What’s In It For Me?

Most days, I walk past a deli that has this sign in the window: “Make it a meal, Add a Pepsi.”

The sign could have just said: “Pepsi.” That kind of sign generates awareness of the brand in general and would have brought Pepsi to the top of our minds at just the right moment to drive a purchase. The problem is, it’s pretty easy for Coke and Snapple and anyone else to put up a similar sign right next to that one, and suddenly they’ve cancelled each other out. 

Or the sign could have said something about Pepsi’s features – smaller bubbles, better ingredients, or whatnot. Consumer electronics brands often communicate this way – smartphones talk about megapixels and processors, light bulbs talk about watts and lumens. It sounds hi-tech, but we don’t really understand what it means... and we probably don’t care.

The most sophisticated marketers – like Pepsi – know that we need help envisioning what role a product will play in our lives, the benefit we will get from it. So they tell us what we will get out of buying that Pepsi: if we add it to the food we’re buying, we’ll feel like we’re getting a meal, not just some food or a snack. It will elevate our experience and enhance our satisfaction.
 
Positioning is the art of communicating your unique value in the world. What do you do? What need do you fill? Why do you do it uniquely different or better than anyone else? Why should I believe you? And most importantly, what’s in it for me?  Benefits-based positioning is the art of creating a narrative for your audience – one that allows them to see themselves in the story. Add a Pepsi, make it a meal: I can picture myself doing that. I understand the role Pepsi has in my lunch and in my day. I know what’s in it for me. And now I want it.

Creating a benefits-based positioning is one of the ways to make a good brand better. If you’d like to learn more, drop me a line.