What’s the one thing that’s more important to your startup’s bottom line than its products, services, employees, or even your brand itself? Here’s a clue, it’s something that has existed long before you ever thought about creating or working at a startup.
With so many different forms of marketing that companies have at their disposal these days, it’s easy to see how marketing managers often find themselves inundated with options and only focusing on their their own area of expertise.
Whether that expertise is advertising, branding, content marketing, digital marketing, social media marketing, or SEO, at the end of the day—the growth of a company really all comes down to the execution of what I believe is the true definition of marketing: creating concepts to connect with consumers.
This brings us back to that one thing that impacts your startup’s bottom line more so than your products, services, employees, and overall brand. That thing is your brand’s target customers. The group that is directly associated with your startup's first and most important marketing objective.
The objective
Every business sector has them. And regardless of just how great a brand is; each and every brand will have to deal with them. Whether it’s Nike in the sports apparel space. Apple in the tech space. Or even McDonald’s in the fast food restaurant space. No matter how big or small, all brands will have to deal with a customer base that is dissatisfied with the status quo.
Despite how great the status quo may be for most customers in the market, they’ll always be a sizable contingent of dissatisfied customers that will be ready for a change.
Rather than setting out to attract customers that are already satisfied with the market’s status quo and changing their minds, the first, and by far, most important marketing objective for your startup should always be to position your brand to appeal to those that are discontented with the current status quo.
“The single most wasteful thing you can do in marketing is try to change a mind.” Writes authors and branding legends Al Ries and Jack Trout, in their heralded book, The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing.
Knowing the first and most important marketing objective for your startup is one thing. But accomplishing it is another. So, let's get into the best way to complete that objective.
The best way to complete the objective
Appealing to those who are discontented with the status quo in the market is all about separation. And what better way to separate your startup from all of the other brands in its respective industry than by introducing your target customers to something totally new?
That's something exciting. Something hot. Something that’s so much bigger than just a mere brand. And that something is a totally new category.
“The most efficient, most productive, most useful aspect of branding is creating a new category.” Writes father and daughter duo Al and Laura Ries, co-authors of another marketing classic, The 22 Immutable Laws Of Branding.
Many of the most wildly successful brands in the world are where they are today because they’ve done a great job at introducing their target audience of customers (who were dissatisfied with the status quo) to a totally new category. For example:
Airbnb — Created a category for booking both short- and long-term home stays and experiences online.
Amazon — Created a category for online book sales.
Grubhub — Created a category for online food ordering and delivery services.
Slack — Created a category for instant messaging communications for professionals and organizations.
Uber — Created a category for online transportation services.
Do not be alarmed, your startup doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel in order to successfully create a new category. But what it does need to do, is put its own spin on the wheel and articulate those differences to a targeted audience. An audience that is dissatisfied with the current status quo.
Let’s discuss your startup
At Decryption, we love helping startups advance and reach their full potential. Contact us to discuss your startup’s current marketing needs and we'll let you know how to become a Decryption client, and together, we’ll take your startup to the next level.
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