I’m writing this blog post to tell you about a technique which, for over 60 years, has been successfully used to bring struggling, up-and-coming products in competitive markets millions of dollars. And with today’s industry so focused on technology, these principles have been overlooked, waiting for the opportunity to surge when the market conditions fit.
The market conditions are now here. With the web expanding into trillions of pages, and 10,500 new websites added every hour, this overlooked technique is becoming hugely valuable. The digital markets and business are more competitive and fragmented than ever before so the most common techniques are failing. Over 10,500 new websites are being added every hour.
Indeed, this technique commands a long list of past successes, across all types of industries, with returns in trillions of dollars after decades of continuous gains.
Yet the technique is still relatively unknown by digital marketers and local business owners, because it’s only recently we’re seeing this glutton of websites have an effect on digital marketing performance.
Before today, marketers were hopping from tactic to tactic, from SEO to paid ads to content marketing, from social platform to social platform, and still had dollars coming in. When the returns from Facebook ran dry, they’d hop to Twitter, then to Instagram. But what they didn’t know is that their numbers came from the platform’s growth, not from true market share increases.
Today, ad costs have skyrocket and the platforms have slowed, so the digital marketing platform-hoppers are lagging.
But today with competition increasing and the platforms working against you, it’s time for something different. The well-tested, proven marketing principles are making a resurgence. Practitioners who know the techniques of the masters are raking it in. Just watch… you’ll see more of the experienced, qualified marketers bringing in larger returns in the next few years.
And in a rather fortunate twist, the results from this technique can turn your digital strategy around from negative to positive. When you first launch your campaigns, the social algorithms see positive signals, so it creates a feedback loop that shows your ads and posts to more people, making your buyer audience grow while your ad costs go down.
And the results from these principles are growing in demand today because…
Digital ad costs are going up, results going down, but customer spending remains steady
Most people think that because the Internet is a high-tech tool, the principles from the pre-tech days don’t work. But the reality is that new media will always come around and new technology will always be invented.
The smart business owners who can see beyond the schizophrenic technology cycle will see their company break out of the up and down revenue cycle and start seeing real growth.
The technology tool algorithms have been growing more difficult for 7 years, especially in the last 24 months, and the “techies” are struggling to figure out how to cope. Recently, talk of a recession has entered the conversation. Meanwhile, despite what the news says, consumer spending is steady for now, and in some areas soaring, depending on the industry.
So you have rising ad costs and steady consumer spending. The only way to keep revenue level is by throwing more dollars on the ad spend. In a situation like this, the technique I’ve been talking about will have greater long-term power growing a business than shaving pennies off of ad costs. The techniques have worked during time periods more competitive than these.
Now the practitioners who put this technique into play can bring in higher profits for any type of business they choose.
One more thing: The technique can also be used in digital marketing, for both established brands and smaller companies looking to grow… and it can even be used to test out new ideas and messaging
Buyers using digital sources to find local companies are up 10-fold from 5 years ago. Owners and entrepreneurs have been riding the wave of the market, which has been bringing up everyone as the tide rose higher. Now owners are realizing that this technique is rich with potential as the tide levels out, which means that they’ll be more powerful than the ever-changing digital techniques.
The effect of this technique in a small market can have a major impact. Most competitors won’t know what hit ’em as these professional techniques are applied into smaller industries. So these principles, which were once just put to the side because the rise of technology, have suddenly become profitable again and are being sought after as dearly as gold collectors chased ancient coins.
This technique is a great tool for business builders and marketers. It gives you a powerful way to keep profits running high even in the digital glut of your industry. And if you start using it in your digital marketing, you can track returns until you get the numbers dialed-in, then scale it for explosive growth.
The technique I’m talking about is based around the marketing principle called positioning.
You’ve probably heard the term before. Positioning is “what the product does and who it is for.”
Positioning makes clear to your market where your company fits in the industry. Without proper positioning, you leave it up to the market to define your company. And since they’re going to decide with or without your efforts, you might as well take the time to figure this out.
