Stop Talking About Products and Services

As many of you know, I read Jay Baer’s blog – Convince & Convert – constantly and never feel like he is shorting me on information. I read his post this morning titled, The Power of Consumer Choice Drives Social Media Importance, and a couple of points really hit me. I wanted to share them with you!

Jay just finished reading Seth Godin’s book called, We Are All Weird, which focuses on the power of the consumer, plain and simple. I’ve been a huge fan of Seth Godin and love this insight on the consumer brand and product marketing, however, (like Jay) this excerpt hit me right in the face.

“As soon as consumers enter the marketplace, they gain power, because power comes from choice. Consumer power is a brand new force, and it’s growing exponentially as a result of more affluence running in parallel with more choice.”

I believe, as marketers, we spend a lot of time talking about choice. How do we influence choice? Why was that specific choice made by the consumer?

I don’t believe we fully understand the power of choice. With social media, we are running into a paradigm that must change in order to fully understand the power of choice and influence between your BEST customers. Jay put it best in his blog :

Stop talking about your products and services as objects and items, and talk more about who and how those products and services are used to do amazing things. Build a culture of accomplishment around your offerings, rather than a culture of availability.

Start talking about your products and services as experiences. You don’t sell a garden hose. You sell something that helps Mary tend to her beautiful garden that her grandmother helped her plant when she was a wee one.

That is a powerful story and an experience.

How are you telling the story of your product? Are you sharing the product benefits as an experience?