Your marketing doesn’t work because you’re not that special

If you’ve ever watched the movie Fight Club (and if you haven’t, please do), you’ll probably remember the scene where Brad Pitt’s character Tyler Durden is barking at his ‘army’ via a megaphone: “You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake.”

A dystopian start to this post, perhaps, but your man Tyler had a point.

It’s a curious trick of the human ego that most of us think other people have more than a passing interest at most in what we say, do or want.

That’s an entirely understandable delusion, particularly when it comes to your business. You’ve put your heart and soul into creating something uniquely yours; or you’ve bought in whole-heartedly to the business you’ve joined. Why wouldn’t everyone else be as passionate about it as you are?

Because you are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake.

Actually, that’s not entirely true.

If your business has a modicum of success, you probably are quite special. And there will be a good number of people – your customers or clients, whichever term you favour – who think you’re pretty amazing.

The trouble often comes around when growing businesses, which are doing good work and hiring good people, decide to Get Their Marketing Sorted. There’s a natural instinct to do marketing at people and tell them how good your business is, what a great job it does, how many awards it’s won, how many clients it has, how expansive its empire / network / influence is.

All perfectly valid and impressive, and each has a place in marketing messages. But, just like the tiresome arse at a networking event who drones on about how successful he is (it usually is a ‘he’, alas), all that becomes a bit of a noise and the victim tends to move on elsewhere; pleased to be rid of yet another self-aggrandising bore.

The trouble with the very clever people in B2B organisations is that there are rather a lot of them in most businesses. Lots of very clever people, who are very good at their jobs, and have been doing it for a useful number of years.

So how does a prospective customer or client know who to pick?

Of course, they may and probably do already have a relationship with a given business and are likely to go directly to them. But then, if you’re operating at a reasonable level, it’s likely there will be others in the mix as a preference, policy or regulatory requirement.

It then becomes critical to stand out. Let’s not pretend every tender, procurement exercise or pitch begins on absolutely level pegging. Humans are fallible and like to get their own way, so you can bet your boots that someone is going in as the favourite. Wouldn’t it be helpful if it was you?

Understanding your brand and what it stands for is a good place to start. By ‘brand’ I don’t mean your logo or the colours on your jazzy powerpoint deck. Brand is the story of your business and that slightly unattainable, tricky-to-articulate reason why your clients tell people about you, or your team feels proud to tell people where they work.

What your clients will say is “they do great work and we like them.” Every client says this, and while it’s probably true, it’s not actually the real nub of the matter.

It might be more accurate for them to say: “They align with our values, they make us feel confident, we really trust them. No, I don’t know why, now you come to mention it.”

So you need to tell people why. Why do you do what you do so well? Why do you come into work on a Monday morning full of vim and vigour for the week ahead? Why do people want to work for or with you? Dig into your values as an organisation, understand the purpose of your existence beyond your functional work and making profit – and ‘purpose’ doesn’t have to mean a social or environmental cause, as important as those are.

Critically, whatever your purpose, it absolutely has to be real. You might be able to fake it for a while, but people talk and you’ll come a cropper if you try to put lipstick on a pig.

This isn’t some wishy-washy exercise of self-indulgence either. Look at the biggest brands in the world. ‘Brand’ is a crucial element of their value. Apple laptops cost twice as much as most ‘regular’ laptops and do broadly the same thing equally well – people buy them because having that logo on your laptop makes you feel special in Starbucks. Even I’m using the term ‘regular’ laptops. There’s Apple, for cool, creative and edgy people; other laptops are for unimaginative dullards (I’m writing this on my HP laptop which does a perfectly good job, thank you).

I have a feeling a lot of growing SMEs jump straight to the execution aspect of marketing without spending time on brand, and there’s a compelling rationale for that. The idea of sinking a couple of months or longer into creating a robust brand strategy feels like a needless delay in a culture where pace, hustle (bleurgh) and impatience are dominant. Even helpful, at times.

And you know what you need to say anyway, right? Wee-eeell… ever since I’ve been involved in marketing and communications, which is knocking on for 20 years, I’ve asked a version of the question: “What makes you different and why should anyone care?” The response has generally been a variation on: “Because we’re the best lawyers / accountants / engineers / etc and we have lots of excellent clients / customers.”

Imagine asking out an intended beau and telling them: “I’m the best boyfriend / girlfriend in the market and I’ve had a great many sexual partners so I think you’ll be impressed.”

Now, at some point that information and experience may come in useful, assuming things go well initially. As an opening gambit, though, it’s a little off-putting. It might be more productive to focus on understanding the recipient’s requirements, and perhaps demonstrate why you’re the right person to bring fulfilment to their lives.

Sure, that calls for a little more thought, and might take a little longer to get just right. But once you capture the essence of what you’re selling – either as a business or a desirable person-about-town – you’ll find your intended audience is more receptive and engaged.

Tyler Durden sold a dream of absolute freedom from the shackles of society, where getting punched in the face represented liberation and empowerment. If the figment of an insomniac imagination can pull that off, then it should be a walk in the park for the clever people in B2B organisations to create a richer, more differentiated experience for their audiences.