competitors.
One of the great brand-builders of our generation is an Englishman named Richard Branson. Branson started a mail- order music business in London in 1969. He named the company Virgin Records. Virgin became a major success in the music business, mainly because the company delivered records and tapes at a lower price than other music brands. But the Virgin brand didn’t stay anchored in the music industry.
Branson saw other industries where the customer was underserved and set up businesses to compete in those industries. His goal was to deliver the same high level of value to these underserved customers that he had delivered in the music industry. Branson calls this his ”Big Bad Wolf” theory of marketing. He describes his theory like this:
We began to target markets where the customer has consistently been ripped off
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Principle #8: Demonstrate
Value
or underserved and the competition was complacent. [These bloated competitors are Branson’s “Big Bad Wolves.”]
Whenever we find them, there is a clear opportunity area for Virgin to do a much better job than the competition. We introduce trust, innovation, and customer friendliness where they don’t exist. It is a successful formula and ensures that the brand gets stronger with each new launch.
At first glance, it seems bizarre to take an established brand in one category and introduce it into other, completely unrelated categories. But that’s what Branson has successfully done with the Virgin brand because the Virgin brand stands for value delivery. Whether it’s music, financial services, wedding dresses, colas, or airlines, the Virgin brand means value.
Take Virgin Atlantic Airlines for example. Branson took on British Airways because he did not believe BA was providing a good value to its customers, especially those passengers making transcontinental flights from Europe to the United States. Virgin Atlantic turned those long-haul trips into fun and entertaining experiences—and they did it at a value price, offering a first class experience at business class fares. More meal choices. Greater in-flight movie selection.
Three or four more flight attendants than other airlines providing better in-flight service. At the end of the flight, they even gave passengers the padded audio headsets they had used.
As a result of the clearly superior value demonstrated by Virgin Atlantic, the airline is now the second largest long- haul carrier in the world.1
UNDERDOGADVERTISING
Virgin is a classic Underdog. Its whole business philosophy is built around finding and attacking big companies that do not deliver value to their customers.
There’s no reason why you can’t do the same in your market.
In fact, it is incumbent upon you to demonstrate value, if you are to succeed. All things being equal, your prospect is going to buy from your biggest competitor because that is the safest and easiest purchase decision he can make.
A problem we’ve always had with the word “value” is that it’s one of the most overused terms in advertising. What makes something “a value,” anyway?
Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionarydefines the word “value” as: 1. a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged; 2. the monetary worth of something; 3. relative worth, utility, or importance.
None of Mr. Webster’s definitions really go far enough for our purposes. So it would probably be a good idea to define
“value” in the light of Underdog Advertising because value can mean different things to different people. Not to get overcomplicated, consumers generally define value in one of four ways:
• Value is low price. (“I want the lowest price. Period.”)
• Value is getting what I want in a product or service.
(“The product performs as well or better than I had anticipated.”)
• Value is the quality I get for the price I pay. (“Sure, I paid more, but I got more.”)
• Value is what I get for what I am willing to pay. (“You get what you pay for—it may not be the best quality, but I didn’t pay much.”)
PRINCIPLE#8: DEMONSTRATEVALUE
Chances are, your customers will gravitate to one or more of these value definitions. If you market your product or service based on being the lowest-price provider, your customers will most likely be those who define value as “low price.” If you are selling Rolls Royce automobiles, your customers probably define value as “the quality I get for the price I pay.”
Stop now and answer this question in the context of whichever of these four value definitions you think your customers will gravitate to: how does your product create value for your customers? In other words, what do you offer in your advertising that will make your customer want to open his wallet and give his hard-earned money to you? Here are some ideas you might wrap around your product to add value:
• Demonstrate how your product offers clearly better qualitythan other competitive options.
• Describe the unique attributesyour product has that your competitors cannot match.
• Show how you provide faster service.
• Demonstrate why it is easier to buyfrom you. If it is not easier to buy from you, are there ways you can make buying easier for your customers?
• Provide a longer/better warrantythan your
competitors. If you offer a better warranty, advertise it.
• Provide better or faster deliveryof your product. If you do deliver faster, how can you demonstrate this?
• Are you in a more convenient locationthan your competitors? If so, demonstrate it.
• Flag any recent improvementsyou have made to your product.
UNDERDOGADVERTISING
These are just a few ideas you can use to create additional value for your product or service. However, if you want to hit a home run in the game of value delivery, you need to find ways your product defies comparison with other competitors—that is, areas where your product is clearly and significantly different and better than competing products.
In the early days of Wal-Mart, the retailer located its stores in smaller towns, where they competed with a locally- owned department stores and specialty stores. No one could compare with Wal-Mart in terms of variety or price. Wal-Mart thrived. And thrived. And thrived. Who knows? Someday, there may be only one universal retailer—Wal-Mart.
One of our clients, American Designer Pottery, created a line of faux terra cotta planters and urns. While indistinguishable from real terra cotta, these planters were made of a man-made material that was 90 percent lighter than the real thing, making them easy for anyone to move around the yard. The pots not only were lighter than terra cotta, they also did not chip, crack, fade, or leak. Furthermore, they cost less.
A couple of ads showing the value American Designer Pottery delivered, mainly appearing in home and garden magazines, and sales skyrocketed into the millions. (Image 12.1) A good exercise here is to ask yourself the question that your customer is probably asking: “I can buy it cheaper from someone else, so why should I buy from you?” If you can answer this question, there is probably something about your product or service your competitors cannot match.
Shout it to the world because that is what will make you stand out in the morass of competitive advertising claims.
PRINCIPLE#8: DEMONSTRATEVALUE
For the Underdog, being at parity is simply not good enough. All things being equal, your customers will buy from your biggest competitor because there is less perceived risk in doing so. Show your value.
Image 12.1 A picture is worth a thousand words when it comes to showing the value of an American Designer Pottery planter.
1Radical Marketing, pp. 162–178 UNDERDOGADVERTISING