MISTAKE #24: You fail to demonstrate the product’s benefit
How often does your product deliver on its promise? Or does your competition do a far better job of delivering the exact same benefit for their product?
Let’s pretend you wanted to launch a product in the highly competitive cosmetics category. Specifically, you wanted to launch new items in the coverage and concealer category.
This category has been around for a long, long time. There have been a lot of premium niche brands. And there are a few powerhouse brands that dominate the category.
Another me-too product isn’t going to make any waves or be viewed as big news.
A new product would need to demonstrate a compelling new feature or benefit to even get noticed.
So how would you try to get noticed?
Dermablend was faced with this challenge and addressed it in a pretty memorable way.
Just take three minutes to watch.
What did you think?
This is a great example of creating content to demonstrate a product benefit in a convincing and memorable way. Do you think anyone that watched the video had any questions remaining about how good the coverage was?
Do you think the use of the most tattooed man in the world created the right amount of juxtaposition and shock value to capture attention, but not actually turn people off?
As important, how many sent a link to get their friends to watch the same video? That is how I discovered it.
TELL YOUR STORY WITH A NEW VOICE
Many categories are similar to cosmetics in the narrow variation in marketing messages they use. Maybe these models are a little younger and those models are a little older. Maybe this brand uses famous models and that brand uses the girl next door.
But the close-ups, the slow motion, and the positioning of the cosmetics as an artist’s medium make it easy to confuse brands.
Consider how your product could put a new twist on communicating a common feature or benefit. Consider exploring the opposite of what every other brand in the category is doing. I'm pretty sure a cosmetic brand using a heavily tattooed, angry-looking male qualifies as doing the opposite of what would be expected.
So it worked for Dermablend.
Axe and Old Spice used it to reinvigorate male body wash and fight for market share.
And the entire insurance industry has embraced being quirky and different with their advertising featuring everything from cavemen to ducks to university professors to Flo.
If you don't think it could work for your category, I accept the challenge of proving you wrong.