Video Tutorial: What’s A USP?
Here’s a short video tutorial that explains a little about USPs and why you should have one.
It gives you examples of some USPs as well as the most important question to ask yourself when it comes to creating your own USP.
Let me know what you come up with?
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Women: The Superior Marketing Sex?
This is an important article adapted by Marian Dyer, BME Copy Editor, from an article by Mark Ritson.
Most senior marketers seem to be men. And yet, a fascinating article published on the Women’s Marketing Forum, claims many female marketers outperform their male counterparts.
Male brains, on average, have 5% more brain cells and are around 10% larger than women’s. Another case where size doesn’t matter… The workings of the female brain more than compensate. Plus they’re better designed for marketing; probably because they’re also built for empathy.
What’s The Difference?
Actually, everyone’s brain is female initially. Around 8 weeks, a surge in foetal testosterone destroys cells in boys’ communication centres and increases cell production in the sex and aggression centres. The female foetus simply continues to develop.
Boys and girls really are different. A study from Cambridge University claims that the amount of testosterone boys receive in the womb prevents them from understanding and connecting with others. Women genetically have more effective communication skills and a higher level of emotional understanding.
This emotional understanding gives women a biological advantage in marketing. Male marketers think the market will want what HE thinks it wants ie a ‘perceived need’. Female marketers get ‘inside the head’ of their customer and plan their marketing around a real need.
What’s the connection?
Both sides of the human brain are connected by the ‘corpus callosum’. With 200m of nerve fibres, it’s a kind of super-highway joining the two sides. The right side is holistic and intuitive (qualitative); the left deals with logic and analysis (quantitative).
Qualitative research measures responses to options offered; eg a choice between apples or pears might show a preference for pears. But what if grapes were included? The majority might choose grapes. The quantitative approach, eg asking how many oranges a person eats and how often, gives no indication whether oranges were favourites or the only option. Marketers need both kinds of research to understand their market.
It’s best to start with qualitative research and refine the findings in quantitative exercises. Most marketers rely on one or the other – which is probably why lots of marketing falls short.
Understanding The Differences
Women, reportedly, have a larger corpus callosum than men and are more ‘integrated’ in their thinking. As well as understanding what’s important to the consumer, they can more easily figure out the significance of the variables. Men’s inclination to rely on one approach means they miss half their potential market.
It’s important to understand that, because different brands have distinct qualities, techniques that work for one brand may fail with another. Branding is another area where women are likely to be more successful. The difference in their processing powers means women consider the intricacies and specific details while men prefer the global and general approach.
Men and women look at problems differently too. Women tend to be intuitive thinkers while men prefer rule-based processes. When building a brand, you need a clear statement; what the brand stands for and what the customer can expect from it. Most brand ideas are too complex. To be effective, they need to be simple. Like Nike’s “just do it”.
Focus or Flexibility?
Women are ideally suited to marketing. Their intuition and flexibility helps them adapt to changing circumstances and subtle nuances. Men concentrate more on focus and aggression; they’ll follow a path that doesn’t lead anywhere rather than admit they’ve got it wrong.
Women are genetically programmed to keep lots of balls in the air; they can cook, clean and keep an eye on the kids simultaneously. Their in-built sixth sense warns them when things are not quite ‘right’. While men’s hunter-gatherer traits help them focus on single issues, in marketing this can lead to disaster. A tendency to concentrate on perceived threats means they often fail to see the big picture.
Extra neurons and dendrites give female brains greater processing power; they can more easily ‘link thoughts’. Male brains are better designed to exclude diversions so they can concentrate on the task in hand. Men also excel at spatial reasoning – probably why they’re more adept at parking than most women. But how helpful is that in marketing?
The Conclusion – Isn’t It Obvious?
Every market has an element of competition. To be successful, you must identify your competitors and create ways to keep yourself ahead. Intuition and flexibility are likely to be more useful here than focus and aggression.
While it’s fair to say that not all men are better at marketing than all women, women who are good at marketing are likely to be more successful than men who are good at it…
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Video Tutorial: Direct Mail
Here’s a short video tutorial case study. It’s about a direct mail marketing flyer promoting whiteboard paint.
I was looking for this type of product and was about to throw the flyer in the bin when I realised it was offering something I badly wanted.
Out of professional curiosity, I couldn’t understand why the product hadn’t made itself more obvious? So, I started to look at it more closely. Here are some of the marketing mistakes I uncovered - the sort that are easy to avoid.
Maybe you won’t do the same?
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Why Brand Advertising Doesn’t Work
In the 1980s I worked in the advertising industry and, in particular, on some of the famous TV commercials for British Rail. I have first hand experience of what brand advertising is all about and why, as a small business owner, this type of advertising is not for you.
It is costly, time consuming and, above all, not very measurable. That’s not to say that all brand advertising doesn’t work. If you have the time and resources to approach it the correct way, it may catapult you into the stratosphere. But the chances are you are not in that league? But that doesn’t matter - there are other profitable ways for you to advertise what you do.
Direct Mail: Lessons from Ideapaint (Case Study)
Here are two case study tutorials. They are about a direct mail marketing flyer promoting whiteboard paint.
I was looking for this type of product and was about to throw the flyer in the bin when I realised it was offering something I badly wanted.
Out of professional curiosity, I couldn’t understand why the product hadn’t made itself more obvious? So, I started to look at it more closely as well as the the websites it took me to. I discovered it was full of marketing mistakes - the sort that are easy to avoid.
That’s why watching these tutorials is important. I show you the mistakes so that you can avoid doing the same thing with your own direct marketing. Thank you Ideapaint.