After watching the twelve days of cookies on Twin Cities Live sponsored by Land O Lakes butter, I wondered why the company doesn’t differentiate its product. I saw a picture of the product on the TV screen but nothing to tell the customer why to buy it instead of other butter. Land O Lakes butter must be have a unique selling proposition. It must be different in some way from its competition.
Thinking the company must have differentiated its product somewhere, I found the Land O Lakes Web site and clicked on the butter description. Here is what I found for the salted butter. “Land O Lakes salted butter is the all-purpose butter that is great for every use, everyday. Use it for cooking, baking, spreading, or topping.” The unsalted version had a similar description with comment on controlling the salt content and flavor of the foods.
How do those descriptions differentiate Land O Lakes butter? They don’t.
Mulling this over, I came to the conclusion that Land O Lakes sees its products as pure commodities that do not differ from their competition. Their marketing objective is to have the Land O Lakes name in front of consumers so much that consumers will be more likely to buy it than the competition. However, Land O Lakes butter is the highest-priced butter in the store, generally 50% more than its competition. Without a defining difference in customers’ minds that makes it worth more, customers likely will not pay more for it at the store. They will buy a cheaper butter.
That’s the problem with management viewing a product or service as a commodity. Since management doesn’t differentiate the product or service in their minds, they don’t do so in customers’ minds, either. The lack of a differentiation leaves the product or service as a commodity and subject to selection by customers based on price alone. Why bother to spend money advertising a commodity, especially one that doesn‘t compete on price?
A couple days later, I noticed a new commercial for Fruit of the Loom. We could easily consider underwear to be a commodity, too, just like butter. However, Fruit of the Loom management does not allow its product to have commodity status. In the past Fruit has differentiated its products through innovative changes. From boxer briefs with no-ride-up-legs to softer panties to a better fitting tee, Fruit of the Loom management is constantly differentiating it products. Fruit’s new differentiation was that its underwear is now tagless. The lack of scratchy tags makes Fruit of the Loom underwear more comfortable for customers.
This comfort is so important to its customers that the company brought back Michael Jordan to be in the commercial announcing the change. The commercial opens on an office worker in discomfort from a scratchy tag. Michael Jordan appears, has the guy take the tag from his underwear, and hand it to Jordan. Michael promptly tosses the tag into the paper shredder, telling the guy “No more tags.”
Paying Michael as a spokesperson and running these ads was worth it for Fruit of the Loom because the ads communicated a differentiation and a reason for customers to buy.
Take a look at your advertising. Are you differentiating your products and services? Are you giving customers a reason to buy them instead of your competition’s?
This week's marketing trivia challenge is What differentiation of a product or service have you noticed? E-mail me your answer.
Thinking the company must have differentiated its product somewhere, I found the Land O Lakes Web site and clicked on the butter description. Here is what I found for the salted butter. “Land O Lakes salted butter is the all-purpose butter that is great for every use, everyday. Use it for cooking, baking, spreading, or topping.” The unsalted version had a similar description with comment on controlling the salt content and flavor of the foods.
How do those descriptions differentiate Land O Lakes butter? They don’t.
Mulling this over, I came to the conclusion that Land O Lakes sees its products as pure commodities that do not differ from their competition. Their marketing objective is to have the Land O Lakes name in front of consumers so much that consumers will be more likely to buy it than the competition. However, Land O Lakes butter is the highest-priced butter in the store, generally 50% more than its competition. Without a defining difference in customers’ minds that makes it worth more, customers likely will not pay more for it at the store. They will buy a cheaper butter.
That’s the problem with management viewing a product or service as a commodity. Since management doesn’t differentiate the product or service in their minds, they don’t do so in customers’ minds, either. The lack of a differentiation leaves the product or service as a commodity and subject to selection by customers based on price alone. Why bother to spend money advertising a commodity, especially one that doesn‘t compete on price?
A couple days later, I noticed a new commercial for Fruit of the Loom. We could easily consider underwear to be a commodity, too, just like butter. However, Fruit of the Loom management does not allow its product to have commodity status. In the past Fruit has differentiated its products through innovative changes. From boxer briefs with no-ride-up-legs to softer panties to a better fitting tee, Fruit of the Loom management is constantly differentiating it products. Fruit’s new differentiation was that its underwear is now tagless. The lack of scratchy tags makes Fruit of the Loom underwear more comfortable for customers.
This comfort is so important to its customers that the company brought back Michael Jordan to be in the commercial announcing the change. The commercial opens on an office worker in discomfort from a scratchy tag. Michael Jordan appears, has the guy take the tag from his underwear, and hand it to Jordan. Michael promptly tosses the tag into the paper shredder, telling the guy “No more tags.”
Paying Michael as a spokesperson and running these ads was worth it for Fruit of the Loom because the ads communicated a differentiation and a reason for customers to buy.
Take a look at your advertising. Are you differentiating your products and services? Are you giving customers a reason to buy them instead of your competition’s?
This week's marketing trivia challenge is What differentiation of a product or service have you noticed? E-mail me your answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment