The shower is one of the few moments during the day when you aren’t bombarded by sales pitches, logos and zippy one-liners. I call it “in the shower marketing”—messaging and brand building that pops up where you least expect it. After 15 years of using Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, I still occasionally read the label in the shower and pick up a little gem of advice before I start the day. And though no action can be taken then and there, I like the soap and I like the message so I continue to buy it.
At the end of the day, your customers have to not only like your product but your message, content and delivery—it’s just the way things are. If they like your soap and dislike your message/content they will more than likely try another brand. And if they like the message/content but hate your soap, then you have a problem of another fragrance to tackle.
When your customers are nearing a buying decision (or even after they have made a purchase), you can do one of four things:
Tell them how awesome you are and how much it will cost them to do business with you.
“Finally you have a choice. Switch to FiOS TV Premier for $42.99 a month.”
Entertain them and hope they remember you for it.
“Paparazzi not included.” (On a billboard US 41. Company name, forgotten. What they sell, unknown.)
Give them more information (content) about the product or service they are interested in, and let your customers speak for you.
The most obvious example for this would be Amazon.com, which shows you similar products/customer reviews/product discussions on the way to the checkout.
Another example would be the use of case studies used by companies such as Shipwire. The concept is simple—let your customer tell your story (with a little help from an experienced writer, of course).
Give them more information (content) and entertain them a bit (more content).
Spin the bottle around on a Revive Vitamin Water and you get this:
“If you woke up tired. You probably need more sleep. If you woke up drooling at your desk, you probably need a new job.”
Go to the Vitamin Water website and the same tone continues:
“Everybody loves a comeback story. The over-the-hill athlete. The long irrelevant rock band…Try Revive.”
Vitamin Water also has a little widget called “TryitCreator.” This little program gives customers the ability (albeit using Flash) to create their own Vitamin Water message and post it to a blog or MySpace. Is every customer going to use this? Probably not. Is it quirky, fun and does it reinforce the Vitamin Water brand? Sure does.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Ian,
Thank you for the link. You hit the nail on the head for case studies. I’ve found that getting case studies is a lot of up front work. However, it gets us closer to our customer (we would be nowhere without them); helps us understand our customer and what value we bring to their business; Proves to us and them that we’re providing value that is tangible; and, provides a reference for press/articles and blog content for the future that gets our brand and our customer brand out.
Overall, it forces us to maintain a good, positive and productive customer relationship into the future that we can both use to grow our businesses.
Best,
Nate
Shipwire
Outsourced Storage (warehouse) and Shipping (order fulfillment)