The technique is an interesting one, powerful and proven. Done correctly, it holds court over other fly-by-night techniques, and has created winning products and even billion dollar companies from the most mundane of products. The past success of the principle should give even the most even-keeled entrepreneur a jolt, especially if they are struggling because the digital jungle has become too tangled for consistent profits.
But in this post, I’m going to add a new twist to the technique. It’s not the same textbook definition that the MBAs learn. It’s an added booster, adapted for the markets today. So you’ll already have an edge over most business school graduates by the time you finish the next few short sections.
But first, to truly understand the power of the technique, let’s take a minute to understand exactly what positioning is… and what it isn’t.
Three Proven Examples To Demonstrate Just How Much Revenue Can Come From This Principle
Every since the word was invented, positioning has been a battleground for marketing pros and enthusiasts who love to debate jargon. The textbook publishers love the debate because every time new words are invented, they get to print new books.
But it’s the practitioners of these principles that have been truly effective at bringing in profits. And they’ve done so at a level and consistent rate that would have even the largest publishers standing in awe.
For example, let’s take the world-famous David Ogilvy.
David Ogilvy is known as one of the greatest advertising minds of all time. The lists of “The Greatest Advertisers of All Time” change with the author, but Ogilvy is included in all of them.
After analyzing the advertising legends and their results for years, I have dozens of positioning examples from Ogilvy to highlight, but Dove soap is perhaps uniquely suited for this post. It serves as an example of the longevity of this technique.
Ogilvy took the simple, everyday product of soap, then crafted a breakthrough strategy resulting in trillions of dollars over six decades.
This brilliance breakthrough came when Ogilvy noticed one of the ingredients in Dove existed in another beauty product of the day. He latched onto that insight and transformed it into a big idea. Famously, he made Dove a beauty product, not just a bar of soap.
Using the same positioning technique we are talking about here, Dove existed no longer as a simple bar of soap.
You see, soap is for cleaning, but Dove is for beauty.
This stroke of positioning genius continues to bring results to this day. Dove continues with the positioning strategy developed over 60 years ago. That’s longer than most companies stay in business, much less stick to a strategy.
Ogilvy used the twist I’m about to tell you about, and if you use it yourself, you may also unleash your own brilliance to produce a genius breakthrough.
There’s another example I’d like to share.
With an example like Dove, announcing a marketing technique with a track record six decades long should be enough to prove the power behind this principle beyond a reasonable doubt.
But some entrepreneurs overlook big brands like Dove because of their size. They reason that due to the large size of the market, the principles can bring their results easier.
Yet as you’ll see, the principles work in regional and local markets as well.
To demonstrate the power of this technique in a local and regional setting, we turn to another famous advertising legend.
William Bernbach is often called a visionary who lived during the Golden Age of Advertising. He holds a top spot among creatives around the world, especially art directors. Bernbach moved the art director from the dusty halls located in the back of the building up to the front corner office.
The local ad campaign showing this positioning principle is the one from Levy’s. The art direction raised a few eyebrows back then, but the real power came from the positioning technique.
Levy’s was a local bakery in New York during the 1960’s. They wanted people to buy packaged bread from the grocery store, instead of fresh bread at the local corner bakery.
But, at the time, most locals bought their bread from the corner bakery.
Bernbach knew that to sell packaged bread, you had to go to a new audience.
So Bernbach’s agency positioned Levy’s as a bread for everyone by plastering posters around town saying, “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s.”
The result? Levy’s became the largest bread company in the regional area.
The ads were clever and featured brilliant art direction. But it was the first positioning choice that truly set the campaign on it’s upward trajectory.
The campaign featured several other important elements.
This isn’t the place to discuss those, but let me make one quick comment. The slogan below the logo said ‘Real Jewish Bread.’
Now direct response and conversion copywriters aren’t keen on slogans and I’m not either. But the subtlety here is so genius, that it’s worth noticing.
Can you see it?
If Levy’s bread is “real,” then what are the others? Not real? Artificial? Alien? Something Else?
This subtle word selection is such psychological genius that it’s worth mentioning even if you aren’t a fan of slogans.
Let’s move to one more quick but important example for a product in B2B.
