Reilly Newman | How many ways can you sell the same thing in different forms?
If you listen to our podcast Brandy, you’ll be familiar with my intrigue (and obsession) with the chocolate industry. You see, the chocolate industry essentially sells the same thing just in different forms and combinations.
Essentially, you have one factory that can create the same chocolate in the shape of a heart, bunny, bar, kiss, pumpkin, tree, character, and more depending on the time of year or the segment of the market they want to reach. The offering of chocolate is the same, yet the reason for purchase shifts and the offering adapts accordingly. The factory simply changes the mold or adds in a few nuts or caramel to completely redefine the offering, thus adding more perceived value. This gives the brand upward mobility as it is now able to offer multiple products that are positioned, packaged, and priced differently from one another.
This increase in options allows the brand to market each one to a specific reason for purchase whether that is for a holiday, special event, mood, or even a limited release. This does not neglect that there can still be the classic “go to” originals that are fan favorites. The different versions the brand can now play with can increase market share while also driving-down logistical costs for production.
So what does chocolate have to do with your business? In my mind, this same approach can be applied to any business. Whether you’re a service or product business, B2C or B2B — this mindset can change the way your brand approaches the market and increase the efficacy of your marketing. It could even make your production more efficient and help you resonate with your audience more accurately.
Thinking like Wonka will help your “chocolate factory” imagine new ways to sell to your market by looking at the desires beyond their demand. Sure there may be a demand for chocolate, but the desire for a chocolate bunny or a bite-sized chocolate so they can neatly share with others is only discovered when you put yourself in their shoes.
By doing so, you’ll see from their perspective the holidays, events, and situations that may be in the near future. This will bring you the ability to better address these needs and translate your offering to better fit their need. You may even be able to transform your offering to give them a reason to buy based on the situation they find themselves in. This can lead to specialty products for tangible goods or — for services — it can help productize certain aspects of a service to provide more value and reason.
When you try to market and sell your offering in a broad stroke, you address a broad market. That’s a problem because this is where commoditization takes place. You’ll be the one losing money at the end of the day and left scratching your head as to why you just can’t sell like you should. You’re selling to the “demand” in your market and should be targeting the desire.
The “chocolate” you’re selling is worth more. You just need to position, package, and price it for the array of desires that your market has.
