to return an item, no questions asked, for life.

Understanding fears is another way to look at the question of what problem your brand solves

When creating a marketing strategy for your business, sometimes the toughest thing to determine is what problem we are really solving for customers, and how we are doing it uniquely. One way to find the answer is by thinking about the fears you can potentially overcome. Create uniqueness in a crowded market by addressing a fear that no other company has addressed, and by doing it in a convincing way.

Don't just promote it, build it into your product or service

With the companies cited above, a fear-alleviating customer advantage has not only been promoted well, it's been built into the company's business process. The formula under which a product is created, and the training employees go through are a requisite parts of keeping your brand promise. Building a brand isn't just about messages, styles and tonality, it's about backing up what you say with actions. Which also happens to be the key to opening your customers' hearts, and their wallets.

Photo by GeeSeeBee

Individual colors have personal meaning and cultural significance as well, but those issues will be discussed in a future article. In the practice of branding, it is color in relation to other things that gives it its true meaning.

How can color help me stand out from my competitors and brand me as being unique?

UPS has taken this to the extreme with the most diminutive of colors, brown. They have made it heroic in symbolizing what they do and who they are—a powerhouse of supply-chain efficiency. And yet, how many would have chosen that ugly step-sister of a color to symbolize their company? That is precisely the point! Now UPS owns the color brown. And they've made it into a thing of beauty—unless you are a competitor of theirs.

Why not just choose your favorite color for your brand?

Very often, I've had clients request that I use their favorite color as the basis of their brand. This is a problem when their favorite color is also being used in their competitors' logos and web sites. Using your favorite color can work out OK when it's:

A) Not already taken in your niche, and

B) Has a symbolic meaning related to what you do

But often, personal preference is a poor way to choose the colors for your brand. (There is a way to deal with a situation where a particular color has been dictated, which I'll get to below.)

What, then is a useful process for choosing brand colors?

Survey the competitive landscape

Choosing a color scheme that emphasizes your difference is a powerful way to send a signal that distinguishes you from competitors. Particularly if there's a prevalent theme in your industry. For instance, say you're in the business consulting field, and all of your competitors use cool, muted, subtle color themes, with their name set in traditional, refined serif typography. Ask yourself, what are the colors that reflect your differences from those competitors? Are you more accessible to clients? Are you less risk-averse and more bold in your strategy recommendations?

Let the colors project the meaning

Perhaps you'll want to choose colors that are warm and vibrant, with bold san-serif type, rather than a refined serif font. Here is your chance to send a message with your color choices, and create meaning that differentiates your company. Intense, warm colors can say you are passionate and up-front, more friendly than reserved, more geared toward action than reflection. A bold san-serif font in this context reinforces the feeling you're proactive, and not wishy-washy. Realize that color and style choices are business tools to help you connect with the clients who prefer your approach.

Colors can be mixed to display some complexity of traits

Have you ever noticed how popular the color blue is as a theme for logos and for web sites? Blue is a popular color in general, but it's particularly so in business. It stands for stability, trustworthiness, and analytical coolness. But when there are 8 different companies in your niche, with the same basic color theme, it becomes difficult to stand apart.

Let's say that for one reason or another, the color blue has been dictated in your branding. Here's where a second complementary or analogous color can make all the difference. Match the blue with a bright yellow, or a sunset orange to suggest innovation and warmth of personality. Match it with fuschia or lime green to suggest a maverick quality in your thinking. The possibilities are many, even if the use of a certain color has been pre-ordained in your branding.

Dealing with the reality of the market

Approximately ten years ago as the Creative Director of an advertising agency, I was charged with the rebranding of Sovereign Bank as they entered the New England market. They had acquired nearly 300 branches in the NorthEast, and felt it was time for an overhaul of their logo and signage. Originally, their logo had been a dark, almost blackish blue, and featured the cutout shape of a lantern. At that time in New England, the major players were Fleet Bank (blue), Bank of Boston (blue and green), Citizens Bank (bright green) and US Trust (red), which was being merged into another bank and was disappearing as a brand.

