If there’s a little something to the “your brand sucks” idea, it’s that there is a pretty good chance there are some areas of importance to buyers where everybody – you and your competitors – totally sucks. When companies do not offer a solution to a seriously irritating problem or at best give a middling response to something buyers say they really need or want, these areas are the blue sky, white space – whatever-the-going-catch-phrase may be – marketing messages.

This is your area for big marketing opportunities. If ever there was a time when people are aware of their problems, pains, and areas of dissatisfaction, and are willing to talk about them, it’s now when the economy is really questionable and everyone is wondering what the future will hold. Ask buyers what they aren’t getting from your brands and others instead of calling out your competitor’s deficiencies. Figure out what people are missing in the category in general and determine if you can deliver it to them profitably. Don’t waste your breath (and precious advertising dollars) explaining how and why your competitors can’t get something (or anything) right. Instead, explain how and why your brand is uniquely qualified to solve their real problems in your advertising. Very importantly, give people a reason to listen and you will break through – now in these tough times and when happy days are here again. When you do this, be sure to do it right. Don’t make a promise to solve a problem and then fail to follow through. For example,    take Coke Zero®. It used a great execution depicting Coke® executives suing Coke Zero® executives because Coke Zero® tastes so much like Coke®. However, it doesn’t – not by a long shot.

It is important to keep in mind that brand awareness is an important way of promoting commodity-related products.  Commodity-related products have very few factors that differentiate one product from its competitors’ product. Therefore, the product that maintains the highest brand awareness compared to its competitive product will usually get the most sales.

A great example of this is in the soft drink industry. Very little separates a generic brand soda from a brand-name soda, in terms of taste. However, if you were to ask the consumers, they are very aware of the brands Pepsi and Coca Cola, in terms of their images and names. This high rate of brand awareness equates to higher sales and also serves as an economic moat that prevents competitors from gaining more market share.

On one of my business flights, I was flying back east and an airline steward asked me if I wanted something to drink and I said “Yes, may I please have a Pepsi.”  When he delivered the soda, he did not say anything to me about switching the product and handed me Coca Cola in a cup with ice.  I happened to be reading a book, paying no attention to the glass of soda in front of me.  Later, he walked by and made the statement, Wow, can you really tell the difference in Pepsi versus Coke?  I said yes I can.  With humor, he asked if he could bring me one of each and place the glasses of soda in front of me and I pleasantly agreed. He did just that and YES, I was able to tell the difference!

So the next time you worry about your competition, look to the blue sky opportunity and realize that people live life in four dimensions. Within those four dimensions, we have functional needs, but we also are social creatures, and have self-expressive needs, in addition to craving content that we find to be both entertaining and informative. Thinking this way reveals new ways of making your brand relevant in the mindset of your consumer: 

• Functional Needs:  These needs go from "product feature" (items that provide added functionality to products) to "solution-based"  thinking (identify and capitalize on resources).

• Social Needs:  Be sure your brand becomes a celebrity that has fans, friends, and is followed. Even better, create a thematic  environment around a value shared by your brand and its customers. (ex., Dove, "The real meaning of beauty.")

• Self-expressive Needs:  Your brand must stand for something that is clearly understood and is a cultural currency.

• Content Needs: Become the logical, reasoning, and top of mind source for content centered on what your brand is about and what  it represents.

DJ  Heckes, CEO & Author

djheckes@fullbrainmarketing.com

www.fullbrainmarketing.com