Reminded of one of my favourite marketing themes the other day…
…the need for, and the power of, FOCUS.
Happened when I noticed an ad for Snap printers making a big thing about all the new services they offer.
Their tagline is…
…”We do more”…
…which gives you a clue as to the problem.
More of what?
For who?
Why?
What’s it going to do for me?
When you look more closely, you discover that Snap are offering a number of services such as design and customisation…
…plus marketing advice.
A “complete marketing solution” in fact, whatever that means.
So what’s the problem here?
Well, there’s nothing wrong as such with what Snap is offering…
…although they’re straying into the perilous zone of line extension…
…and it’s questionable just how good the marketing advice will be.
No, the real problem here is the lack of focus and clear message.
Like most printers, Snap’s target audience is business. However, that’s not immediately apparent and neither is any kind of compelling reason to do business with Snap.
While we’re on the topic…
…closely linked to the idea of Focus is Positioning.
And one of the key ideas of Positioning is that you can only occupy ONE place in the mind of the customer.
For example, you can own photocopiers or you can own desktop computers but you can’t own both (as Xerox discovered to their cost).
Google recently launched their new social networking offer “Google+”.
Does Google = Social Networking?
Nope.
In fact, Google very definitely “owns” something else.
Google means “Search”.
Doesn’t necessarily mean Google+ will fail, but I suspect it’s going to be hard going for them.