MarketSense

What's in a name - Product Naming

I was reading through my September issue of Real Simple magazine. They had an article on budget wrinkle smoothers which caught my attention. I had been thinking of updating my face regimen. This article recommended a variety of consumer products for different skin types and the different age needs.

One product caught my attention. It was called "Boots No. 7 Protect and Perfect Intense Beauty Serum". (Count the number of words, folks. Red warning bells ought to be ringing.) The author described the product

"Dry complexions drank up this elixir packed with retinol and peptides (to minimize fine wrinkles), as well as antioxidants and alfalfa extract..."

I was not familiar with the brand, so I thought all I needed to remember was Boots No. 7 and I would have no trouble finding the product.

Off to Target I went (this was the article's suggested buying location). The Boots display was easy to find. But then the problems began.

It seems that the No. 7 is part of the brand name. I thought that it was an identifier for the product, sort of like Boots No. 5 was the cleanser and Boots No. 10 was the finisher. No such luck.

At this point, I no longer knew exactly what I was looking for. I was faced with over a dozen different products. Perhaps I could narrow down by type of product. I was looking for a moisturizer, wasn't I? All of the other words in the product name eluded me. Was it the...

• Instant Radiance Beauty Balm
• Protect and Perfect Beauty Serum
• Protect and Perfect Intense Beauty Serum
• Protect and Perfect Day Cream
• Soft and Sheer Tinted Moisturizer
• Time Resisting Day Cream
• Advanced Hydration Day Cream
• Advanced Hydration Day Fluid
• Lifting and Firming Day Cream
• Moisture Quench Day Cream

Talk about over-population of line extensions!

Now I am getting annoyed. So, I start looking at the packaging. I did remember that it had retinol and antioxidants in it. I am reading product ingredients. No sign of the words retinol or antioxidants on any ingredients list.

The product descriptions weren't any help either. Lots of silky, anti-aging, protect words in the descriptions. I couldn't figure out how to differentiate anything from anything.

At the price point, I wasn't going to buy anything. Exit Target. No Boots.

Neither a good outcome for me nor a good outcome for Boot No. 7.

In the upcoming posts, I am going to use this example as a case study on product naming.

Provocative Buyer Persuasion

The question on many of our minds is how do you change the discussion with your prospects in this challenging business environment?

In the March 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review, the article In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers takes a page out of the classic buyer persuasion playbook.

In the article by Philip Lay, Todd Hewlin, and Geoffrey Moore, the authors recommend developing a provocative point on a critical customer issue. In other words, they are starting by looking at the buyer's business.

We in marketing and sales ought to know a lot about our buyer's businesses. Like good consultants, we should be paying attention to the little things we learn about their business. If we are paying attention, we can take this intelligence and obtain insight into our buyer's business that even the buyer doesn't have.

In buyer persuasion, we take that insight and turn it into a secret weapon in our marketing and sales processes. We know that by satisfying the buyer's strongest motivations, we can more effectively direct the sale.

This article takes this one step further and suggests that we take this insight and create compelling products based on it. In the situations cited in the article, the company that recognized the provocation didn't leave the solution up to the buyer. They took the initiative and the risk and developed a response (think product) to the provocation. Then they sold it to the buyer.

So, what did the provocation do for the seller?

It created a unique, high-value opportunity to sell a solution for a costly strategic problem.

It compelled project investment outside of the buyer's existing budget.

And how did the seller do this?

By building a customized, persuasive business case that the buyer could not turn down, even in this tough business environment.

Two thoughts to consider:

What is the true value of the buyer intelligence we have floating around our organizations?

Why we aren't doing this provocative buyer persuasion all of the time?