Your Brand's Ego is Sabotaging Your Marketing

The solution isn't in your product, it's in your customer

Happy Monday, y’all! You’ve no doubt heard of product design, thinking about the features that a product needs in order to meet market demand.

But what about customer design? What about understanding and shaping the behavior that your customers engage in when they use your products and services?

We know our customers, and we know why they buy our products!

Do you?

There was a time several years ago when Fiskars ‘knew’ who their customers were, and why they bought their products. They ‘knew’ that their customers were predominantly senior citizens, female, and used their scissors in their knitting and cross-stitching activities.

But the brand also knew that there was very little online discussion around the brand and its iconic orange-handled scissors, and Fiskars wanted to change that. So in 2005, it started analyzing the online conversations around its brand (these were almost exclusively happening on blogs and forums, remember this is before the rise of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter).

What it found surprised the brand; While there wasn’t much online chatter around its scissors in general, there was some discussion about Fiskars’ scissors among the scrapbooking community. As Fiskars learned, its orange-handled scissors were beloved among scrapbookers. A revelation that totally surprised Fiskars, as did the fact that scrapbookers skewed younger than Fiskars’ target audience of customers in the 40-60 year-old range.

To its credit, Fiskars totally embraced the scrapbookers who were using (and loving) Fiskars products. It even created a company blog, and turned the blog over to key members of the scrapbooking community who were Fiskars customers. Fiskars even gave these customers an identity: They became the Fiskateers.

The results? Within 20 weeks of launching the Fiskateers blog, online brand mentions of Fiskars spiked by 600%.

The individual Fiskateers became rock stars within the online scrapbooking community, making them highly in demand. Craft stores that welcomed a lead Fiskateer for an in-store visit saw sales growth outpace competitors who had not welcomed a lead Fiskateer by 300%.

All of this happened because Fiskars was smart enough to engage directly with its customers to learn how its customers were using its products. Before, Fiskars had assumed its customers were a completely different segment using its products in a completely different way for a completely different reason.

One of the key questions your product and marketing teams should be asking about your customers is ‘What’s the bigger, cooler thing that our product is a part of?’

What product do these companies sell?

Nike? Sportswear.

Harley-Davidson? Motorcycles.

Red Bull? Energy drinks.

Patagonia? Outerwear.

Now what’s the bigger, cooler thing that those products are a part of?

Nike? Being active, living a healthier life via exercise.

Harley-Davidson? The freedom of being alone, on the open road.

Red Bull? Pushing the limits of your athleticism and physical abilities.

Patagonia? Being active outdoors and enjoying the environment while also protecting it for future generations.

Think about how each brand would market its products if it focused on the product itself:

Nike: “Our line of sportswear features lightweight and breathable materials that are designed for maximum comfort for your active lifestyle!”

Harley-Davidson: “Our motorcycles are designed to give you the power plus performance you are looking for!”

Red Bull: “Our energy drinks provide you with all the B-vitamins and other minerals you need to give you that energy boost to keep you going all day!”

Patagonia: “Our outerwear features the finest materials to keep you warm and dry no matter where your adventures take you!”

Did you almost fall asleep just reading those? Because I have to admit, I almost nodded off while writing them.

But many brands think that is masterful copy. Because they believe great marketing and promotional copy is about focusing on the product.

When the reality is you should be focusing on the customer and how the customer uses your product.

Your business success lives in your customer, not your product.

Your product is secondary to the bigger cool thing that your customers use it for. Fiskars scissors were a tool being used by scrapbookers. But the act of scrapbooking and being immersed in that community was the bigger, cooler thing that Fiskars scissors were a part of.

If you want to build a successful business, you don’t focus your marketing and communications on your product, you focus it on the bigger, cooler thing that your customers are using your product for.

Look at this Red Bull commercial:

A one minute commercial, and note the actual product (can of Red Bull) isn’t shown until the last 2 seconds of the commercial. The first 58 seconds are devoted to the bigger, cooler thing that the product is a part of.

Nike does the same thing with its commercials. Both brands are lauded for their excellent marketing.

And all they do is focus on the bigger, cooler thing that their customers use their product for.

Can you see the potential for improving your marketing by focusing less on your product and more on your customer?

What is the goal of most marketing? To build awareness.

But most marketing focuses on the product. Most companies think their marketing should build awareness of the product.

That’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes effective marketing.

If you want to build awareness, you focus on the customer.

Red Bull does that. Nike does that.

Red Bull and Nike are universally praised for having amazing marketing.

Because their marketing builds awareness. Because it doesn’t focus on its products, it focuses on its customers.

Customers watch commercials for Red Bull and Nike and they don’t see Red Bull and Nike products, they see themselves. They see their potential.

That gets their attention.

Product-focused marketing communications are for converting at the bottom of the sales funnel.

Not the top. The top is for building awareness. In order to build awareness with new or potential customers you….focus on those customers.

Recall what Fiskars did. When they focused on their product (orange-handled scissors), no one talked about them online.

When they switched their focus to talk about their customers and how their customers were using their scissors, online mentions of the brand shot up by 600% overnight.

This stuff isn’t that hard, y’all. It just requires understanding your customers, and putting aside your brand’s ego and desire to talk about itself.

Final thought, from Steve Jobs. This was an amazing speech on the role of marketing that Steve Jobs gave to his employees in the early 80s. Note he says outright that effective marketing isn’t about the product, it’s about the the ‘bigger, cooler thing’ that the product fits into. Jobs said the one question that Apple had to answer is ‘Where do we fit in this world?’

Housekeeping: Guys, I need your help. What features can I add to Backstage Pass to create more value for you? These will be Substack features for the most part, so please join Substack if you are considering, so you can take full advantage. I am curious about audio, either adding audio versions of posts, or just adding audio to provide additional context to each issue.

Also, I absolutely want to add some chat/thread elements so we can have a space where we can connect with each other and Backstage Pass members can help each other. For those of you already on Substack, can you think of other features you would like to see? Please drop a comment and let me know! And if you enjoyed this issue of Backstage Pass, please share it with your colleagues or Restack it on Substack. It will help the issue gain visibility on Substack, and I would greatly appreciate it.

See you on Thursday!

Mack