The Law of Focus - #5 Law under the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
“The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind”. ‘You burn your way into the mind by narrowing the focus to a single word or concept’.
This is more of a branding related activity in today’s market. Owning a word and burning it down an individual’s mind is a tough job and will happen only over a period of time. Brand Retention has become much tougher today than how it was in the good old days. Consumers are smarter and have the ammunition ready to counter you if you say something off hand or try to use the ‘Convince or Confuse’ strategy. People have become more sceptical to accept a brand association with a word easily. It is tedious, time consuming and a lot harder than before coz you have to prove that you are the one they can trust and stay at the top for some time at least to even being considered! However, this is not impossible and will need a sophisticated, detailed and a well planned Digital Marketing Strategy that will drive down the preferred word down every concerned individual’s mind.
In today’s digital world, there are too many brands and too many words being tossed around. Registering a company and setting up a website is child’s play these days, considering the minimum investment and maximum exposure the internet gives to the brands. As a result, there are many players coming into the market on a daily basis and trying to create a buzz with wacky and creative marketing campaigns and offers one cannot resist, just to get the attention of customers. Whereas, the customer is totally confused as to whom to associate to which word, unless of course, the brand comes up with a unique approach that stands out from the rest in grabbing the attention of the pricey customer.
An easier way to grab attention and get associated with a word is to use the word within your company tagline, a classic example would be ‘NOKIA – Connecting People’. The tagline is then strongly publicised along with the brand. Some brands have gone to the extent of incorporating the tagline within the brand logo itself, so that they get maximum exposure. Having a tagline associated within the brand logo is good in a way as it defines your objective all through the journey and will keep reminding you as to what path you have chosen to walk and not get distracted. However, it might also be an obstacle if you want to get into another path related to your path but is not the same anymore as per the chosen one. In such cases, there will be a need to initiate the rebranding exercise or to start a sub brand alongside.
With too many players in the foray, there will be an ongoing competition to own the words in the market. It is no longer right not to pursue a word which is already owned by your competitor, until unless your competitor is a proven player and has been in the market for quite some time. If you have a competitor who is a new entrant in the market or someone who has taken the lead but is within a catchable distance, it is then better to pursue the word instead of letting the competitor enjoy the lead and letting them own the word without a fight. The explosion of Social Media is a boon to the marketing fraternity and a good platform to spread the word, the Brand word.
