Understanding 'Pain Point' Positioning

In our modern era of information overload, consumers are only able to accept and absorb messages consistent with prior knowledge or experience. 'Positioning' therefore helps break through the message clutter by offering a simplified message consistent with what the consumer already believes.  This is achieved by focusing on the perceptions of the consumer, rather than on the reality of the product.  Identifying consumer’s pain points is critical to effective positioning.

The consumer’s perceptions are largely determined by existing pain points.  Have you identified customer ‘pain-points’ for your products and services?  People spend money on two things; to fight pain and to pursue pleasure. It’s likely that the worse the pain or the problem, the more chance you have of selling a solution. The better the solution you offer, the quicker the customer will pay. Generally there is more staying power in ‘pain-solving businesses’ than there is in ‘pleasure businesses’.

So, look for pain. Look for things or situations that people find uncomfortable, annoying or frustrating. Focus on a ‘cure’ and let this help you as a guide to develop a business that will ‘make the pain go away’. You should also focus on trying to assess when it is that people feel the pain most. It’s easier to sell a solution to a current, severe pain than to solve something less intense.

Questions to ask when testing whether or not your business is addressing a real customer pain:

• What pain does your company solve?
• Why should people care?
• Can you do this in a few words?
• Can you persuade people to purchase your product using an elevator pitch?

The Importance of Identifying Customer Pain Points

To put it very simply, pain points are ‘cries for help.’  Collecting a list of pain points helps you understand what your prospects truly desire.  Referring to these same pain points in your promotion and advertising and in your one-to-one meetings with customers and prospective customers help them better relate to your offerings. It almost instantly builds rapport that leads to a higher trust factor.

Winners don’t always have the best product, the biggest name, or the deepest pocket, or even the most loyal customers. Many times the winner does the best job in understanding and meaningfully addressing customers’ pain points.

In sales and marketing circles you will hear a lot of advice about finding a prospective customer’s ‘pain point.’   A pain point is the when and the why, the reason customers choose you – the point at which they realize you offer the solution to their need – their “pain”.

The choice of the words “pain point” is clearly intentional: only something that is severe enough to be painful to your customer will cause them to act to relieve the pain.  This pain doesn’t necessarily have to be in a negative sense; the pain can easily be that of the frustration of wanting a product or service to do even more than it does right now.

If you’ve established good communications with your customers, they’ll tell you their pain points.

Define the ‘Pain-Point’

It’s important to define the pain point that drives your business. Sometimes this can be obvious.  A car supplies transportation, solving the pain of getting from A to B.  However some pain points can be less obvious. Does anybody really need an extremely expensive car that carries only two people and goes three times faster than the law allows? No, but some people want that, and businesses that supply it do very well.

Take restaurants for example, some solve the problem of getting food cheaply and fast. Others provide a service for people to go out and celebrate an occasion with all the trappings. Out of the two which would you most likely find at an airport or train station? Not all restaurants have the same mission. Does the high-end restaurant solve a problem as much as it fills a need and supplies a want?  Check out how Papa John identified and leveraged positioning based on pain point.

There are four questions you should seek to answer when identifying ‘pain-points’:

• What is the true source of pain?
• Who sees the most value in having that pain removed?
• Who will ultimately pay for a solution?
• Is there a substantive market that will benefit from your solution?

Define the pain point that drives your business. What customer problem, need, or want does your business address?  This is a core concept you’ll need to establish within your mission statement. Who is better off because your business exists, and why are they better off?

Need some help defining your Pain Point's (or your competitors?) Give us a shout. 

 

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The Undeniable Value Of Branded Utility

Smart brands today recognize the power of BRANDED UTILITY - giving consumers something they actually need without demanding an immediate return. Branded utility is about creating something that people need.  Something that makes their life better, easier, or more efficient - any gadget, wearable, widget, app, or gizmo that the consumer believes extends real, tangible, value (and seamlessly integrates into existing platforms.)

This shift is largely because, for the same budget and energy as we expend on current forms of advertising, we could be making something more tangible, useful, relevant, and reusable that plays a far more integral part in the consumer's life.

