There are plenty of times you have to try and market something which is just plain boring to the majority of people. How do you handle the brand wanting to expand and try to sell outside of a niche? While your widget may get 21% more foobars per cycle than the nearest competitor, what does this mean to a wider audience? Certain products are going to be boring and others mundane, so you need to approach marketing with them differently.
While the terms “boring” and “mundane” read as similar to most people, they are substantially different. Something which is mundane is probably going to be as boring as something boring is mundane, but it isn’t always the case. Some products just aren’t that interesting, but definitely aren’t mundane either. A highly specialized glue brush for model trains for instance isn’t mundane, but you’re not going to be selling out anytime soon either.
“Boring” is the interpretation and “mundane” is the function. While our glue brush may be exciting to someone involved in the hobby, the majority of people will interpret it as something relatively boring. It doesn’t serve what they view as exciting or interesting. A lot of men are interested in axes and similar tools, but they’re also arguably mundane. A toothbrush is both boring and mundane.
While this comparison seems to just be cutting hairs with semantics, it illustrates an important point: even something mundane can be interesting. Something boring is a bit more difficult, but it touches on a different side of the marketing equation which we’ll delve into in a bit. Some of the more specific examples may not be entirely accurate for the market they represent, but the general principle should still apply if you make the assumption that our outsider analysis is “correct”.
Selling an Experience
Most people don’t buy a backpack or suitcase because it fits the exact dimensions they want, with 3 separate pockets and reinforced zippers, they buy it because it fits what they’re looking to do. They want a backpack to go hiking or a suitcase to go traveling. One of the tricks for selling something mundane is to target the lifestyle, dream, or need that your prospective audience is looking to experience.
Your audience is going to have different ideals, dreams, wants, and needs, and you need to know where they crossover to most efficiently target your campaign. A sports car commercial is going to sell on experiencing zipping down the freeway, happy and without care, as you coast down a scenic back road (in crisp business casual because you can afford it). The whole commercial will try to exude youth, excitement, power, and status. A truck commercial is going to hit a whole different angle on how useful it can be for someone in the country or with needs to haul things.
For driving to and from work, a sports car, a truck, or a cheap compact car are going to accomplish the exact same goals, but who purchases which is going to vary on what they need, or think they might need if it fits in with their desires. Why buy the compact when you could feel young and free like the suave actor in the sports car? What’s a sedan going to do when you need to go offroad to haul something? Neither make much sense in a city, but you’ll see more trucks than anything in a lot of cities in the southern states. The implication is: “this product can make you feel that way.” How do you make the mundane more interesting, or turn the perception on what’s boring around? Once you can answer this, you’re ready to build out of raw specifications.
Spec Sheets vs. Lifestyle Descriptions
A lot of marketing collateral for less interesting products starts out looking like a spec sheet unfortunately. Spec sheets are indispensable, but only to the right audience. The specs are useless if they don’t mean anything to the reader. What is the difference between 20 Hz – 16kHz and 60 Hz – 22 kHz mean between a set of speakers if you aren’t at least a little into audio?
On the other hand, you also have airy descriptions filled with powerful words and language which matches up to the ideal, but alienates anyone in the know. The description needs to be exciting and interesting, but it also needs to fit the spec sheet. It doesn’t matter how many times the description works the word “gamer” in, I’m not going to suggest it to anyone who wants to game unless the specs make sense. If too many people do the same, the brand is going to develop a reputation for being subpar.
Make sure that the angle you try to sell can be reconciled with the actual specs for the item. If a boring CAD laptop has a great graphics card, why not potentially try to expand on the line and also sell it as a gaming machine? If the screen is top notch too, you can also branch out into the general design or graphics field. You’re probably not selling it as a tiny travel laptop though, though a portable workstation scratches a different itch. Paint the description in a way the product could and would actually be used. The more mundane, the less over the top you want to be.
Highlighting Different Features
As we see with our CAD laptop, we began to target features which overlap with another target market. This can work as long as you don’t end up trying to target something at odds with the primary purpose. A status symbol brand luxury bag isn’t going to sell as well if one of the selling points of something in the line is affordability. You dilute the brand.
Highlight features which are accessible to other target audiences without alienating the core audience which built the brand. While selling out can be attractive, it tends to be shortsighted without a real strategy. You tend to risk losing your biggest fans who are (ideally) helping get more people interested in your product through word of mouth.
You have to look deeper into your audience and try to stick to the overlap. Someone more technical who does CAD may also want to game which potentially means two selling points (though you’d need to do actual research for if this is true or not), but how does the gaming side affect the CAD sales? A few years ago, the common adage among most CAD specialists I worked with was that if it’s good for gaming, it’s bad for CAD. Assuming they represented our target market, that would mean this extra feature has now sabotaged success with more knowledgeable users. It doesn’t matter whether the adage is correct or not either; the perception is enough.
The more niche the product, the more likely this sort of crossover application is going to backfire (without proper research). A general laptop is going to appeal to different audiences due to many factors (e.g. Is it portable? Does it look good? How fast is it? Can it be used as a tablet?), but a more niche product is going to end up much more restricted. A CAD laptop isn’t going to be all that portable, and if it is, it’s not going to be suitable for CAD. It has been flattened into a more mundane tool which has more boring and mundane features as the priority.
Growing a Campaign
Once you have figured out the foundation of what you’re trying to target, you can expand and grow your campaign. If you’re targeting toothbrushes, you probably want to sell on either the quality or the affordability depending on which segment you’re aiming for. Toothbrushes are going to be both boring and mundane, but the stereotypically smiling commercial oozing with newfound self-esteem from the 54 sets of gum massaging bristles only goes so far. The main lifestyle someone brushing their teeth is expecting is “not having cavities”.
People also tend to just buy the same brand of toothbrush they’re used to so there’s less room to move. Seriously, when is the last time you went and shopped a comparison of toothbrushes barring a dental intervention? Some companies get around this by partnering with some kind of kids’ media IP. Now, the kid may want the toothbrush, but how do you sell the parents on it? Easy, make the “cool” one for kids (the most popular character) come with an adult’s toothbrush, or a family set (make it a little cheaper than buying each kind separate too, dangle that carrot). As long as they weren’t disinclined to buy the brand, they’ll probably give in eventually if the kid is obsessed.
It’s crazy how many kids want a kid’s meal (“for the food” and “not for the toy”), and how many parents will give in and buy it for them. Well, now that you’re there, you might as well eat too.
Marketing for children probably isn’t going to be the ideal to follow for the ethics of marketing, but it definitely shows how to make something mundane or boring sell. Sometimes you target something completely different to target another part of the market. Now that the kid and the parents are habituated to the brand of toothbrush or the restaurant, they’re more inclined to keep buying.
Tie what you’re marketing to an experience or a lifestyle if you can. If you can’t, aim for crossover which can help expand its reach outside of a niche. If it’s something more commonplace and mundane, focus on setting yourself apart from others and targeting the market in a unique and different way. Figure out why people are buying the product and you can target how to make them think yours is the best. Make sure what you create matches what you say it is. Layer up the mundane and create something more unique so that you can market it.