Vanilla ice cream is a crowd-pleaser. Most people like it, and almost everyone will eat it. It’s easy, comfortable, and safe. The Gap khakis of ice cream.
Vanilla is the comfort zone.
Far fewer people, on the other hand, like pistachio ice cream. Pistachio is a distinct and polarizing choice. Yet the people who like pistachio usually love it. Re-e-e-a-lly love it. Crazy love it.
While fewer people buy pistachio, this flavor has a competitive advantage: Rather than dumbing-down its taste, it can focus on serving a tightly-defined core with a distinct point of difference.
The goal of pistachio isn’t to please everyone. It’s to engage a few people really, really well.
Are you vanilla? Or pistachio?
There’s nothing wrong with vanilla, of course. I keep vanilla in my freezer when my goal is to appeal to the maximum number of people with the minimum amount of whining.
Yet while vanilla might be an easy choice for the masses, it’s not necessarily the right choice for YOU.
Beware vanilla (unless you have the biggest marketing budget).
If you have the biggest marketing budget in your category, vanilla is probably a smart place to focus. You want the lowest common denominator. Your goal should be to avoid polarizing a substantial segment of the market, especially if your brand has an established, trusted presence among customers. Vanilla brands, such as Wal-Mart and Kellogg’s, fascinate with the repetition and familiarity of the Trust Advantage, often expanding market share with mass media (for instance, a SuperBowl spot rather than targeted social media).
But let’s say you DO NOT have the biggest budget.
If you do not have the biggest marketing budget in your category, you need to compete fiercely without vast resources, or even without an established market presence. While your competition has been splashing their faces all over town for years, you have a smaller client list.
You have to fight tooth and nail for every lead.
In this case, my friends, you must highlight what makes you different. And that’s where pistachio comes in.
Instead of trying to out-do your competition, focus on what makes you different. And win.
Step 1: Identify one thing about your company that makes it distinctly different.
It should be something quirky or peculiar, something that might normally be assumed to be a negative attribute. It might even be downright off-putting to the majority of customers. The goal is to find where you and your product diverge from standard expectations.
Here’s an example. In 2011, when we first released the Fascinate test, the process of creating profiles was time-consuming and labor-intensive. It took a few months to figure out how to automate things. Until we did, each profile was painstakingly hand-finished by a heroic designer on our team named Emily Johnson. We were selling less than 100 profiles a week, but still, each day Emily would customize the day’s profiles.
During this stage, it took two days in between when you took the test and received your results. We worried that people would get impatient. (After all, we’re all used to instant online gratification, right?)
We handled this the only way we could, by being honest about the delay, and explaining that each profile took 48 hours because it was being finalized by a human being.
Today, we don’t need 48 hours to deliver your results and Emily is no longer typing in your name by hand. But, people seem to miss the 48-hour pause. That window built the anticipation. It was Mystique in action.
We turned a disadvantage into part of the customer experience.
How about you, and your business? How could you turn a disadvantage into an advantage?
For example, could you highlight the following:
-
- Perceived blemish in your company history (such as a bankruptcy or product launch failure)
- Lack of extensive customer service support
- Odd location (such as a store or office in an old strip mall, faceless office park, or inconvenient spot)
- Slow manufacturing process (causing customers to wait for your product or service)
- Lack of previous experience in a specific area
- A peculiar product (not conforming to industry norms)
- Inconsistent result (rather than standardized format)
- Unappealing company name (um… “Hogshead”)
Step 2: Identify how these so-called “flaws” can give your customers an unexpected benefit.
These flaws are probably things that you’ve felt obliged to cover up, or compensate for.
But hold on now. Not so fast. Illustrate each quirk as a selling point. For instance, if your restaurant has an inconvenient location, could you offer 10% off for delivery service? Another example: if your retail location doesn’t have ample parking, could you have your own version of valet?
If you’re selling cars, and there is 3-month waiting period in shipments, could you use that waiting time to heighten the customer’s excitement and anticipation by showing the car on its journey to the destination?
Step 3: Flaunt your quirks!
Rather than thinking of them as a downside you’re stuck with, can you take them on as intentional strengths? Instead of trying to copycat other companies, how could you embrace your differences, and heighten them?
Is there something your current customers appreciate, and even love, about these quirks? (If you don’t know, ask them and you might be surprised at how they will champion the very things that you might think of as negatives.)
Step 4: Identify customers who will love you for your pistachio traits
Figure out what type of customer would actively appreciate your differentiating qualities. How can you target and pursue these people?
As with any bell curve, most brands want to cluster smack-dab in the middle, where vanilla and chocolate and strawberry live. In the comfort zone.
But when you create fascinating experiences that elicit a strong and immediate response, well, you know which flavor to choose.
Be the pistachio. Refuse to be the vanilla.
