Differentiate or Die
A few years back, Differentiate or Die was the title of Jack Trout’s followup book to the seminal Positioning. The idea of differentiating a product – whether B2B or B2C – is directly related to positioning and is more important than ever given the growing number of advertising messages we’re all exposed to on a daily basis. The noise louder than ever. That means, differentiating your company, product or service is more important than ever.
In Panama, the differentiation idea could be applied to the marketing of the new apartment buildings.
The buildings are currently marketed as follows: Billboard signs in front of the buildings themselves and ads in the newspapers and the real estate-centric magazines. The ads feature a color picture of the building’s exterior along with its name (90% of the time, the name is in English), a web site address, a phone number and the builder’s logo. Occasionally, the ad will include a map, brag about the interior finishes, or provide information on financing. The ads themselves are interchangeable and generic. Here’s some example web sites:
As I shopped for an apartment, the only differentiators I saw in the ads were location and, very occasionally, price.
But this type of generic, non-differentiating advertising is not confined to the marketing of apartment buildings in Panama. Pick up any trade magazine and you’ll see the same thing. Companies and products advertised with a picture, a few features (rarely benefits), a logo and a web address. I see it in every life sciences, medical device trade; in the advertising, interactive and public relations agency rags; and, in most consumer advertising.
Few companies take the simple steps necessary to differentiate.
If I were marketing one of these towers, here’s what I would do. First, I scrap the exterior picture. Who cares what the outside of the building looks like? You live inside. If anything, I’d show the interior, and depending on my target demographic, show the kitchen, bedroom or social area.
Second, I’d write an ALL TEXT* ad focused on exclusivity. Again, depending on the demographic and the location. If I were focusing on working families, for example, I might test a headline like: IF YOU’RE A WORKING PROFESSIONAL WITH CHILDREN, BALBOA TOWER IS THE ONLY PANAMA CITY TOWER WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE OF PANAMA’S BEST SCHOOLS. I’d focus the ad on the benefits of living at Balboa Tower – proximity to schools, shopping and family-related services, etc.
(*Why all text? After looking at picture after picture of Towers, they all started to look the same and my eyes started to glaze over. An all text ad would catch my attention immediately.)
Third, I’d make sure the ad was meant to elicit a response with urgency. Maybe I’d play up how few apartments in the building were left (a tactic I see used occasionally). But I would definitely offer visitors a recorded phone message or a free gift available only when you visit.
Finally, I’d leverage the Internet much more effectively. The bulk of the building-related web sites I looked at were nothing more than online brochures. I’d offer an ebook targeted to my demographic with sign-up and a free gift upon visiting the model apartment.
It seems lot, but it really boils down to a direct application of “differentiate or die” to stand out from the clutter.
