clemans on marketing: confessions and misdemeanors

Made in Mexico.

 

Perception can still be everything. 

One client designs and produces exceptional cast bronze home accessories, made  in Mexico. When the designer shared  the location of her foundry with an enthusiastic design store manager, the manager balked.

Another client markets 150 hand-carved architectural elements  – designed in the U.S., but produced by master woodcarvers in the famed Jiang Xi Province in China. He downplays their origin because most of his customers expect "Old World Italian". Even Italy is going to China. We are lucky to have artisans around the world still plying their crafts and charging prices that are within reach. 

It is true that your sales pitch must be "refined" to fit the customer – benefits and pain points carefully mapped out ahead of time. That's just business.

Find your "There".

Don't be like Hyatt's Century Plaza Hotel. They spent a fortune renovating 726 rooms. Granted, the place does look a lot better. They even added iPod stereo docks. But there is no there there. It's a hotel with zero soul, energy, draw. A destination it is not. Maybe that's why the place never seems full. That can't be a good thing. Hyatt's tagline: Feel the Hyatt Touch™. I didn't feel a thing. Don't products and services need to find their "there", the sweet spot where a visceral connection is made and the customer decides to belong, purchase or return?

Your Positioning Statement: Make It Matter.

"Positioning is the single largest influence on the buying decision", according to Geoffrey Moore in Crossing the Chasm. Therefore, it's important to sing the right song for your supper.

A good positioning statement describes the essence of the service or product, what makes it unique and worth caring about.

It explains how your widget solves customers' needs better and more effectively than anything else on the market.

A Good Positioning Statement is Configured This Way:
1. Speak to the specific target(s) for your product or service
2. State who you are/what you offer
3. Give two or three powerful reasons to buy from you
4. Make a comparison to your primary competitor (As compared to..)
5. Differentiate yourself - why you're better, smarter, funnier

Example: Clemans & Partners reaches C-Suite, manager and director-level decision makers for large enterprise and medium business. Our specialty is branded, versioned and personalized response-driven marketing across all media. Our solutions are integrated, creative, measurable and relevant. We drive A leads into your pipeline, support the sales team, and create long term relationships with your target audiences. Most importantly, we have the results to prove it.

Once you've polished your positioning statement up nicely, made it meaningful and shared it with a few friends over drinks, get real. Take your positioning statement to the business community and your potential customers for confirmation that it conveys compelling reasons to throw business your way and not at the other guys.

Keep answering the question, "What's in it for them?" until you've figured it out. Otherwise you're just blowing smoke.

Marketingprofs.com quotes Louis Carroll:

"One of the most profound statements made on the subject of positioning comes from Louis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland. When Alice asks the Cheshire Cat which path to take, he responds, "if you don't care where you're going, it doesn't make a difference which path you take."