So, I’m sitting in my office when it happens:
I’m ambushed by a sugar cookie with real buttercream frosting. I was completely defenseless. It immediately overpowered me, and before I knew what had happened, it was over. But as I sat there savoring the sweet defeat, something occured to me. Though I have always considered myself a frosting guy, I realized that real buttercream is the only frosting I actually want to eat…and that made me think of your marketing.
If you’ve had real buttercream, you know what I mean. Every savor-and-satisfaction circuit in your brain lights up as the fluffy sweetness swirls around your mouth and dances down your throat, and once you’ve gobbled the last crumb and licked the last sticky nectar off your fork, your fingers, or even your shirt if necessary, you sit back and start plotting ways to justify eating it again. Don’t you? Yes, you do. And yet, when you have fake “buttercream” — you know what I mean, that Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker creamy-vanilla-toilet-cleaner-in-a-can crap most people assault their baked goods with — you don’t crave more, in fact you probably try to convince yourself you like it, all the while struggling with a conflict of confusion as your tastebuds search desperately for expected satisfaction only to end up with a bitter realization that they’re not getting what they really want…good ole’ fashioned dairy fat.
The secret
The secret? Fat sells.
The reason I’m talking about cookies, fat and licking my shirt on a business & marketing blog? Because business is no different: the “lite” approach doesn’t sell.
“But what about Healthy Choice, Nutrisystem or Garden Burgers? They sell!”
I knew you would say that. But though they do sell, they sell only to a rare few and have to move heaven and earth to get them to buy it. I mean really, which sells more — the fat or the lite? Who sells more product everyday, McDonalds or Nutrisystem? Who has greater revenues, Dairy Queen or Jamba Juice? What do you crave fortnightly, KFC or tofu? Sure, inferior products sell to some extent, but I’m talking about flying-off-the-shelves, selling. I’m talking about I-don’t-have-to-talk-you-into-buying-this-because-you’ll-camp-outside-my-store-to-get-it-before-anyone-else selling. I’m talking about going-to-the-store-at-3am-to-get-it-for-your-pregnant-wife selling.
Fat sells because our bodies want it — it’s pure energy, easily burned and easily stored, and probably for that very reason, it tastes really good. If you can mimic that in your business, you can move product quicker and cheaper, and in no time be rolling in the financial equivalent of a crumb covered sugar high.
Fat business?
Think of “fat businesses” that have sucked you in. Why are you on Facebook? Because it gives you connection, community and inclusion like nothing ever has. That’s fat business. Why do you walk past the mp3 player that costs $24.95 in favor of the iPod costing ten times the amount? Because it also delivers music but also and more importantly that ever elusive thing we call “cool”. That’s fat business. Why do you want the latest Porsche? Because it embodies power, thrill, confidence, achievement, and couples it with the irresistable possibility of potentially being smooshed into the back of your seat as you launch down the road like a ground version of the F-16, as women swoon and other guys stare in envy. That is fat business.
The best part? Fat businesses sell product without having to convince you to buy it.
Evian did it with water. Apple did it with phones. Skechers did it with shoes. And you can do it too with whatever it is you’re selling.
If you’re running your business on a diet like a parent cooking dinner for their cute but pudgy puddin’ cakes, stop it…stop it right now! Throw some butter on it, wrap it in bacon and deep fry it in rendered lard. The recession is making everyone hungry. Now is not the time to offer them flax seed and lettuce, it’s time to slather on the gravy. Don’t give them a miserly soyburger, give them a triple cheesy tower of artery choking goodness. That is how you will gobble up market share.
Offer more than they are expecting. Give them something they really want more than they need. Even if you sell something completely unbuttercreamish (that’s a technical term), cover it in carmel and fill it with chocolate.
What your customer wants
What is your customer really craving? Ease? Then double dip your purchase process in convenience. Speed? Grease up your fulfilment and logistics. Image? Get yourself oozing with ooey-gooey irresistable exposure.
There are ways to fatten up any product, and attorney advertising is a good example. The attorneys who slather their advertising in mushy, silly, or over-the-top dramatics attract clients like flies to honey, while those who stand there and somberly tell you they are the better choice for you end up like every six year old’s lima beans — discarded and forgotten. Just because your product is boring—and let’s face it, there’s very little craviliciousness about legal briefs (sorry, counselor) — doesn’t mean you can’t dress it up.
Fat sells, so quit offering the calorie free alternative. It’s time to stop marketing to your customers’ brains and start covering them in cravings.
Onion rings, anyone?
Leave me a comment…or a recipe…or even better, both.
