How to own your market...

Here is a classic example of the power of creating a ‘reason for being’.  This case study is from our archives.  The concepts are as relevant today as then.  The client, of all things, was a grave headstone mason.

He'd approached us with a problem.  His Yellow Pages ad, he felt, did not do justice to his business and his life mission.  His ad was just like all the others ... page after page of sameness in the classification ...  Big logo up the top, the same bullet points as everybody else and a big phone number at the bottom.

It didn’t tell the full story ... his special story.

And when people called, what do you think they focused on?  Not surprisingly they tended to focus on PRICE.  Obvious when you think about it because all the ads were fundamentally the same, so price was the only thing they could focus on ... John Smith (not his real name) was convinced we could help him tell his story so he could break away from the 'price trap'.  And to be honest, the more we probed him about his business, the more fascinating the story became.  Our resulting headline read:

‘When you want a monument to your loved one that’s as special as they were ... speak with John Smith’

This ad created a very special personality around his business.

• It spoke of the fact that his monuments ‘are cut from stone, rather than pre-made blocks’ ...
• That ‘you must be 100% delighted with the finished work or you don’t pay’
• That you get to approve the layout BEFORE work begins ...

Compelling reasons to commission him.

But here’s the interesting part.  Do you think the OTHER stone masons listed in the Yellow Pages cut from stone as opposed to pre-made blocks?  They might …

Do they guarantee their work or does the client take the risk?  Do they let you see the drawings before work begins?  They might …

The point is, their ads DON’T SAY if they do or they don’t!

And what that means ... the one who DOES say these things, ‘owns’ those ‘reasons for being’.  The unique selling proposition of cutting from stone ... and the unique selling proposition of having a 100% delight guarantee.

This ad superbly pre-empted the market ... and positioned this company perfectly in that niche in the market that HE wants to serve.  (Below is a reproduction of the ad.)

 

Two things happened after this ad appeared ... first, the number of calls from the Yellow Pages increased.  Not dramatically, but they did increase.

Second, and FAR more importantly, the people who rang as a result were a different type of person ... they didn’t focus on price.  They simply asked, “When can you start?”.  They had been educated to what this remarkable stonemason is about ... creating beautiful monuments.