Marketing Tip: Make Me Feel Unique
Up until 1995, I was an avid motorcyclist
Up until 1995, I was an avid motorcyclist. Why did I stop? Well, a little old lady pulled out in front of me and the collision that occurred resulted in disabilities that prevent me from continuing with that particular passion of mine. But we won't get into that.
My motorcycle was a 1985 Honda Interceptor 500. I had the oldest, smallest, slowest motorcycle in my area. But I also regularly got the looks from the girls (and drooling mouths from the guys) that the faster, newer bikes never got. Why?
First, my motorcycle had a V4 motor with a redline of 12,000 rpm. It made the sweetest sound that newer bikes, which all had inline fours, couldn't possibly hope to duplicate. I had custom pipes that brought out the sound of my V4. I also had custom fairings and a custom pearl-white paint job.
In other words, my motorcycle was the most unique. Nobody knew or cared that my bike was over 10 years old. Nobody knew or cared that my bike only had a 500cc motor in it. People only cared that I was the only person that had a bike like mine.
Despite the attention I got from guys and girls alike, I always dreamt about getting another motorcycle. It was the Bimota YB11. My "dream bike." What is a Bimota you ask? Chances are you've never heard of them. And that was exactly the reason why I wanted one! Bimota bikes are so rare (and expensive), very few people have ever heard of them.
In my mind, I could see myself riding around town on my new (and very fast) YB11. Everybody I drive past stops to look at a bike they had never seen the likes of before, and think to themselves, "That is one cool guy on that bike!"
Though I didn't know it then, I was attempting to fill one of the top dozen "needs" that cause people to spend money: I wanted to be different and unique.
Everybody wants to be different, to stand out from the rest. Strangely, hot trends come along that everybody jumps on to, thus making everybody who thinks they are being different actually be the same.
But ask somebody who thinks they are being "different" and "individual" if they care that there are millions of others being "different" and "individual" in the exact same way. Most don't care. Some genius marketer somewhere told that person, indirectly through genius marketing, that by purchasing and using a specific product it would somehow make them unique and set them apart from everybody else.
Take a look at your product and/or service. In what way can it help your potential customers become more unique and have a greater sense of individuality?
Don't get extreme. If you're selling a baseball bat, you don't want to say that you can become more unique by being the only person in your town to beat people up with a bat. On the other hand, if your bat has some new technology that other bats don't, no matter how minor the technology may seem, let people know about it!
Good marketers will highlight things about their product, even if every other similar product on the planet has the same features, whether good or bad. And even if that feature isn't unique, they will make people think that it is. And in reality, there is no "bad" feature. Everything is good under appropriate situations.
For example, I was watching an ad for a new car. At the end they said that it has a 2.0 liter engine, and they implied that this great 2.0 liter engine will allow you to quickly speed away from undesirable locations.
Well, if you know anything about cars, you know that a 2.0 liter engine is going to be weak, give you poor acceleration, and little torque. Yet the car manufacturer's marketing guys sure made it sound as if having a 2.0 liter engine was the greatest thing in the world!
While I was at home laughing at the idea that having a 2.0 liter engine was somehow good (I'm a power junkie, so two-liter engines don't interest me in the slightest), I knew that there were thousands of others that had the idea implanted into their minds that if they were going to buy a new car, it must have a 2.0 liter engine in it. And which car has this highly coveted 2.0 liter engine in it?
You get the idea.
by: Stu Wiseman
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