There are literally millions of products out there and as a business choosing the right words to market your product is crucial in getting the right response. There are many students of marketing who still have not gotten it right. They are still lost in theory and not understanding the practical.
In my book the “The Five Principles of Programmed Success” I talk about how business is a solution. Every business exists because it is providing a solution or attempting to bring a solution. When the business no longer brings a complete solution it will lose the market. If you own a business or are planning to own a business you must understand what solution you are bringing to the market. Think of KFC; there are many restaurants that exist in the world but what KFC brought was speed to getting your food. Imagine a lunch hour where you need a quick bite but you have to wait for two hours, it’s no longer a quick bite but a drawn out lunch hour which is not sustainable for you. So in planning for the product that you are going to offer to the market, think of the market’s needs. What does the target market need? This is the question that every business person must ask and in the beginning this is what every marketer must think about.
Understanding the need
At a workshop the other day where I was presenting the course “Unlocking the Business Leader”, we were at a tea break and the participants, being excited on the new knowledge and realization, were debating what problem the Nestle Coffee dispensing machine was solving. The machine lets you choose, expresso, black coffee, white coffee, hot chocolate etc such that you have different options at a click of a button. After much debate the participants decided that the machine was providing choice and speed. So in real essence the machine is selling speed and time, from which you get your coffee or chocolate or tea.
On the other hand, for the organisation having the machine cuts down on having three people standing serving tea and coffee as done by some workshop hosts. So in terms of costs on labour, the machine offers an opportunity to save money on events when you know you have a number of events and you do not want to commit to a large number of employees.
Facebook is a fancy blog that allows many people to do one thing, Connect. It does not mean that when you have 1000 “friends” that these are truly your friends as in most cases you might never meet these people, but what it does mean is that it allows you to connect to people which under normal circumstances you would never meet or be able to communicate with. So if you have a brilliant idea you have an easier time time to connect to various people, the same goes for twitter, Youtube, and most social media platforms. The real product that Facebook sells is the ability to create communities by letting people connect with thousands and millions of other people. Hence you have the extremely large groups for selling, groups for causes, groups for religion, science, relationships and much much more.
One Product Many Needs
The product for a business is not the hard substance that you see, it is the solution that it is creating. Mercedes sells speed and comfort, whilst for others it’s selling ego, for others it’s selling a chance to be seen as sexy or attractive. Depending on who you are in a target market the same product can be presented differently to target markets.
The best advertising company is coca cola for some years. The same bottle of coke can be advertised to families with a family advert, a newly wed couple, a guy in the street, a child at school, a sports team, an educated person, and just about anyone. The variations in the adverts have proven to speak to different target markets such that on the average scale most people recognize and take coke not just once in a while but frequently.
The trick is being able to recognize the needs of different target markets whom are known to have a need for your product. Which brings us to the most important part of the marketing, the language we use
Language of a Products
In order to develop rapport with an audience you must be able to connect at a language level. Language may mean the environment, the visual, the actions, the music or the words. it is not just about creating an advert and hoping people buy your product. Business is not run on Hope but on Strategy. A good strategy is about understanding how to connect with the people whom you want as your clients.
The environment in the advert can speak volumes to your market If you are trying to get a specific target market that spends more time in the affluent side of town then your advert must communicate with an affluent environment that is recognizable. The people appearing in the advert must communicate the same as well.
Bacon did not become part of breakfast because it’s good for our health , it became part of breakfast because someone dressed as a doctor appeared in a commercial and said it was good. Coca cola looked cool when it had Tyrese Gibson singing in a bus and just drinking coca cola. The bus, his dressing, and his environment meant an entire market was being reached which could not be reached by having an advert with a guy in a suit sitting in a restaurant ordering a coke.
The language for marketing is very important as it defines how your audience will connect with you. The packaging is critical as it is also part of the communication of the product. The wrong package can kill a product. The Colgate tube is in a specific shape which makes it easy to use, the bottle for any drink must make it easy to hold, the cellphone must not be a brick but must be portable enough to be a mobile phone. It is only when the cellphone truly become portable that it really became a mobile phone. Before having the right size it was just a brick that affluent people would dare to buy but not everyone could understand it as being a portable product.
Value Creation
Dr. Philip Kotler defines marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires.”
If you can fulfill a need and still get value out of it then you are different from anyone else. WhatsApp provides ease of use, connectivity and affordability. What made WhatsApp stand out from everyone else was the ease of installation, the speed of notifications and the ability to communicate cheaply. At the end of the day the value is between the client and the business.
Kotler’s definition is a good definition in that it also recognizes that the target market must be able to be satisfied and still make a profit for the business. Most unfulfilled needs are known, what then happens is that the message is lost in the clutter of delivering information. Many companies lose out on a good product simply because they fail to communicate the beauty of that product. A hard sale where you are just telling person “This is a good car, with mechanical perfection” will not mean much to someone who is looking for “If you want to get somewhere fast this is the car for you”. Understanding the value that a person is looking for is critical to be able to match their feelings.
Never let your marketing be about the product, let it be about the feelings, the solution or the value that the target market needs. When you know the need you will understand how to market like a pro.
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