One afternoon not long ago I took a moment to sit down and read the morning newspaper.  I’ve always been an afternoon newspaper guy. (Deseret News, can you hear me?)  Immediately, frustration set in — not with prognostications about the recession, but with the advertising content.

I noticed a local grocery store insert – jammed full of prices and items, but nothing else.   Then I happened upon a second insert — different grocery store, likewise packed with products and prices.  “Fresh, crisp broccoli, 69 cents a pound,” the first screamed at me. Not to be outdone, the second insert’s main headline also touted “Broccoli, 69 cents a pound.” “Citrus sale” both also loudly announced. Other prices and featured items in the two competing inserts were similar, as well.

A few minutes later, my frustration level rose. This time two competing sporting goods stores were announcing similar “40% Off” sales on almost identical “active apparel.” Again, sale items galore. Then, finally, a logo, address and the dreaded, microscopic disclaimers.

I wanted to bellow, “Give me a reason to choose one of you!”  “Any good reason besides price!”  “Please, tell me why I should select your store over theirs!” “Offer me a worthwhile point of differentiation!”

Is it a disease transmitted by local, retail advertisers only?  Sadly, no.  A day later I sat down with a recent issue of Fast Company Magazine.  Hot car ad #1 looked like hot car ad #2 which looked like hot car ad #3.  In each instance, I beheld a page-dominant photo of a glistening machine in full zoom mode, accompanied by a small, pithy headline about escaping life.  My wife and I were actually in the market for a car at the time.  None of the ads, at the cost of about $60,000 per page, left me with a clear understanding of their respective vehicular differences.

The same could be said of that issue’s multiple laptop computer ads. Shame on them.

Come on now, how long has the philosophy of “positioning” been around?  Yet so many companies (and, apparently, ad agencies) still ignore it.  Failure is fully deserved when the principle of positioning goes unobserved.

Jack Trout and Al Reis introduced it in their classic business book, “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.” The year was 1972. They spoke convincingly of creating and owning a unique position in the prospect’s mind and heart. A pretty photo with a word-play headline just doesn’t do the job.

No client will succeed long-term with a grocery store mentality. Someone else will always announce a can of beans at a lower price. Price is not a powerful, long-term marketing position, in my opinion. Target has created an “upscale sale” niche that has nearly destroyed K-mart – by focusing on something more than mere coupons.  They’ve created an edgy feeling and attitude about their value-oriented brand.  They’ve carved out a position that differentiates their stores from competing retailers.  Target is a hip place to save money.

Apple has done the same thing.  No matter the product, their approach is “think different.” It’s a brand that stands for innovation, design, and revolution.  Bottom line, it stands for something meaningful.

If only those grocery store ads had given me a reason to smile, to think, to feel, to like them for more than just the price of broccoli. Wild Oats does that in spades.  They’re willing to take some of that supposedly precious price-and-item ad space to build a meaningful, lovable personality that creates long-term loyalty.

The principle is the same regardless of the venue in which you practice capitalism. The goal is to avoid that grocery store syndrome at all costs. Give consumers a reason to buy, to be loyal, to love your product or service. Build a unique brand, not merely a me-too ad. It’s called meaningful differentiation, and it makes a difference at the cash register.

Image courtesy of jbcurio on Flickr.

Although Romeo and Juliet is now regarded by many as Prokofiev’s finest work, soon after it’s unveiling, critical carping began.  In the local press, his score was decried as odd, inadequate, and lacking sufficient feeling and melody to effectively portray the emotions of the story.  It was different.  And different was, well, bad.

Prokofiev retorted, “My own conviction is that there is plenty of all that [emotion] in it.  I have never shunned the expression of feeling and have always been intent on creating melody – new melody, which perhaps certain listeners do not recognize as such simply because it does not resemble enough the kind of melody to which they are accustomed.”

There in the proverbial nutshell is the world’s oft-repeated critique of creativity.

“If people find no melody and no emotion in this work, I shall be very sorry.  But I feel sooner or later they will,” Prokofiev opined.  And they did.

Later, one New York critic wrote, “Prokofiev has written music for the masses and at the same time has attained extraordinary nobility.”  About the score, Prokofiev’s biographer, Israel V. Nestyev declared, “Here we find no trace of surface inventiveness, grotesquerie or expressionistic hyperbole.  The music recreates with extraordinary power and compassion the passions and dramatic conflicts of Shakespeare’s immortal characters.”

“No trace of surface inventiveness.”  Few definitions of creativity are more accurate than that.

Was Prokofiev creating “art for art’s sake?”  He said, “ In Romeo and Juliet I have taken special pains to achieve a simplicity which will, I hope, reach the hearts of all listeners.”

There, in another nutshell, is what I believe to be the battle cry and the redeeming value of creativity.  “Reach the hearts.”  Loyalty and brand bias are built in your beating chest organ far more than in your cranial cavity.

That’s why, though you’ve decided to purchase a new car based on facts and figures, when you suddenly see an alternative that sets your heart aflutter, facts take a back seat.  (Hence, I personally bought the Saab 9-5 instead of the more logical Toyota.) It is my opinion that people buy with their emotions, and later justify the purchase intellectually.  Even many mundane purchases are generally the result of some previous or immediate emotional connection.

I propose there is a very crucial link between creativity in communication and consumer awareness, sales, and loyalty.  Creativity, of the intelligent, well-strategized sort, is all about the bottom line.

It’s not uncommon to hear so-called marketing experts snidely proclaim, “It isn’t creative unless it sells.”  I reply, “But it doesn’t sell unless it’s creative, because if your message is not interesting, entertaining and relevant in the first place, it will be ignored or despised.

Oh sure, leading brands must also rely on effective positioning.  But even the cleverest positioning must be communicated in fresh fashion if it’s to be noticed, remembered and acted upon.

Thankfully, there is now considerable industry research that confirms that premise.  I have a stack of it I’ll share with you if you’re interested.