Marketers are desperately trying to bridge the digital and physical dimensions to leverage social interaction at all consumer touchpoints. Is this approach going to lead you to discover the holy grail of marketing? Does everything come down to creating an emotional connection and delivering that ‘WOW’ experience?
We live in a loud and crowded ‘physical’ world with seven billion people. And that my friends is just one dimension.
The second dimension we have to consider is the digital world. According to latest stats we have nearly 2.5 billion internet users worldwide which is only 34.3% of the world’s population. So there’s 65% of the seven billion who have not yet discovered the power of this new landscape.
And there lie some of the biggest challenges:
- How do you make yourself heard?
- How can you stand out in this crowded place?
- Where should you invest your valuable energy and time?
Being a passionate marketer myself and coming up with different marketing solutions to the questions I raised, I was wondering how other key influencer and marketing experts think about this topic. Who else was interested in the holy grail of marketing, and more importantly had already found proven strategies to monetize their ideas and differentiate themselves from the pack?
So, I went to work aka I searched the web, and found this amazing video with Apple’s former chief evangelist Guy Kawasaki talking about positioning yourself (your brand, product, or company) in the right quadrant.
Guy Kawasaki Reveals The Holy Grail Of Marketing
Do you have products and services that are in the upper right corner? If your current portfolio has elements in the other three quadrants, how do you intend to get these items into the “high uniqueness, high value” quadrant?
Short Recap
1. Bottom right corner: You provide something valuable that is not unique. You can make lots of money in this corner but you will always compete on price. Examples: Dell Computers, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard
2. Upper left corner: You did it! You have created something that is unique but it’s not valuable. As Guy Kawasaki says, in this corner you are just playing stupid.
3. Bottom left corner: This is the worst corner of all because you provide something that is not valuable and not unique. Guy calls it the “.com” corner.
4. Upper right corner: THIS IS WHERE YOU WANT TO BE! This is where you should be as an innovator. These are both unique and valuable products. Examples: Fandango, Breitling Emergency watch, Smart Car
The holy grail of marketing is to be positioned in the upper right hand corner.
It’s in the upper right corner where history is made. This is where you make money and margin. Therefore the single most important question that we should ask ourselves is as follows:
==> How can we provide a product or service that is unique AND valuable?
Loads of brands are fighting hard to grab attention because they offer products and services that are not positioned in the upper right hand corner. So if you’re in the bottom right corner stop whining about the need to compete on price; rather focus your energy on adding a unique element to your portfolio and thus move up to the holy grail of marketing corner.
Understanding consumer motivating behavior, bridging the digital and physical dimensions and focusing on building relationships are all very important. Once you have something unique and valuable to offer, driving consumer engagement and purchasing becomes natural.
What’s the holy grail of marketing in your company? How can you create unique and valuable products & services?