What is your pistachio? In other words, what makes your brand different than everyone else? If you haven't taken the Fascinate test yet, take five minutes to discover what makes you different today.
Pistachio power for sure! Rock Star here. (Bet you could have guessed!) Stand up. Stand out. Stand for something!
I have marketing story of this idea in action: Kaiser is a health provider in my area. They received a bad rep because if you have their insurance then you have to get their doctors, prescriptions, labs, and specialists. You can't go to any pharmacy or get a second opinion outside their facility. Well, They turned that "flaw" around in their commercials - "Since when is it a good idea to be ping-ponged around town to see your doctor, get your lab work, pick up your prescription, etc.?" Very effectively, they had turned this "bad thing" that everything was in the same facility into "good thing" that everything wasn't scattered around town. Bravo, Kaiser. You are Fascinating.
I'm pistachio for sure. In fact I'm a stay at home mom writing in a field full of Ph.D.s. So, I flaunt my every-woman status. They have the cred. I listen to them and write in *English* so you don't need an advanced degree yourself to understand them. Thanks for the encouragement to be more myself!
For ever it seems I've been scared to let people see my art studio. I presume they expect what's in Hollywood movies, what I dream of, when in reality I work in an unfinished basement with no window or natural light and low ceilings. A tilted floor which is hard in a chair with wheels! So I cringe when someone says "I wan to come to Birmingham and visit your studio." And I've gotten pretty good at redirecting those conversations. You've illuminated a way to be pistachio. I mean who else can do laundry and painting a multi thousand dollar piece of work simultaneously? Thank you once again Sally!
I suspect location is a consideration when one decides whether to allow one's pistachio-ness to show. Some parts of the country have a lower tolerance for individuality than big cities, say . . . There are still all too many areas of this country where looking/sounding/acting just like the founding mothers is the necessary hallmark for success.
I'm at this point right now, but I'm still not sure if the right option is the pistachio! In short, I recently started a private academic advising business for college students. My first thought was to niche down to pre-med and pre-health profession students who were freshman or sophomores and needed help, because it is very competitive to get into a health profession and mistakes at that stage can be very costly. But most people I meet don't have a child with this interest. But if I go broad (vanilla) and tell people I help college students who are struggling and need help getting back on track and successful, everyone seems to know a college student who could use extra help. There doesn't seem to be anyone else serving these markets privately (obviously there are the advisors at the college, but they too often have a huge caseload, or, to be blunt, aren't very good). So my assumption is that there are parents and students who need help but aren't getting what they need, and need another option. I know the pre-med is the narrow niche, but isn't the broader "any college student who is struggling" a niche as well? I really need to get this nailed down in my own head, so I can go full bore in one direction. Any comments/thoughts appreciated!
Pistachio. Thanks for the reminder about my fav ice cream. Right in the middle of a diet. Sheesh! That said, I love me my Mocha and Cookie Ice Cream. And whether it be quirks or quarks, Sally hits the nail on the head - be different; flaunt it; toot your own horn and quit trying to serve the masses!
Hi Sally and Fascinate Gang! After seeing you at ICON, reading your book, and reading your blogs, I have come to realize that I hid a very important attribute about myself. I hid it so well in my professional life (even from myself) I didn't even realize it was out of sight until a close friend told me. So, I took the gloves off and went for it. I am pistachio because I am an academic by nature, a child at heart. I am a Fetal Health Development Specialist and talk about some pretty scientific stuff but I have found a way to start making it more fun. I let the child side of me take the lead :-). It takes some getting used to but I noticed a spike in interest from others. It took a bit to wrap my head around because my archetype is The Victor. I didn't think my child like heart fit this well...but it is me and what makes me different and easy to connect with. This part of me makes me pistachio 🙂 Thanks for helping me realize who I was and that the best thing anyone can do is go all in with being themselves. Erin Smith
Sally, I know what our quirk is! We do no marketing pieces from our corporate office - all our done on the branch level because each Branch Manager (even though the office is corporate owned) is an entrepreneur and is responsible for carving out their own niche and marketing to that niche. That's really backwards from most corporations! The advantage to customers - we don't do cookie cutter programs and all decisions about that customer are made locally! Thanks, Karen
Sally, on the surface, a mediocre vanilla flavor is mainly non-offensive, and this is what is usually available and what most people buy. However, a proper vanilla taste is really very good. It has layers of flavor and a richness lacking in other flavors. Just the scent of real vanilla affects one's mood. That's powerful stuff! Those of us who prefer vanilla - the real stuff! - are normally a bit more adventuresome than those who prefer other flavors. For instance, I am a Secret Weapon whose favorite ice cream is vanilla, particularly vanilla bean. My favorite pastime is travel and the thing that makes it worthwhile is talking to strangers. I like vanilla and I love talking to people. Go figure. 😉