- Image by Smaku via Flickr
There is almost nothing better than fine chocolate.
Gourmet chocolate creates an unforgettable experience even before you taste it. Chocolate marketers allow their product to be the star. Their marketing copy tells you about the ingredients and passionately conveys the taste. It is filled with features and the only benefit is a taste you will never forget. The presentation is superb with high quality packaging and intricate details that extend to the actual chocolate.
When you have gourmet chocolate, you only need a little to satisfy your taste. Forget fat free, sugar free, low calorie chocolate that only makes you want more. Indulge in quality and you will eat less.
That’s the food lesson, now for the business lesson.
Gourmet chocolate makers do a wonderful job at marketing. The marketing is:
- Transparent
- Clearly articulated and focused
- Makes use of enticing visuals
- Conveys the passion about their product
- Leverages their distinction
- Focuses on what’s truly important – the taste
However, just like the product, they don’t need to overindulge with mass marketing.
Customers who want great chocolate buy it. They are not persuaded by killer marketing copy or price. Gourmet chocolate makers do not need to hook you with free gifts, coupons or complimentary products. Their customers buy their distinction and they buy it at a premium.
What can we learn from this? It is far better to leverage a single distinction than to compete with the masses.
What would happen to your business if you eliminated the fat and fillers and did one thing really well?
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I’ve been working on my unique selling point. The more clear it becomes the better response I get from potential customers. Sometimes I try to compete with the masses and I usually lose. It’s better to just be who we are and show how unique our service is.
.-= Karl Staib – Work Happy Now´s last blog ..Why Don’t People Laugh at Work? =-.
Karl, you are a good example of someone who truly is strategically focused and successfully branded. Yet, even you admit to sometimes being tempted to compete with the masses (as we all are) but finding greater success when you return to your distinction. That is a great lesson for us to all keep in mind whether you have a personal brand or business brand. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Karen, Indeed certain businesses should pour everything into one distinctive attribute, and chocolate makers are a perfect example. But how do these companies tell the world about their distinctive product? Is this and example of where word of mouth marketing and social media can have more impact than traditional marketing methods?
Your point about cutting the fat comes up all the time in my world. (Not sure about using chocolate as an example of cutting the fat, though, LOL.) Companies often like to tell their entire story in every piece of sales collateral, every web page, and yes, sometimes every Tweet. Doesn’t work. If people remember one thing about you, you are doing some awesome marketing. Trying to get people to remember 10 things about you is a pipe dream.
.-= Brad Shorr´s last blog ..Use Twitter to Lay Groundwork for Your Business Blog =-.
Simplifying your product to its core takes the form of fine art. Problem is such refinement can cause trauma in the committee room where decisions are made. As Brad says, this leads to laundry lists. I guess it mostly adds up to fear of a missed opportunity. Of course that fear can be the cause of the missed opportunity… oh well.
.-= Fred H Schlegel´s last blog ..Getting In The Innovation Grove =-.
Brad, your comments are dead on. Marketing collateral just like resumes should not be an obituary but a focused, targeted piece. Companies are far too often driven by fear, they fear the competitor, fear losing market share, etc. Unfortunately that focus can lead them away from the one thing that differentiates them from the pack.
Fred, your point is so right on – fear. Sadly, fear drives companies to make decisions that appear prudent rather than groundbreaking. Trying to be broad may seem to work but I’d rather serve fewer people but have those be the right people for me and my business than to add volume and be unhappy.
Karen,
In the case of what I will call ‘specialty’ products, such as fine chocolate or high quality wine from France, then yes, I would have thought that over-indulgence in mass marketing would have been counter productive from a branding perspective.
That said, I would have thought that what you are saying would apply only to specialty type products. In the case of mass market offerings, such as McDonalds for example, a mass market campaign is certainly needed – in my opinion, the ‘quality’ of a McDonalds hamburger would not be sufficient so as to sell without a mass-marketing campaign.
.-= Andrew´s last blog ..Why I empathize with tobacco litigants =-.