Want More Marketing Success? Sharpen Your Focus!

Consider for a moment the task of trying to hammer a nail deep into a block of wood. Obviously, the sharper the point on the nail, the easier it will penetrate and the deeper it will go with a minimum of effort. And once it’s in, it’s there to stay.

Now, I’m not suggesting that your marketing works something like that. I’m saying it works exactly like that. To drive your marketing message into your target market’s mind, you need to narrow your focus. You need to narrow your focus until your marketing message has a sharp, hard point on it. That point is your Customer Buying Advantage – your CBA – (which we will develop near the end of this Step). The rest of your marketing story, the supporting information, is like the shaft of the nail. Once the point has gone in, the rest just follows naturally.

So if your marketing response has not been all you had hoped for, maybe you’ve been using a blunt nail…

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“The essence of marketing is narrowing the focus. You become stronger when you reduce the scope of your operations. You can’t stand for something if you chase after everything.”

– Al Ries & Jack Trout The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

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SCAMPER Your Way To Creativity

If you're in business today, you need to be creative more than ever before. You need to invent solutions to your business issues, and to find new and compelling ways to engage your Customers. But being creative can be hard to do!

Well, here's a time-tested approach to being creative that you can use whenever you need to solve a problem or invent a new solution.

Just try to SCAMPER!

S – Substitute

C – Combine

A – Adapt

M – Modify

P – Put to another use

E – Eliminate

R – Reverse

Here are three excellent sources for more information on this useful creativity mnemonic:

• MindTools
• Creating Minds.org
• Brainstorming.co.uk

Give it a try! You can amaze and delight yourself and your Customers!

//Richard

Understand the difference between “needs” and “wants”

A “need” is the result of either (a) a physical depravation (not getting enough water to function or survive) or (b) a mandate or requirement from some authority (citizens “must” pay taxes; students “must” turn in homework assignments…).

A “want” is an EMOTIONAL reaction or preference. Because it is emotional in nature, it is susceptible to emotional appeals.

Example: I might ‘need’ transportation (I have to get to work); I ‘want’ this particular car. I ‘need’ food to sustain my body; I ‘want’ to go to Outback for a steak (or Taco Bell… you pick it…)

Why this matters: For most Consumer products and services, and for many ‘discretionary’ Business to Business products and services, WANTS drive the wallet. In other words, people will pay for more than the minimum available solution to get what satisfies or fulfills them emotionally. I ‘need’ transportation — I could take a bus, ride a bicycle, etc. — but I will pay extra to get the car I “want” (plus insurance, maintenance, gas, etc.).

For purchases in the “want” category, prospective buyers can best be motivated and appealed to through EMOTIONAL appeals. (Remember the Michelin tire commercials featuring the babies? Sure, if you drive an automobile you ‘need’ tires — but Michelin successfully appealed to EMOTIONS of mothers by stressing family safety.) Successful marketers use EMOTIONAL appeals, then back them up with ‘hard’ facts, statistics, features, etc. to help validate the emotional claims.

It is important for you, as a small business marketer, to understand the difference, and to know which appeal your target market customers find motivating or compelling.