We wanted a color Sovereign could own in this crowded market, so we seized upon the newly available color red. We made it deep and rich-looking to dovetail with the name Sovereign, which suggests royalty and red velvet robes. Their lantern, which was a symbol of the welcoming quality of their branches and employees was given a warm yellow glow, which stood out nicely against the field of red and gave it more depth. This look and color combination made Sovereign immediately recognizable in a new market and allowed them to convey their difference from the other major banks.

Finding the answer

A color choice for a brand cannot be made in a theoretical vacuum. It is a balance between what is available to differentiate your company from competitors, and the meaning you create for your customers. When considering designs for your brand, place them side-by-side with those of your competitors. Let the desire to zig while the others are zagging be the starting point for creating your brand's color scheme.

1. Does the designer you're considering speak the language of business? Do they begin by asking how the job relates to your business goals, and how it will further them? If you haven't made this clear, do they persist in knowing ? A DWGI can't do their job unless they have this information.

2.  Does the designer want to spend time with you to understand how the job will fit into your overall marketing program? DWGIs know that no piece of marketing stands alone. Every communication needs to work with your brand message, your marketing strategy, your sales efforts and your customer relationship efforts. DWGIs look way beyond the visual decoration, and deep into the heart of your marketing process. In fact they may be making numerous suggestions to you about how to improve things you didn't even ask about. (Yes, DWGIs can occasionally be a pain in the butt.)

3. Does the designer haggle with you excessively over price of the job? A DWGI knows how much work it takes to create an effective outcome and will let you know too. If you try to lowball them or haggle too much on the price, they'll most likely tell you 'good luck with your project'.  The biggest factor that makes estimating a job tricky for a designer is guessing how thorny the client will be. If you're difficult right up front, the designer realizes the estimate should have been higher. This doesn't mean there's no room for informed negotiation, but with a DWGI, you get the value you pay for.

4. Does the designer look at things from a long perspective? You may say "I just want to get the damn web site up", but the DWGI won't let you get off that easily. He'll ask questions: Why does it need to be up quickly? What are the strategies driving this site? How are you going to use it to build relationships and convert prospects into customers? How does your marketing funnel work and how does this fit into it? A DWGI wants to act as if you're going to be a client forever, even if this is the only job he or she ever does for you.

And once you get it, this is the only kind of designer you'll ever want to work with.

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?

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

In other words, what is your brand?

Generally, in order to be effective, your story needs to convincingly tell how you’ll make your customer’s lives better. In a recent blog post, author Seth Godin raises the bar and defines the ideal story as one in which you help your customer’s dreams come true. I think it’s a great way to frame the value you create—as opposed to the usual approach of listing features and benefits attached to your product. That list has a place in your communications, but don’t assume it makes up a compelling reason for someone to be your customer.

Have you ever bought a piece of clothing that made you feel really good about yourself? How much is that worth? Would you pay $45,000 to drive the latest Infinity coupe because of its engineering specs, or because it makes you feel sexy, powerful and it fits your self image? The notion of ‘dreams come true’ isn’t so hard to grasp when it pertains to luxury consumer goods, but couldn’t the same rationale apply to inherently logical things like banking services, data storage software, or business consulting?

I think so. Let me give you a few examples: The bank whose entire operation revolves around making you feel welcome, respected and important; the seemingly utilitarian piece of data migration software that restores your sense of order and dignity amid the chaos of an IT environment run amok; or the business consultant who shows a you how to turn your good ideas and hard work into a wildly successful company. It’s surprising how involving and emotional the story of your businesses’ value to its customers can be, even when your business is selling really logical stuff.

 Seen in that light, effective design is a lot more than the pleasing arrangement of graphic elements. It’s the task of identifying, telling and supporting the story of how you help your customers realize their dreams.

3. It helps make their employees more productive and efficient.

4. It allows them to put off the purchase of expensive equipment by extending the life of what they already have.

5. It helps them get more customers, or increase the loyalty of their existing customers.

6. It allows them to offer a new product or service, thereby giving them a new stream of income.

7. It allows them to take advantage of a big opportunity that only comes along in times like these.

8. It raises their level of morale and makes them feel better about their lives.

9. It educates them so they can get ahead when times are better.

10. It helps them stand out from their competitors.

This is just a sampling of the ways you can respond to your customer's needs right now. It's really a mindset as much as anything else. How are you positioning your products and services to be relevant in today's market?