1.     Stiegl Beer - Free public transportation ticket on beer bottles

2.     Vodafone – Pocket Power – clothes that charge smartphone

3.     Scrabble – Scrabble sponsored gamified (solve word puzzle) free WiFi

4.     IBM Smart outdoor advertising (curved billboards/poster doubles as seat, ramp, awning)

5.     Brazilian Blood Bank “Donor Cable” donates smartphone battery charge to a friend

6.     Audi Start-Stop app – uses the same start-stop energy saving principle in Audi cars to save battery life

7.     KLM Your Must-See Map – personalized travel map with friends tips

8.     Babolat Play + Connect – a connected racquet that tracks technique and performance

9.     Nike Golf 360 – Nike+ for golfers, score rounds, track stats, compete with friends

10.  Getty Images Watermark Projects – not just the logo on previews, but useful image information

11.  Ray Ban - Bright Light (Concept) – geo-locational app to find sunny spots in your city

12.  Starbucks Early Bird (concept) alarm app that rewards early risers with coffee discounts

13.  Adidas Runbase – branded showers and lockers near Tokyo subways stations

14.  KLM Meet and Seat - stalk people on Facebook and grab a seat next to them on a flight (perhaps not)

15.  Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap – app that produces paint palettes based on photos (Adobe Kuler for interior design)

16.  Clorox Glad – Trash Smart – app from trash bag brand that locates nearest recycling centres

17.  Kodak Picture Spot – real world signs showing photo opportunities (could an AR version of this have saved Kodak?)

18.  Betty Crocker TV – YouTube recipe channel

19.  Delta Bag Tracker – Fedex style tracking of your luggage

20.  Kalles Kaviar Egg Timer app - scan egg for info (provenance, metrics) and perfect cooking instructions

21.  Adidas miCoach – personal training app from Adidas

22.  Asics Marathoner app – personalized messages from supporters on billboards throughout course – triggered by RFID

23.  IKEA pop-up nap station – sleep pods for weary drivers on the autoroute - featuring IKEA beds

24.  Jimmy Fairly – French glasses brand take on TOM’s (buy one, give one)

25.  AT&T phone charging lockerbox

26.  Google wedding planner – uses Google tools to plan, budget, share a wedding

27.  Google person finder – used after Japan quake in 2011, helps people reconnect with friends and loved ones in the aftermath of natural and humanitarian disasters

28.  Nestlé Dessert – Chocolate recipe idea app

29.  Maruti Suzuki – Indian Suzuki car brand hosts second-hand buy/sell/exchange site

30.  MUJI productivity apps – branded calendar, notebook and travel apps

31.  Google Teach Parents Tech – helping children tech-educate parents

32.  Broke Bike Alley – bike shop metal business card that works as a bike spanner

33.  Diageo – cocktail recipe site featuring Diageo brands

34.  Nike+ – iOS running app, track performance and compete with friends

35.  Toms  - buy-one-give-one pioneer – shoes and glasses

36.  Virgin Atlantic taxi2 – app links up people to share cab from an airport

37.  Nestlé – Devenir maman – pregnancy guide app

38.  Puma - clever little bag, replacing bulky shoe boxes with bags

39.  Mini – roadside assistance app for Mini owners

40.  Kodak share button – didn’t save it from bankruptcy, but Kodak's 'share button' cameras was smart.

41.  Charmin -Looking for public restrooms when you are out and about? Search, view, rate, and add bathrooms.   

42.  Johnson & Johnson - Bedtime baby sleep app.

  
[ via Digital Intelligence Today ]  

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Goodbuzz is a digital agency based in Toronto, Canada. We help brands create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace. We prototype the future - and believe the best way to predict it - is to create it.  Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or if you have any questions contact Goodbuzz directly.

 

Connect - Cultivate - Convert | A Model For The New Marketing Paradigm

Connect Cultivate Convert 

This deck reflects an attempt to present a simple to consume and communicate model of how to approach the complex new marketing environment. Of course many experienced marketers will know much of what is contained here, but they may not have a simple way to think about it holistically, or more importantly to communicate to those less sophisticated than themselves. With that in mind we offer up Connect, Cultivate and Convert, a model for the new marketing. 
 

Who is Goodbuzz?

FIGHTING FOR AUDIENCE PASSION AND LOYALTY IN A FRAGMENTED LANDSCAPE OF DISTRIBUTION OPTIONS. 

