Sitting across from a board of directors recently, my firm were recently contracted to design and manage the PR for a new product.

The brief was, in 4 words: “Make people Need It”

How do we make people NEED our products or our services?

It’s often simply about understanding the customers Emotion, Inspiration & Aspirations.

When we understand what it is that our product represents – more than the product itself but the concepts, idealisms and values behind it, we are well on our way to a successful launch. By tapping into the aspirations of our customers – and meeting them in this place of inspiration and positive emotion – we are in a better position to showcase our product or service as being helpful in achieving these dreams or as a platform from which to realise a better lifestyle or a better quality of life.

Ask yourself ‘what inspires you about your business? About your product or service? What is your product or service synonymous with? More than the physical product or service, what feelings accompany the purchase or use of your product or service? What are people trying to achieve through your product or service?’

Often consumer choice is driven by subconscious motives. Trying to gain an understanding of how you can position your product or service to tap into these subconscious needs or aspirations is the first step in getting your marketing and PR strategy right.

Your sunglasses range may inspire ‘glamour’, your health treatments may inspire ‘energy and wellness’, pharmaceuticals may inspire ‘comfort’, a shopping centre may inspire ‘escapism to an alternate (and better!) reality’. Swimwear often inspires ‘excess’ and a home loans may inspire ‘pride’ or ‘security’.

By tapping into these emotions – the inspiration behind a purchase –and how you want your product or service to make your customer FEEL, you are well on your way to developing clever marketing strategy that taps into this subconscious stream of Aspiration and Need – and lines up your product or service with the goals of the customer.

Selling is easy when we are being sold a solution, a necessary purchase that moves us closer to our IDEAL.

We’re all looking for ways to market our product or service with ‘allure’ and ‘competitive edge’, searching for original ways to incentivise in order to drive traffic and sales.

While incentivising and value-adding is one of the oldest tricks in the book, doing it well is a lot more complex.

Understanding your brands market position, reputation and customer perception – is key to deciding how and when to incentivise.

Clever Marketing Strategy Understand your Brands Integrity – and works to find ways to incentivise and drive new business while keeping your brands reputation and positive perception intact.

To decide if, how and when to Incentivise, consider these 3 factors:

1. Understand your Brands market position and its public perception. If your product’s appeal is price based – if your customers are coming to you for the ‘best price’, then yes – a discount or value add can work well.
2. Be aware of the ramifications of discounting and value adding. Does it matter if you won’t be able to reinstate your original product pricing? Often the integrity of the full price offering is lost once it has been discounted. Perhaps you are prepared to continue the discount structure through a membership or loyalty program, in which case – go for it! If you need to maintain the integrity of the full price value – try value adding – offer an add-on, but never discount the original product.
3. Keep your view Long Term. Impulsive discounting or value adding to make a quick buck or launch a product is often unwise and difficult to recover from – from a branding and customer-perception perspective. By considering your brands positioning, what values (eg. Quality, Exclusivity, Value) are associated with your product or service and what your client really wants out of your product or service, can help you to decide the best way to incentivise.

What makes for success?

Hard Work, yes. Vision, yes. Passion, yes.

But there is something else, something that we don’t always realise is an integral part of what makes for successful people and successful organisations.

It’s Vulnerability and Resilience.

Beginning a new venture and taking risks exposes us to rejection and failure. By owning our vulnerability, we are able to clearly see the risks before us and understand that success is not guaranteed, but to have the inner strength, or resilience, to take the jump anyway.

Resilience is characterised by a knowledge that failing at one thing is not the end of the world. Resilience is knowing that one knock back is simply just that – and that the next attempt, and the next, offer a new chance at success. Resilient people understand that failing at something will just mean having to get up and try again.

To achieve success, we need to develop a thick skin and a stomach for rejection.

To achieve success, we need to develop a thick skin and a stomach for rejection. Harnessing on self-belief rather than ego is key. Worrying about what others will think if we fall flat on our faces, if others will mock our efforts or try to discourage us – this is not our problem.

With blinkers on we need to soldier though, keeping our eye firmly on our vision, open to the possibility of rejection, but always maintaining self-belief and the motivation to try again, try harder, try smarter.

Go for Gold!