By Josh Sommers
Posted: January 08, 2010
People will pay more for quality. In a bad economy, they will do so within reason. Do you charge more for your product or service than your competitors? If so, have you educated the marketplace as to why?
Nike charges more for its sneakers than similar brands. And you’ll pay a lot more for PING brand than Wilson golf clubs. These companies have invested years of marketing and branding to create a point of difference in the minds of consumers. Selling your product for more money is OK, but you have to convince consumers that it’s worth the investment.
Points of difference
Establishing points of difference through earning news media coverage about your company or product is a proven tactic to elevate your brand. A paid ad campaign saying you’re great is nice. But a journalist touting your company’s achievements or a reviewer saying your product is better than brand “X” has more credibility than any ad you sponsor. Develop an ongoing news release and media relations program to populate news media sources with messages about your company or product. In addition to soliciting coverage, strong relationships with the media often leads them to seek you out as a source the next time they cover your industry.
Top-of-mind awareness
While third-party news stories are important, aggressive and consistent paid advertising is also an important part of setting your brand apart from the others. Consumers are touched by thousands of messages a day. But when they need your product, you want to be the one that they think of. Top-of-mind awareness means you’ll likely be the first they call, and creates added credibility before a consumer makes a decision.
It’s also important that you leverage your media buys to say why you are the best choice. Leading up to this year’s holiday season, Sony didn’t leave things to chance during this soft economy. It’s no secret that you can buy a cheaper TV or camera, but Sony made the case in recent campaign ads that there is a difference. The TV campaigns feature pop star Justin Timberlake and football great Peyton Manning. One ad starts out with a family looking at a wall of TVs and saying to the salesman, “These all look the same.” Then the wall of TVs opens up to reveal Manning and Timberlake playing pingpong. They tell the consumer family that “sports look better on a Sony.” The campaign is catchy, memorable, leverages star power and reinforces what most consumers already know from years of Sony’s brand-building — Sony is a better TV.
There’s nothing wrong with being more expensive than everyone else. If you can deliver on being superior, invest in your brand, and it will pay you back.
Josh Sommers is president and CEO of Focus Media, a leading Hudson Valley advertising and public relations agency. He can be reached at josh@advertisingandpr.com or 294-3342, ext. 303. His column appears Fridays.
