You just made the best widget the world has ever seen. It’s unique, different and it’s going to be talked about by everyone as soon as you have it out there in the market. So you go ahead and set it up, but it doesn’t sell and no-one’s ever heard of it. Then along comes someone with an inferior product, for twice the price, yet the name is everywhere and everyone knows about it, then you ask yourself What did I do wrong? The simplest answer is in your brand marketing.
Many time’s we’ve all had a good belly laugh at those As Seen on T.V. products, yet there’s not many people that have no idea what a Snuggie is, or what the Sham-Wow is, or the …. that list goes on and on. For these items, it’s all about branding the product, and then marketing it to an audience that will respond in kind by buying it, no matter how weird or ridiculous it may seem to the rest of us. Brand marketing is what drives sales of those products, and it works. Would our intrepid widget maker have sold more if we had Vince from Sham-Wow selling it? Probably, almost certainly he would have. So this begs the question is it the product or the person selling it?
It’s really the brand marketing for the product itself that sold it. If someone hadn’t recognized the fact that a Snuggie would sell best from a TV ad rather than being piled onto department store shelves and waiting for consumers to purchase it, the sales of it would be a lot different.
But it’s not just cheap and odd that benefit from brand marketing.
Without brand marketing Sony would be just another electronics manufacturer, and IBM would be out of business long ago, but the branding Sony created to market itself with was quality, and that’s what most people think when they see a Sony product. IBM speaks solidity, and a company like eMachines says simple, easy and cheap. So in essence the whole idea of brand marketing is one of position and perception – how you want people to see your product and where you want your product to appear in comparison to any competitors that your product may have. Our widget maker may have more success with something branded, but it needs to speak to the market segment it’s aimed at, like every other successful product out there.
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