Don’t let your claims get caught in the ‘So what’ trap.

The claims you make about your product or service are so important. Whether you are writing an ad, or a post, making presentations, video or creating an elevator pitch – there is one golden rule. Steer clear of making a statement to which your customer can think, ‘So what?’

Generally this happens when you’re busy talking about yourself or your business. You are rightfully proud of your history, what you have achieved, and probably of some clever developments. But, although your customers may listen politely they are truly only interested in what you can do for them. That’s where the acid test – the ‘so what‘ test comes in.

Check your pitch, your claims and statements critically – and if you are not making really clear the undeniable benefits you offer, perhaps you are falling into the trap.

And this applies to more than words – check images too. Businesses often show pictures of their factory, or packing line – or perhaps some component normally hidden deep in their product – they are proud of these images – but do they directly contribute to the benefit as the customer sees it?

It’s not just about money

It’s true, that the benefits of doing business with you are commonly to do with making income or saving costs, but those are not the only ones. People make choices for less obvious reasons, such as lifestyle, identifying with or conforming to groups, creating a sense of identity, environmental or political stances. These are emotional benefits and can be very powerful, but often the claims need to be more implicit than explicit. You need to ensure they align with the customers’ needs – not yours.  So apply the ‘So what?’ test when reviewing your claims to steer clear of this common trap.

Turn ‘so what?’ into ‘tell me more!‘

Of course quality is vital in terms of what you do and how you do it.
But as a differentiator, as part of your brand proposition, it’s nowhere near as exciting as you think.

I’ve been running workshops with a roomful of bright business people, and asked them to create a quick proposition. What makes their business special?
Invariably one of the first answers will be ‘Quality’. ‘We provide a quality product or service’.
At that point I’d usually ask the room, ‘Is there anybody here who doesn’t provide a quality product or service?’
Of course not. And I’m sure they all have excellent quality.

The point is, it’s not ‘special’. It’s a claim anybody and everybody can make – and does make.
It’s one of those things we call, ‘a critical success factor’. If you haven’t got it, sooner or later you
won’t be in the game.

When you work on your brand proposition, it’s important to critically identify what it is that makes your business special and different. Something you can claim that others cannot. And frankly, the quality claim doesn’t make an impact when everybody else is shouting it.

Traps to avoid with your new brand name.

Most startups spend way too much time and energy worrying about their brand name.

Just take a look at the names of some of our leading brands and you’ll see that they are not significant in themselves.  Their importance lies in what they stand for in terms of the businesses and what they do. For example Apple has nothing to do with apples, and hardly anybody knows what a Google is. But we all associate the business with the name.

Each of us has a given name, usually not of our own choosing. But soon your name takes on the values you as a person create. ‘You’ are what the name stands for.

So, the sound approach is to come up with a name you’re happy with, and then get on with building your business. That’s where the brand’s value will ultimately lie.

We’ve said the name you choose may not be as important as you may think, however, there are some considerations you should bear in mind.

Should I use my own name?

If your business is personality centred – perhaps you are a photographer, fashion designer or musician, – then there may well be some value in it. However, mixing your personal brand with your business can have downsides.

For example, you may want to sell your business in the future.  That could create issues for both you and a buyer.

You may want to diversify personally, or there is always the possibility of business failure. Should the worst happen, do you want your personal name to be damaged?  The reverse situation may be equally bad – remember Ratners?

Is it a good idea to put what my business does in the brand name?

Can be a great help for a startup, but generally not in the brand name. ‘Acme Plasterers’ may be a great name to begin. But what happens when you grow and perhaps diversify into wider building services?

The place for a descriptive title is in the strap-line. For example: ‘Acme” ‘Masters in plaster’. You can change the strap-line as the business changes – but the brand name remains constant.

Should I include our location in the title?

As with the example above, it’s not generally a good idea. ‘Leeds Accountancy Services’ may be great – until opportunities arise to open a branch in Manchester or Liverpool.

However, there may be situations where you really want to focus upon a local market. You may have sound cultural or geographic reasons – but it needs careful thought.

There can be a case where there is credibility and kudos associated with a region, town or country. Stoke pottery, Swiss watches, Italian pasta, Lake District outdoors. Again, give it some thought.

Is it important to register the name?

Yes. As a start, doing a search should throw up any potential problems. (Search here) You can register names and trademarks inexpensively. They’re usually registered by sector. So, the name you want may be registered for say ‘clothing’, but not ‘business services’.

It’s true many small businesses don’t register. However, I know of one small business who had been in business for three years before they were approached by lawyers for a company who had registered their trading name.

They had to change everything, stationery, signage, website, all their advertising collateral.

What about trading internationally?

Like it or not we’re in a global market – the internet and ecommerce exposes us to potential worldwide customers.

Check your desired name against foreign languages – marketing literature is peppered with some awful gaffs. It’s fairly easy to check online. But if you are targeting a particular market, run your name by a native speaker. Colloquialisms, slang and offensive terms don’t necessarily show in online dictionaries.

Is digital an important consideration?

Digital is not something special. It’s an integral part of brand communications.  Where search (SEO) is concerned, the web is still a text-based medium so words count.  

Checking domain names is important – and don’t forget to consider the Tlds, especially if you plan to trade overseas. Adding an extension to your brand name can have undesirable consequences.

Think visually too. Phone screens are small. Social media profile images are usually square. They are just not friendly to long words – short names have power and impact.

 

Do foreign sounding words help or hinder?

It can help – Italian sounding names for fashion, or cycling – German-style names for engineering.

Be careful though. It’s easy to sound artificial or pretentious. You may think it sounds exotic to name your men’s clothing range – ‘Enrico Roma’, but simple Paul Smith had no problems. As we said at the start, what you do is far more important than what you are called.

 

Customers don’t care about your business – all they’re interested in is what it can do for them.

You may be justifiably proud of a new product feature you’ve sweated over. That new system you’ve designed may seem really cool to you. But all the client wants to know is ‘What’s in it for me?’

It’s the old story of features against benefits. You create the features – clients only interests are the benefits those features provide.

 

So how do you make this work for you?

Get into a customer mindset.

For every touchpoint in the customer’s journey, look at it from their viewpoint. Think like a customer, ask; ‘How will it help me?’ Whether it’s an elevator pitch, a piece of literature, website claim or blog post. Focus on benefit, benefit, benefit.

This is nothing new – but it is one of the most powerul concepts in marketing communications.

 

Employ a devil’s advocate.

Ask a friend, adviser, or disinterested colleague to challenge all your feature claims with two words; ‘So what?’

Show them your post or text. Tell them about your wonderful new ‘double-kerfuffling valve” or your ‘maxiplan75 system’ – and if they can answer; ‘So what?’  Then you need to think again.

Features are not bad. Far from it, they are essential – it’s just that what interests users are benefits.

Understand why it seems nobody’s interested, and switch them on with awesome compelling benefits.

Show, cost or time saving, life enhancement, ease, excitement, fun, health promotion, wellbeing or wealth.

People buy benefits!