Understanding how to market successfully often starts with a great concept

Whilst putting the finishing touches to my new day long Copywriting Masterclass I was reminded of one of those intangibles in getting your head round how best to market  - and that’s identifying a concept.

You see successful marketing is not talking about a product or service - it often relies on the ability to create a concept. This is something I do with my marketing postcards so:

•  The concept around life coaching was a cynical woman asking what had happened to the bowl of cherries she was promised. 
• A garden designer service was captured by a picture of someone’s booted feet flat out on the grass – with the caption “Psst!  We’ll let you in on a trade secret – all the best gardeners delegate”
• A postcard I designed some years ago shows a man jumping between two rocks with the caption “would now be a good time to talk to you about insurance?”

By the way, this is not easy, but it's usually easier for “an outsider” than for the business owner themselves.  Celebrated US copywriter Joseph Sugarman says “it often takes the skills of a conceptual thinker to come up with the right idea and the right position”

And there’s me thinking you just needed to be a bit quirky!

Sometimes this positioning is about creating “drama” – and for that reason I will look at a product or service in every conceivable way – frontwards, backwards, sideways, upside down and inside out because somewhere in the product/service itself lies the drama that will sell it to the people who want it.

On a more pragmatic level changing a price point can also change its concept.

For example a “just launched, cutting edge electronic product” might sell at £199, as time goes on it is sold as “something everyone but you has” at £89 and to make this accessible to children the parents will probably purchase it as “an educational toy “at £49.  The copy in the ad will be pretty much the same.

In these fast-paced times - where copycat products and services multiply everywhere you look - finding a new concept is much more challenging,  but every good product/service has it and every good marketing consultant WILL find it…

Want to see other sample concepts? Pop on the postcard page of my website www.businessfulcrum.co.uk and check out my video 

Has the identification of a concept helped you in your business?