Managing a Manufacturers Mindset

As a young and enthusiastic sales executive I relied heavily on the old FAB acronym (Feature, Advantage, Benefit) to extol the various virtues of the products and services that I was flogging. It was a long standing approach passed down through sales teams designed to show your prospect what was in it for them. In a face to face conversation where you had the chance to build a rapport, it could be effective.  

Having been working in agencies now for nearly two decades, I’ve also seen this method appear frequently in creative briefs: “The tomato sauce in our baked beans is more tomatoey than our competitors sauces,” type thing! 

Don’t get me wrong, there’s value in communicating differentiating features. To give one example of many, Under Armour made a virtue of the technical orientation of their fabrics, which enabled them to steal a march on far larger and better resourced apparel manufacturers. And who can forget the Pepsi Challenge campaign from the 70s and 80s?!

But when we get bogged down in rational features and solutions and even worse, begin using the same language and imagery, it means we’ve fallen into the trap of the ‘manufacturers mindset.’ In other words, we’re only talking about ourselves (and our competitors are only talking about themselves too). 

This is the sort of scenario that we at Tayburn love. It’s a chance to course correct and embrace a brand-led rethink that focuses more on emotional value: 'how it makes you feel?'

One particularly effective way of doing this is through the adoption of a challenger mindset. Challengers come in lots of different forms and don't have to be shouty and judgemental as many perceive. Notable examples include; the higher moral purpose of Patagonia, the maverick irreverence of Dollar Shave Club, the ability of Virgin to stand up for the underserved and the game-changing and dramatic disruption of Tesla. 

On the face of it these brands have little in common. Their only unifying theme is how they have challenged the conventions of the categories within which they are found by driving deeper emotional connections with their audiences and crucially, not always talking about themselves!