Goodbuzz Inc. is an independently owned advertising agency founded in 2008, with long-term business relationships based on exceeding our clients' expectations. Our focus has always been the work, the people who create it, and the people we create it for.
 

We are a community of artists, strategists and technologists, bound together in a quest to engage and inspire consumers.  After more than 20 years of entertainment marketing, we understand the power of story to influence and motivate consumers, and create an emotional connection between them and your brand.

Goodbuzz help brands create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace. We prototype the future and believe the best way to predict it is to create it. More on Goodbuzz and it's principles.

KRISPY KREME'S "DOUGHNUTS ARE BAD FOR YOU" AD

Copywriting is writing copy (text) for the purpose of advertising or marketing and is intended to influence beliefs.   Some of it is great, much of it meh.  When done properly it stimulates and stirs the emotions. In 1983 Ogilvy wrote, “I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.” It’s still true today. 

Every once in a while we stumble upon truly great copywriting.  Here is one such example from our friends at Krispy Kreme; a clear and calculated response to the widespread push-back on the dangers of eating unhealthy snacks like Donuts.

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Nike's Emotional Branding Wins Hearts

We are surrounded with so much information today it's a miracle that any messages break through, but Nike's strategy (via Wieden+Kennedy) of creating emotional, empowering ads and large viral pyramids that leverage the Nike brand and message content is one of the most effective emotional branding examples in the marketing world today. Their customer loyalty is astronomical, all thanks to the masterful application of emotional branding and the centuries-old storytelling archetype of Heroism. 

Nike Advertising and Emotional Branding

Nike's brand inspires fervent customer loyalty around the world.  This is primarily because Nike's advertising uses the emotional branding technique of archetypes in its advertising – more specifically, the story of the Hero. It’s an age old tale, a tale of a hero pitted against a great foe, and after a great struggle, emerging triumphant. 

Building Loyalty + The Hero Archetype

Nike's advertising isn’t the only group that uses the Hero archetype to inspire customer loyalty. Many other companies use this emotional branding technique to great effect. In most cases, the foe is external. The most common story of the hero is that of an underdog, a man of humble origins setting out to defeat a greater evil – one far more powerful than he – and, against all odds, emerging triumphant.  As long as there is a clearly identified enemy and a clearly identified hero, the emotional branding can begin. 

Brand Strategy

Nike's advertising takes the common hero story and turns it on its head. Instead of inspiring customer loyalty by singling out an external enemy, it pulls out the stops and focuses on an internal foe – our laziness. Nike knows just how often we battle with our lazy side. Every morning when that alarm goes off and it’s still totally dark outside, the battle begins. When we choose how long to run, the battle continues. This is how Nike's marketing uses emotional marketing to inspire customer loyalty. They know that while some people may identify with an external foe, all people identify with an internal one.

Nike's strategy resonates because laziness is a universal foe and someone we can all hate, the "consumer is the brand hero". In one way or another, we are all the hero of our own story.  Nike's marketing has long since identified that feeling – and used it to inspire timeless customer loyalty.  They succeed by showing people how to dream bigger and live better. Help them to care more, enable them to do great things and inspire them to be the hero of their story.  Just watch the video below...

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The Society of Digital Agencies Report | Volume 2_ 2013

The SoDA Report (Volume 2, 2013) from SoDA

May 2013 Social Media Report: Facebook Pages in Canada

Top 10 Ways To Improve Digital Experiences

Before jumping in with fixes, companies must determine the best opportunities
To find improvement opportunities that will have the biggest impact on the customer experience and business metrics, companies need to start their digital improvement projects by analyzing web and app analytics, operational data, and multiple forms of customer research.

Great digital experiences don’t happen By accident - They must Be actively designed
Firms need to take a rigorous approach to digital improvement projects. This
means learning -- and then sticking to -- a user-centered design process that includes research, analysis, ideation, prototyping, and testing. Digital teams that need help in this area can tap into a variety of external research and design agencies.

Digital experience improvement projects must support established Business objectives
To maximize digital budgets and ensure ongoing funding, companies need to deliver web, mobile, and tablet touch-points that align with core brand attributes and support business objectives such as cost savings, revenue generation, and loyalty building. Key to this work: creating a unified customer experience.