B2B can be a tough nut to crack. For instance, there was one CEO who was selling a high-technology product in a B2B environment, and he was having a tough time making gains.
A product similar to the one he offered was being used by NASA, so the technology was solid and at the time, it was cutting edge. Frustrated, he had resorted to cutting prices and discounting just to “get the deal.”
What the CEO didn’t know is that price is a psychological factor in decision making as well as a practical one. It’s tough to show superior value in high-tech services by usinng bargain basement deals. Their strategy of price-cutting to get the deal was actually hurting their success by devaluing the product.
So when he called me and brought me on board to help with growth, making this product successful was a top priority. Inspired by the lessons of the pros, I reworked the positioning of the product to showcase it’s high value. We juggled several options, but in the end, opted for a high-end customer acquisition tool for luxury companies. The service price tag was at a 1,000% premium over the original price. And with this new positioning we were able to do a deal with a Gulf Coast luxury beachside get-away in less than 60 days after the re-launch.
These three examples show how a solid positioning can beat even the most lucrative digital tactic. In this case, the strong message of the product will triumph over many of the tricks being used today.
If this isn’t the most powerful principle in marketing strategy, it is among the top 5. Give careful thought to this principle because you will be startled at how powerfully and consistently you will be able to stand out in your industry when you apply this smartly in your business.
Conventional Wisdom That Needs To Be Un-Done
To see the impact this can have, you must first understand why some of what you have been taught about positioning is wrong, or at least outdated and incomplete.
Positioning as a concept emerged in a time of the Golden Age of Advertising, when industry was experience a boom in all sectors. Most of the techniques used for success during that time remain valuable tools.
The main teaching: Position your product in the mind of the consumer.
That makes sense. But there’s a problem. These giants wrote this advice long ago when, compared
with today, prospects were under-marketed.
So, yes, back then, products and services could be positioned in the mind of the consumer.
But today, with “always-on” media and 24/7 digital tools, these techniques fall flat because we’re being bombarded with everyone’s message all the time.
The problem is, product and service selection has exploded today and any new company is met with boredom, not with excitement because for every new service introduced, a prospect will be overloaded with options from alternatives.
As a simple proof, run this experiment. Open your favorite search engine and then enter into the search bar any product category. You will be presented with dozens of items from vendors offering you that service. And that’s just the first page.
In some cases, the vendor’s location is also provided, which means not only can you see which alternatives for buying, but you can see how close the location is to your current whereabouts.
This is true in B2B as well, although the nearby location isn’t included.
You’ve noticed this yourself I’m sure.
A Powerful Technique for Exploding Your Market Share
As a result, the vast majority marketers and business owners spend their time trying to position their product in unique and “hype-ier” ways. This is why their performance and results are almost always beaten easily by the tiny handful of business owners and entrepreneurs who know this simple secret of successful positioning in an overmarketed world…
When you are positioning your service/product to your audience…
make sure it is something that the audience desires.
Never launch a new campaigns without verifying this simple fact. Always verify that your positioning and your offer will be something that your audience actually cares about.
In the examples early, women do care about beauty. Locals needs to eat bread. Luxury real estate companies do need new customers.
Yet, the path to business success is littered with product lines that missed this fact.
In the tech world, this issue is why you see discussions of “product-market” fit. The core issue is finding customers who truly value the service.
There is no more powerful nor consistent way to make sure you have a steady flow of new prospects turning into customers. Positioning your product in a way that makes your customer want to talk with you and watch your response soar.
There are many ways to strengthen your positioning, which I’ll give you in a future post.
For now, lock this idea in your head
Right now, the opportunities are still wide open for business owners who think about principles, not algorithmic tricks or digital marketing tactics. Even with digital marketing maturing, there’s still spending going on by consumers and there’s still plenty of slack in the consumer demand for owners who want to growth their business by bringing in new buyers.
With the examples you just read as proof, it’s a no-brainer to consider how your own products and services are positioned. But it does require some digging in, and perhaps some message testing.
The biggest profits – in consumer and B2B markets, as well as smaller “niche” areas – are still available to those who put in the time.
If you’re one of the few that puts in the time, then the market will reward you long-term, for sure.
-Kyle