Reading Between The Lines.
The Tube is plastered with posters preclaiming 24/7 365. An internet banking company emphasising the convenience of online access. But that's not a differentiating position - all your online competitors offer that. If that's all you've got to offer, then you've got nothing.
If you brag about something, it better be worth bragging about. But 24/7 365 won't tempt me online, whereas a position on online security might. The fact that it's not mentioned suggests to this sceptic that you're not as sure about that parameter.
Reading between the lines is what media literate people do and what's not said is often more important than what is said.
posted by john dodds @ 9:02 AM
6 Comments:
Sage comment as ever John.
But it's easy to be too media literate in this environment. Many people aren't and, whilst I agree 24/7 365 isn't going to stand out specifically as a unique feature, it IS a key product attribute.
Advertising works sometimes just to keep the brand in mind as well as to define its difference.
While I agree that the message and offer isn't differentiated the promotion of the proposition is a simple reminder of the feature.
In a world of little differentiation often the only route available is to dramatise such a feature so that customers at the point of purchase or influence have a point of reference about your brand.
What is more important is how engaging the 24/7 message was and whether that had more resonance to the reader than just the message.
Sometimes it’s not what you've got to say, it’s the way you say it that's more important!
To try to develop that too - studies have shown that advertising leads to recall, and recall leads the consumer to attribute qualities to the brand that were not necessarily advertised.
So maybe it's a good idea to just maintain a tempo of presence without shouting about differentiation.
Dull, I know.
Most online security is ample enough that talking about it creates a false negative effect.
"Why would they need to mention security unless they had an issue?!!"
Its the equivalent of a football manager getting a vote of confidence.
My argument Tom is that it is a commodity attribute - without it you shouldn't be in the internet banking business. As for the dull recall stuff, you're right of course but I'm more interested in making people do something rather than just be aware of the product. I'm not sure if the latter is worth spending money on if that's all you get.
Rob - as for security being ample - well that may or may not be factually correct but i think it's an attribute that is not proven in the minds of many people and, as such, possesses scope for differentiation. I'm sure there are other attributes but I chose that one because it's my own personal bugbear - too many IT people have told me not to trust it for me to be relaxed about it.
A mobile phone network sells airtime
and if your lucky a discounted handset to let you use that airtime.
O2 sells a lifestyle that is implied through its communications the fact that you can get the same handset from Vodafone means that their communications are the differentiation. Yes it would be great if all companies got off their backsides and spent time in R&Dland but they want to make a buck so they sell what they've got
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