Why is the promotion still ineffective even though the advantages are used as selling points?

We often say that before promoting a new product, we must find a core selling point and then implant it into the user's mind through marketing .

Many marketers do this, but their promotions still fail in the end. Why?

Yes, many new product promotions comprehensively compare multiple selling points of their products and finally select the one with the most advantageous selling point.

For example, you have developed a new formula shampoo, and the biggest advantage of the product is "anti-dandruff", so you vigorously promote its anti-dandruff properties in the copy .

This seems to be in line with most people's intuition - "I will tell consumers directly about my strengths through copywriting."

Although these entrepreneurs focus on product features and market demand, they always ignore perhaps a more important point - the status of key competitors.

Your advantage is "dandruff removal", but the "dandruff removal" function of Head & Shoulders has long been deeply rooted in people's minds. Most people even think that Head & Shoulders = dandruff removal. This means that when you say that your product has a good dandruff removal effect, even if consumers admit it, they will still think that you are not as good as Head & Shoulders. So, the next time a purchase occurs, you still won’t be their first choice.

In this case, we often say: "You don't take your competitors seriously."

The reason why many products have weak promotion is often not because they do not have powerful functions or meet user needs, but because they simply skip over their competitors and take it for granted to directly promote their most powerful selling points.

Ignoring competitors’ products often means that your main selling point happens to be the other party’s advantage. The result: competitors can easily follow or copy your strategy.

For example, the Xiaomi mobile phone, which is famous for its high cost-effectiveness, exploded the market when it was first launched on the market, and countless consumers flocked to it. This also sends a signal to countless mobile phone manufacturers - "Consumers like cost-effective mobile phones."

Later, Xiaomi was followed by a large number of imitators , saying, "Why don't you sell it for 999? I'll sell it for 699 or 499, so consumers will come to buy my phone."

But now, you won’t see any of these imitators. This is because Xiaomi's low prices are supported by several major factors, such as the scale effect brought about by the huge number of Mi fans purchasing, which reduces product manufacturing costs, direct online sales that greatly save channel costs, and the profit point transfer brought about by the free model (mobile phones earn low gross margins and make profits through subsequent services). It is because of these reasons that Xiaomi has the advantage of "low price".

If latecomers blindly imitate Xiaomi's prices but do not have the support of these factors, they can only wait to be drained away by Xiaomi.

For example, JD.com started a price war between the two parties on the grounds that its "book business was blocked by Dangdang." JD.com is promoting a full-scale book promotion, with Liu Qiangdong even saying “until book prices drop to zero.”

Dangdang adopted a follow-up strategy and also began to cut prices across the board. After all the negotiations, both sides suffered heavy losses. But the result is that JD.com was fine, but Dangdang suffered a sharp decline - books are only part of JD.com's business, but they are Dangdang's entire business.

Here, Dangdang’s “low price” is JD.com’s advantage (it has other businesses to make up for it). When it comes to reducing the price of books, JD.com can continue “unrestrainedly”, while Dangdang can only hold on for a period of time.

In fact, looking back now, Dangdang’s best strategy at that time should have been to develop 3C products to weaken JD.com’s advantages, rather than using its own disadvantages to resist the advantages of others.

In the early stage of promoting Shenzhou’s private car , it encouraged everyone to take private cars, so its copy was like this: "Seeking survival in the cracks? Shenzhou invites you to take a private car." (It suggests that the public should stop squeezing into subways and buses and take more comfortable private cars)

Shenzhou’s main advantage, “comfort”, is also Uber ’s advantage. Uber is the leader in private cars and occupies the largest market share. Therefore, for new ride-hailing companies, any copywriting aimed at "persuading the public to take ride-hailing cars" will eventually become a tool to attract traffic to Uber.

The above cases have given us a lot of inspiration, the most important of which is that before promoting a product, we must clearly see the advantages of our competitors and not try to promote the same selling points as strong competitors.

Of course, if you are given soup, you also need a spoon. Above we pointed out the misunderstandings in finding selling points for products, so now we will discuss: How to find the right selling points for products?

The most commonly used method is to determine selling points based on competitors' disadvantages.

But please note that this disadvantage must be a disadvantage within the advantages on which the competitor relies for survival, and cannot be a direct disadvantage of the competitor.

For example, if a competitor’s prices are high, this may be its direct disadvantage, because if the other party has cost control capabilities, they can lower prices to follow your strategy. The so-called direct disadvantage is a disadvantage that can be improved at low cost.

So what are the disadvantages among the advantages on which we depend for survival?

For example, for Coca-Cola , its most important advantage is its classic nature and long history. So, what is the disadvantage of this advantage?

The inherent disadvantage of "classic" is of course old age. So PepsiCo focused on the theme of "the choice of a new generation" and attacked its disadvantages. In this way, Coca-Cola can only watch young people lean towards Pepsi, but it has no way to stop it.

For example, in the mythological story "David and Goliath", the short David eventually defeated the tall and mighty Goliath. How did he do it?

Quite simply, David found the weakness in Goliath's strengths that allowed him to survive. Goliath's advantage in survival is very obvious, that is, he is tall and powerful. So, what disadvantages does this advantage imply? Being tall means being slow and having a clear goal.

So later, David chose to throw stones from a distance, which effectively attacked the opponent's disadvantages, making his "tall and mighty" appearance useless, and ultimately defeated Goliath.

This is also why Shenzhou focuses on safety and attacks Uber for being “unsafe”, and why JD.com focuses on “good products” and attacks Taobao for being “full of fakes”. This is not caused by the direct disadvantage of the other party, but a disadvantage found from the advantage on which the other party relies for survival - Uber's platform model determines its "insecurity" and Taobao's C2C model determines its "fake problem".

Therefore, if you want to find a suitable selling point for your product, you have to ask yourself: What is the most important advantage of my competitor? This advantage almost determines what disadvantages it has? Can my product attack this weakness?

Conclusion:

What is the most important thing in making a product? Take your questions to the Starbucks next to the office building and ask the entrepreneurs .

I think 99 out of 100 people would say that we need to truly solve users’ pain points and meet their needs.

I do not deny the importance of pain points and needs, because user preferences almost determine the life and death of a product. But we cannot ignore another factor that can determine our life or death - the state of our competitors.

Because once you skip the analysis of your competitors, your main selling point may very likely be the other party's advantage. In this way, he can easily follow your strategy and prevent you from becoming the consumer's first choice.

Therefore, before promoting a product, you should not only consider market demand, but also pay attention to competitors so as to avoid their advantages.

So how do you find the right selling point? In other words, how do you find your real advantage?

Find the weakness in the advantage that your competitor relies on for survival, and then attack this weakness.

After all, Trout once said in "Business War": For leaders, only weaknesses in strengths are innate and unavoidable. Once attacked, it is difficult to remedy them quickly.

The author of this article @小欧言商 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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