I recently saw an eye-opening slide during a webinar on marketing. Around 40 photos of smiling, laughing, and generally happy children, adults, and families were arranged in a grid pattern. The next slide showed the names of the companies who used those images in their advertising. I was naively thinking those images belonged to car companies, Disney, theme parks, hotels, tourism offices, and the like. Nope, most were associated with huge multinational companies that you would never associate with laughing, let alone children.
With so much advertising, messages, and branding competing for our attention, why are companies so afraid of being different?
Check out websites for banks. They all look the same, totally cluttered with much too much information on checking, savings, and money market accounts.
Ask a friend to blindfold you and walk you into the lobby of a big hotel chain. Take off the blindfold. Any idea which hotel you’re now standing in?
Visit the local mall next time you’re traveling. Ten bucks it looks almost exactly like the one back home, even if you’re in a totally different part of the country.
These situations can be applied to most industries, from airlines to grocery stores to jewelers. There are exceptions, of course, and not off-the-wall, only-in-big-cities exceptions. You’ve got:
- Jet Blue with their great snacks, cheerful employees, and satellite TV. We haven’t flown them in a couple of years, but both of my young children remember Jet Blue.
- Whole Foods with their commitment to local, organic, and sustainable foods, excellent customer service, and décor that is not inspired by a prison.
- Tiffany & Co, with their employees who are discreet, elegant, and gracious. Even as a young twenty-something, I was treated like a queen when browsing.
- Houston’s Galleria mall, with an indoor, year-round ice skating rink and plethora of upscale shops. Awesome people watching, too.
- Kimpton Hotels with their funky décor, complimentary happy hours, and intimacy a 500 room hotel could never match.
- ING Bank with its scrolling, interactive navigation bar that pulls you in and dares to make banking exciting.
Take a look at what your competitors are doing and figure out how you can distinguish yourself from them. You don’t have to do anything weird, just do something different: a light-hearted blog, contests, offers exclusively via Twitter, scrolling photos on your website, video testimonials from customers, bold colors and graphics, marketing that shuns all hackneyed business terms.
It’s not that hard, but so few companies are willing to go that extra mile. They all end up as paint-by-numbers, cookie cutter companies, and the customer is left choosing the lesser of the evils, the one that’s more convenient, the one that’s cheapest. Is that any way to win customers, inspire loyalty, or generate leads?
Google+Web.com is now offering forums designed to support small businesses in cities throughout the US. Learn more about these forums here: http://Businessforum.web.com/
Tags: advertising, Branding, Customer Service, Marketing
Posted in Marketing | 4 Comments »
