If you want your business to stand out from the crowd, take some time to decide why you are special, and tell the story... your 'Magic Story'.
Many businesses have been very successful at marketing their products and services by being able to clearly explain what is ‘special’ about their particular offering. This one of the marketing skills that will be of great benefit to your company.
Your first reaction may well be along the lines of “we’re in a very competitive market, and most of our competitors are producing and delivering their offering in the same way – how can we come up with a ‘special’ story?”
But if you look around, you can see many examples of how companies have managed to do this. For example, Jack Daniels has built an entire market position by continually communicating their ‘story’. Specifically they describe how the way in which they take care of their drink during production makes it both unique and highly desirable.
Another example is Innocent Drinks. They have consistently communicated a fun, slightly quirky story to set themselves apart from the other more ‘normal’ drinks producers.
Very often the ‘magic story’ that a company could talk about is there but is hidden from general view, and it needs some marketing skills to bring it out into the open. I heard a story a few years ago, when photo film processing was still a big business. It’s about a company in Australia that wanted to increase its market share. There was stiff competition, and much of this was based simply on price.
This company realised that in fact it already had a ‘magic story’ – but that it was hidden from its customers. They operated very strict quality control processes that meant the photo developing chemicals in their machines were changed well before any possibility of poor processing. Furthermore, if a set of prints were of poor quality, this was immediately flagged as every job was individually inspected photo by photo to ensure top print quality. Once spotted, the prints could be re-run, ensuring the customer always received top quality prints.
The company began telling this ‘magic story’ in its brochures and advertising, as well as on its web site and in local TV and radio advertising. Six months later its market share was growing despite the fact that it charged around 15% more for processing and printing a roll of film than its nearest-priced competitor.
Such is the power of a well-communicated ‘magic story’ – and it is well worth developing the marketing skills that will enable you to communicate yours.
So, what’s your ‘magic story’?
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