I read the book, Zag, by Marty Neumeier today. It’s a short one, but it reinforced many views I hold around positioning and differentiation.
His main point was that we should seek to be radically different than our competition to the point of being the only one of your kind in your market.
One of the other things that caught my attention was this quote:
“A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.“
I tend to skew fairly logical in my approach to things. And yet, I also know that we buy and behave based on how we feel.
It reminded me that our job as marketers is to create a feeling—not try to win by logic.
It’s how people feel that becomes our brand, not the positioning and messaging we put around us.
When we optimize for making people feel a certain way with our words and behaviour, we end up producing a brand that commands a premium, creates loyalty, and makes the alternatives seem like knock-offs by comparison.
So, in case you needed it, this is your gentle reminder to focus on creating a feeling in everything you do.
Create content that speaks to the heart instead of the head. Write copy that feels personal. Take a tone of encouragement and try to inspire people with your marketing style.
The brand stuff will follow as just one of many benefits. It also just feels better to do marketing this way, too.