What is positioning? The fancy-shmancy definition is “How you differentiate your product or service from that of your competitors and then determine which market niche to fill”.
What is means is how you establish your product’s identity within the eyes of the consumer. The best way to remember positioning is as the difference between ordinary pie and “PUCKER UP” pie.
The Story of Pucker Up Pie and Pickled Eggs
My friend Ann is a wonderful cook and baker and recently she had a table at a local farmer’s market. She was so excited about doing this – her eyes sparkled with anticipation. Her food causes people to moan with delight and she could hardly wait to share it.
I knew she was going to be working at the event all day so I offered to drop by and help her for a few hours. (Yes, I even put on a frilly apron!)
When I got to the market and walked to her table – I saw she had it attractively displayed, proper pricing and signage. She had piles of fabulous lemon pies (made with the WHOLE LEMON), pickled eggs, gorgeous bread and all sorts of other goodies.
But when I asked Ann how her sales were going a dejected look swept across her face. “Kim, my sales are terrible! I almost feel embarrassed!” She said she wasn’t allowed to give samples and that had thrown her sales plan out the window.
I looked at her. I looked at her table loaded with amazing food. I slapped my frilly apron on and said…”Well honey, we’re going to FIX THAT!” All of her products are delicious, appealing to the eye, but the lack of samples was hurting her.
If Ann wanted to turn her sales around, she had to make a few changes:
- The fabulous lemon pies needed a new name so we switched the name to PUCKER UP PIES!
- Beside the pickled eggs, we created a sign that said, “MEN LOVE THESE. GREAT WITH BEER!”
I instructed Ann to stand in front of the booth and ask women especially, “Do you love lemon?” and ask every man that walks by “Do you like beer?”
Every single person asked with a big smile, “What’s a Pucker Up Pie?” to which we responded, “If you love lemon, this pie will make you MOAN WITH DELIGHT!” Which made them crack up even more, and of course, they bought one, and bread and cookies…you get the drift.
The beer sign attracted EVERY MAN who walked by especially since we asked them, “Do you like BEER?” Needless to say, she sold out of almost everything, with the pies and pickled eggs going FIRST.
You probably have the right product or service but your marketing is DULL, DULL. DULL. It’s time to create your OWN PUCKER UP PIE and create a unique position with your products and services.
And if you want the REAL Pucker Up Pie recipe, visit SalesDiva.com! It’s waiting for you for FREE!
2 Comments
Kim, the pucker-up pie had me laughing out loud but the idea is sound. Thanks for the reminder.
great info!! Thanks