In today's highly competitive marketplace there are two massive challenges we all face as business owners and they are
1. Avoiding our competitors saying “we can offer the same for $x less” or
2. Our prospects saying we can get that for $x less
Now we all know about USP's and selling benefits and, of course, they should form the foundation of your marketing strategies but there is another strategy that very few other business owners use and its one that really creates and articulates your uniqueness and sets you apart from all your competitors
Let me explain by taking you back to the 1920's, to a struggling beer manufacturer called Schlitz Beer. At the time all the brewers were claiming their beer was “pure”, that was their selling point. So you'd see pure, purer and purest on the bottles and adverts, but nobody actually knew what pure meant.
That meant that the brewers who could spend the most money on branding were cornering the market. Schlitz beer felt it couldn't compete.
So, they called in a marketing expert called Claude Hopkins to help and Hopkins, as all good marketers should do, began by trying to understand everything about Schlitz beer.
What he found amazed him...
- Firstly he found that Schlitz sunk two 5000ft artesian wells on the shore on Lake Michigan to ensure they collected the water with the best mineral content
- They then went through 1623 different test to identify the finest mother yeast cell.
- Then they distilled the water by heating it to 5000 degrees F then cooling it down. They did this 3 times to ensure the purity of the water.
- Then at the bottling stage they steamed each bottle to 160degreesF to kill all bacteria.
- Finally they batch tested all the beer before they bottled it.
Hopkins was amazed at the lengths Schlitz went to to purify their beer and said to the owners “ Why don't you tell people about this?” the owners replied “ Why, every other brewer does exactly the same, we'll be laughed out of town". Hopkins replied “But, your customers don't know that. The first person to tell this story will gain distinction and pre eminence in the marketplace".
So they did, they added this story to all the labels on their bottles and added it to their adverts.
Drinkers then saw the bottles and thought “ Ah, that's why Schlitz beer is so pure-I'll buy this one"
Schlitz beer went from 8th position to 1st position in less than six months.
Let's see what we can learn from this
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Schlitz Beer answered the burning questions in their prospects mind ( What is pure?).
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They were the only ones that answered it so what they did became unique
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They demonstrated their expertise, so became the go to beer
Now try it in your business...
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Identify the one (or more) things that are troubling your prospects, something they cannot solve or answer. This show you understand them, that you have empathy with their plight
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Then write down all the steps, no matter how small they seem, that you or your product or service provides that helps them to solve their problem. Create a story in their mind where they are on a clear journey from problem to solution...your solution
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Finally articulate the steps in all of your marketing to become the go to expert in your field
See, you may think that your internal processes are just that, internal, however if you can describe all the many stages you go through and the care you take at all points in the process, then your prospects begin to appreciate just how much effort goes into creating the product or service.
Remember the saying
Nobody cares about you until you show how much you care about them
Get this right and its your chance to show you really do care about your customers, it helps avoid any price war by setting you apart from all the others in your industry.
Because nobody else goes into such details you, just like Schiltz beer, capture the minds of your prospects who realize you are the only logical choice to do business with.
Let me know how you get on or if you have may questions in the comments.
