By Chuck Moxley, Vice President of Marketing, Varsity Gold
In this article, you will learn:
1. How to create meaningful marketing messages that differentiate your product or service; and
2. How to make sure your message comes through in everything you do.
Have you noticed recently that most hotels provide an assortment of pillows on the bed? If you’ve stayed at a Hampton Inn, you may be more aware of it than most.
Why? Because Hampton Inn doesn’t believe in just providing value, they go to great lengths to make sure guests know it. They’ve sprinkled ads throughout guest rooms—in the form of little message placards—pointing out the value they deliver.
You’ll find two small ads heralding both hard and soft pillows. On the lapdesk provided on each bed, an ad not only points out how easy they’ve made it to work in bed but that free high-speed wireless Internet is provided. Hampton has even turned the industry-standard sign noting they have abandoned daily linen changes to protect the environment into an ad, by also pointing out the luxury bedding on the new Hampton Bed.
Hampton has done a brilliant job of merchandising its value, helping guests appreciate all of the delightful reasons to stay at their hotels. Do other hotels offer hard and soft pillows? Free wireless Internet? Hasn’t every hotel introduced plush bedding? Absolutely. But few hotels effectively merchandise those costly investments, missing the chance to help guests quantify the value of staying with them. Not even Hampton cousins Hilton Garden Inns or Embassy Suites do it!
What about your customers? Could they cite four or five things you do that delights them? In recent training of our national field salesforce, we asked more than 150 sales reps to write down three of four things they do that provide value to their customers. Astonishingly, few could think of even one specific, quantifiable way they deliver value! If our salespeople can’t cite the specific value we provide, how can we expect our customers to?
In competitive markets where products are viewed as undifferentiated commodities (which is most markets these days), failing to properly articulate your value is risky. In the absence of any perceived difference in value, what criteria will customers use to compare offerings? Price. Unless you are the low-priced industry leader, you’d better be sure your customers can clearly articulate distinct value in doing business with you, or you’ll soon find your margins squeezed by customers focused more on price than value.
How do you effectively merchandise your value? Follow these steps:
Quantify the Value You Provide. Identify the specific ways in which your company or service provides value to your customers. Do you make it easy to get information or help, such as an Intranet service portal? Do you offer performance or quality guarantees? Do you employ special service methodologies or manufacturing processes that deliver better quality or more value? Will you customize orders or provide value-added services?
I once consulted with a granite fabricator facing stiff competition and pricing pressure. While touring his fabrication plant, the owner casually pointed out some unique processes that competitors don’t do because they take more effort—such as placing seams of adjoining stone pieces at sinks where they are less noticeable. We ultimately identified 11 specific, unique processes (or value points) we could merchandise.
What if your value isn’t unique to your industry? It doesn’t matter as long as your customers value it as much or more than a low price. Most hotels offer multiple pillows and nice sheets. But the mere fact that Hampton points it out differentiates them and ensures guests value them for reasons beyond price.
Never Miss an Opportunity to Toot Your Horn. Once you articulate your value points, be sure to point them out every chance you get. Include them in proposals, invoices/bills, signage in your stores, Web sites and marketing materials, on-hold messages—anywhere a customer or prospect will notice it. Train your salespeople to easily cite the five or seven specific ways you provide value. With the granite fabricator, we placed signage in the showroom and huge banners in the fabrication plant. We created sales presentations and trained their sales reps to provide a plant tour around the 11 value points. And we ensured proposals clearly articulated them.
Look for New Ways to Add Value. Don’t rest on your laurels. Ask customers what additional value they want. You might find there are a few simple things that add distinct value but aren’t costly or hard to do. They’ll give you new value points to differentiate your product or service.
Remember, it’s not enough to provide value; you have to promote your value to build loyal customers who can justify the value you provide when competitors come calling. It’s working for Hampton, and it can work for you, protecting your margins amid stiff competition.
Chuck Moxley is currently Vice President of Marketing for Varsity Gold, Inc., one of the nation’s largest fundraising companies. Chuck has developed marketing, advertising and sales strategies for numerous brands including Lee Jeans, Sears, Sprint, CITGO, Chick-fil-A, Scientific-Atlanta, Whitehall Jewelers and many others.
© 2008 The 60 Second Marketer
