You can kill a solid product
There’s nothing like good marketing to kill a bad idea. The opposite can also be true.
It’s the afternoon. Wicker, garish floral print, and leafy green plants dominate your view. Four old ladies in bathrobes lounge in their living room. Three have come down with a case of the flu.
In stuffed sentences, they discuss medicine, doctors, and home remedies.
“In Sicily, we never went to the doctor,” shares Sofia, the fourth and oldest lady, who managed to avoid the flu. “We went to the Widow Caravelli. Whatever you had, she had a cure.”
As it turns out, the Widow Caravelli was most famous for her cure for ear infections.
One patient named Salvadore misunderstood her directions and put the green-colored salve on his linguine instead of in his ear.
According to Sofia, the stuff tasted great, and Salvadore decided to market it. At first, things didn't go so well. “Linguine with Ear Salve on a menu doesn’t look too appetizing. But once he changed the name to pesto sauce, it moved like hotcakes.”
I was told once there’s nothing like good marketing to kill a bad idea — fast. But what if the opposite was also true: that you can kill a good product with poor marketing?
We’ve all rolled out a new program or product only to have it land with a thud. At the risk of prolonging a necessary act of subtraction, what if the problem didn’t lie with the product itself but in how you named and otherwise talked about that product to others?
Here are some questions you can ask as you assess your situation:
Have I described it using my words or the words that resonate with the people I serve?
Have I made it unappealing for some reason? Are there words or phrases that are actively turning people off or pushing them away?
Have I made it too complex? Am I talking over their heads or making them work too hard to get it?
If it has a name, did I make it something no one can pronounce? Does it make them think of something else that either confuses or distracts them?
Am I talking about the features and details that matter to me or the value that matters to them?
Have I nailed the way I’m talking about it, but I’m talking to the wrong people?
If you truly believe it could be one or more of these issues rather than a solution that isn’t driving value, determine how you’re going to test your theory to prove that you’re correct.
The faster you can determine if it’s a communication problem or a product problem, the better you can adjust and drive value.
Happy Tuesday,
Katie
Your Friendly Weekly Writer
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P.S. For those of you who want to watch this scene, hit play below.