Resist Being Too Progressive In Your Marketing

This post is by Michael Pollock, the original owner of Small Business Branding. Yaro Starak now owns and produces the latest content for this blog.

>> Return to the Small Business Branding front page <<

Marketing is little more than communicating how your product or service meets a particular need, want or desire. So, it’s important to know who you’re communicating with (your market), their needs and their language. No matter what you’re marketing, to be in the game, you have to speak your market’s language and clearly show how you can fulfill their needs.

As an example, let’s talk toothpaste. For years and years, I used Crest toothpaste, and more recently, it had to be Crest Whitening toothpaste. I’d see other brands in the supermarket, and consider trying them, but never did. One brand in particular I considered was Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, an all natural brand and a "socially conscious" company. Even though I liked the socially conscious thing and the all natural thing, I still wouldn’t switch from Crest. Until one day last year . . .

I went to my daughter’s school science fair. One of the 5th grade projects was testing to see which toothpaste got teeth whiter. There were four brands tested, including Crest and Tom’s. Guess who won. No, it wasn’t Crest. It was Tom’s. And the project provided visual evidence that Tom’s got teeth whiter than the rest. Now, I have no idea how "scientific" this young lady’s project actually was, but guess which toothpaste I used this morning. Yep, Tom’s.

Is having white teeth more important to me than using an all natural product or buying from a company that’s "socially conscious?" Well . . . yea (call me shallow). The product has to meet my primary need, and for me, toothpaste needs to get/keep my teeth white. I love that Tom’s is socially conscious and the product is all natural, but I needed to believe it would get/keep my teeth white before I’d switch from a brand I’d used for years.

The moral: know your market and their primary needs. Communicate clearly how your product or service meets that need in simple, understandable language. It’s okay to be progressive, but don’t get too far ahead of your market.