Remember the phrase “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP)? It seems so quaint and old-fashioned now.
Personally, I always quite liked the simplicity and honesty of it. People or companies created or produced something that was somehow different to other (even similar) products or services, and the basic role of marketing was to tell people what made it different and useful. Engagingly, of course, but honestly.
Problem was/is, not all products or services are really very unique. I love this quote from Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia:
When I die and go to hell, the devil is going to make me the marketing director for a cola company. I’ll be in charge of trying to sell a product that no one needs, is identical to its competition, and can’t be sold on its merits.
He goes on to say that he’d “rather design and sell products so good and unique that they have no competition” (as he pretty much has).
So what do you do when you have a product that can’t be sold on its merits? You have to resort entirely to what someone termed ESP – “Emotional Selling Proposition.” At its most extreme ESP was seen in the big budget tobacco advertising that was so ubiquitous in the 80s, but you still see it every day in marketing for alcoholic and soft drinks, financial institutions, fashion and most other industries. The emotional selling that really happens is manipulation. This kind of storytelling is worse than fiction. It’s bullshit. Sadly, we humans are stupid enough to fall for it.
Of course, appealing to emotion is important, and powerful. But if it’s all you’re doing in your marketing, and you’re doing it because you have nothing better to say, then it’s marketing at its worst and most dubious.
This need to differentiate is also at the heart of “positioning” – which is, literally, where your brand, product or service is “positioned” in relation to competitors. Mass market vs premium. Affordable vs expensive. Expendable vs quality. Speed vs reliability. Form vs function. Young vs old.
To position their brands, marketers look at the “competitive landscape” to see where it’s least crowded and where there are gaps. Then they try to take a gap (or else to muscle their way into territory where other brands already are). This is how many marketing campaigns as well as products and services are conceived and created. It makes some business sense (until you’re the one getting muscled out), but its starting point is purely business and purely profit.
There is a different starting point, which is for businesses to ask why they got into business in the first place. Why do we exist? Who are we? What do we stand for? What difference do we want to make in the world?
Here, the starting point is your purpose. And your purpose informs everything from product development to marketing. Your storytelling is about who you are as a company, what you believe in, and how you see your place in the world. When you launch a new product or service, the storytelling is about how it is helping to fulfil your purpose.
You don’t need (or want) a gimmicky new marketing idea every year, because there is authenticity and honesty built into your products and your entire business. Which is why, when Patagonia ran a print ad imploring people: “don’t buy this jacket”, it wasn’t a gimmick. The company believes that you should wear your clothing for as long as possible and repair before replacing, because that minimises our use of natural resources, which will contribute to their mission to “cause no unnecessary harm” and “implement solutions to the environmental crisis”. The other part of their mission is to “build the best product”, and if you did buy the jacket that was being advertised, it would last you a very long time, perhaps a lifetime. (They recently simplified and focused their mission: “to save our home planet”.)
In businesses that have a genuine purpose, the preoccupation with what makes you different is somewhat irrelevant. In purpose-driven businesses, the leaders are quite aware that their purpose may not be unique, but they’re not bothered by it, because there are more important, authentic and enduring qualities for them to build their businesses and marketing on.
When you start with purpose, your positioning isn’t defined by where you are in relation to others, or by what you are not. Purposeis your positioning.