Relentlessly Relevant Brands And Building Positive Customer Sentiment

Coinciding with the release of Millward Brown's BrandZ Ranking of the “100 Most Valuable Global Brands”, Peter Walshe, Global BrandZ Director, explains why a ruthless attention to relevance will boost a brand's strength.

Brands that build positive customer sentiment by being 'meaningfully different' from the competition are able to capture five times more volume, command a 13% price premium, and are four times more likely to grow their value share than those that don't, according to research from Millward Brown.

Being meaningfully different is what gives a brand its relevance in the eyes of consumers. It involves delivering a brand promise that meets their expectations and needs, being unique in a positive way, and staying ahead of the curve in setting trends. Brands that can do this are more appealing, and generate the greatest contribution to driving current and future sales.

Such ruthless attention to becoming - and staying - relevant to consumers is evident in the results of some of the Most Valuable Global Brands in this year's BrandZ Top100 ranking.

Apple is still the number one brand, despite a big drop in share price and rumours that it isn't innovating fast enough, which slowed its value growth to 1%. Brand is Apple's secret weapon. It remains deeply relevant to its fan base, and the 'love' that this California-based technology giant generates keeps it in the top spot with a strong brand contribution.

Even when the financial performance of a company takes a deep dive, if it has, like Apple, a high brand contribution- the proportion of value generated by the brand's ability to create loyalty - the business can still boom. Based on the opinions of existing and potential customers, brand contribution is less volatile than investor sentiment: Apple's brand contribution, for example, is still 18% greater than that of its nearest rival in the smartphone market, Samsung, which grew its brand value by 51% on the previous year.

Luxury brands Gucci and Burberry also both showed an increase in brand contribution, having comprehensively met the needs of consumers who are ready to spend on luxuries again, but spend wisely by investing in classic pieces.

Gucci has revamped outlets to enhance the consumer experience, while, recognising that consumers are often researching online before they buy, also building a strong online presence. It also announced its first mobile app, further increasing the brand's accessibility. Gucci increased in value by 48%. Burberry excels at emphasising its heritage and developing compelling and authentic brand stories. It has also made a huge investment in building its brand over the last year, expanding into new products, categories and territories, and merging in-store and digital retail capabilities.

Strong, relevant brands also help companies bounce back from reputational damage. Toyota has overtaken BMW to become the world's most valuable car brand once again, increasing its value by 12%, after its brand helped it recover from a number of product recall crises. The Toyota brand is very clearly defined from a consumer perspective - people believe it offers them something that other car brands don't. It is incredibly trusted, and considered to provide excellent value. A positive consumer experience has built a core of loyal customers who recommend the brand to others; this is what helps brands maintain their strength in the face of adversity.

Brands need to continually renew themselves to remain in contention over a number of years. The enduring success of IBM, which is the most valuable B2B brand in the world, is testament to a leadership philosophy that has always been based on being meaningfully different. The brand has enjoyed many golden moments - from developing artificial intelligence in 1956, to creating the industry standard for personal computing in the eighties - but it has never stood still. It continually reinvents itself to stay relevant to the needs of the day, and its 'Smarter Planet' positioning is in perfect harmony with the spirit of the time. IBM achieved an 80% revenue increase in 2012 from its SmartCloud solution, which combines the trend for cloud computing with the need of its business clients to innovate as well as cut costs.

Google, which has leapfrogged IBM to become the second most valuable brand in the world across all categories, keeps diversifying its platforms - extending its brand into new services and products to increase its relevance to consumers. It has grown from just a search engine to become an integrated provider of news, social media (Google+) and communications (Gmail).

A deeply relevant brand is a strong brand - and a strong brand is a valuable asset to a business, as a source of sustainable competitive advantage and value growth. It's no coincidence that the brands which rose furthest up the BrandZ Top 100 ranking this year, including Prada (63% value increase), Zara (60%), Gucci (48%) and Amazon (34%), all scored higher than average on the attributes of 'meaningful' and 'different'. They all strive to understand consumers' needs, and constantly refocus and reinvent themselves to stay relevant and set themselves apart from the competition.

Article by Peter Walshe, Global BrandZ Director, Millward Brown
Access the full report here