National Clothesline

The most powerful marketing strategy is also the most obvious. It’s simple and easy to understand. That’s why it works so well.

Strangely enough, when presented with a simple, obvious strategy, many drycleaners are not enthused. They are usually looking for some clever, not-so-obvious idea. But the reality is that the best strategy is the most obvious. If it’s obvious to you, it will also be obvious to your customers, which is why it will work in the marketplace. It’s just common sense.

If you look up the dictionary definition of common sense, you will see that it is “native good judgment that is free from emotional bias or intellectual subtlety.”

In other words, when you use common sense, you are seeing things as they really are. You are following the dictates of cold logic, eliminating both sentiment and self-interest from your decision. Nothing could be simpler.

Consider this: If you were to ask ten people at random how well a Cadillac would sell if it looked like a Chevrolet, they would say, “Not very well.”

These people are using nothing but common sense in their judgment. They have no data or research to support their conclusion. They also have no technical knowledge. To them, a Cadillac is a big expensive car, and a Chevrolet is a smaller less expensive car. They are seeing things as they really are.

But at General Motors, rather than seeing the world as it is, those in charge saw it as they wanted it to be. Common sense was ignored and they decided to build the Cimarron. Not surprisingly, it didn’t sell very well.

There is a growing number of competitors coming at you from every angle. Technologies are constantly changing, threatening your core business, and forcing you to move forward or be destroyed. It is increasingly difficult for drycleaners to digest the flood of information out there and make the right choices. If you trust your common sense, it will lead you in the right direction.

Success or failure is all about perceptual problems and opportunities in the marketplace. And it’s all about understanding that the perceptions in the mind of the customer are where you win and lose.

You have to stay focused on adapting to the mind of the prospect, not trying to change it. Minds are difficult if not impossible to change. Untested marketing concepts should never be allowed to cloud your common sense and your own feeling for your market.

The search for the obvious generally starts with your competition. A very powerful marketing strategy is repositioning the competition. In other words, to move a new idea into customers’ minds, you have to first move an old one out. This means undercutting an existing concept.

Here are three examples from other industries:

1. Tylenol positioned itself as the pain reliever for millions of people who should not take aspirin because they have asthma, allergies, ulcers, etc. Sales of Tylenol took off.

Today Tylenol is the number-one acetaminophen. Their simple, but effective, repositioning strategy did the job against an institution like aspirin.

2. Procter and Gamble used one of the most powerful repositioning programs to launch Scope mouthwash. They used two words to reposition the leading brand, Listerine: “Medicine breath.”

Who wants their breath to smell like medicine?

3. Over 20 years ago, BMW launched its very successful brand of cars by repositioning Mercedes. The headline of the introductory ad said, “The ultimate sitting machine verses the ultimate driving machine.”

Repositioning is more crucial today than ever because competition has never been so intense. It’s an ugly fact of life, but your greatest growth potential may be in taking away customers from your competition. The key to survival is to start every marketing plan with your competition in mind.

In your search for a common-sense strategy, you also need to avoid your competitors’ strengths and exploit their weaknesses. When a competitor is known for one thing, you have to be known for something else. Quite often, that “something else” is a competitor’s built-in weakness that you can exploit.

If McDonald’s strength is being a little kid’s place, Burger King can exploit that by being a grown-up place. For years, Detroit’s automobiles were perceived as not being very reliable. Toyota was able to exploit that perception and take ownership of “reliability.”

But remember, I’m talking about strengths and weaknesses in the minds of customers. Marketing is a battle of perceptions. What you’re really doing is exploiting perceptions.

Number-two Avis did “try harder,” but Hertz improved their efforts.

Then one day, Hertz ran a devastating ad with the headline, “For Years, Avis Has Been Telling You They Are Number Two. Now We’re Going To Tell You Why.”

Then Hertz went on to talk about all their improvements. Avis never quite recovered.

The lesson is: Don’t just build your strategy around your competitors’ mistakes. They may, eventually, correct them.

It’s also important to remember that you must eliminate your smaller competitors as quickly as possible so they cannot develop legitimacy and momentum.

General Motors waited while the Germans and Japanese invaded the U.S. market with smaller cars. GM executives felt they couldn’t make money on this type of car, so they rationalized their position by convincing themselves that Americans wanted big comfortable cars. Not so!

Gillette, on the other hand, countered Bic’s disposable razors with the twin-bladed disposable called Good News. They may not make much money on these razors, but today they dominate this category as well as the traditional, and more profitable, cartridge razors.

Suppose you’re the smaller drycleaner. How do you avoid a bigger competitor that is trying to squash you?

The best strategy is to sneak up on a bigger competitor and never appear to be threatening. Slowly build your business and momentum in places where you’re less visible, like pick-up and delivery. After you’ve got some size and momentum, you can step up and better deal with the bigger cleaners.

Also, if a bigger competitor is about to attack your market, you should attack first. If you don’t, you will be overrun.

Finally, if you already dominate your market, the common sense strategy is to exploit the advantage of being the leader. Most companies fail to do this. Instead of “I’m lovin’ it,” McDonald’s should promote itself as, “The world’s favorite place to eat.”

Leadership is the most powerful way to differentiate yourself. The reason is that it’s the most direct way to establish your credentials. And credentials are the collateral you put up to guarantee your service.

When you have leadership credentials, prospects are likely to believe almost anything you say about your services. People tend to equate “bigness” with success, status, and leadership. They give respect and admiration to the biggest.

Leadership is a wonderful position from which to tell the story of how you got to be Number One. People will believe whatever you say if they perceive you as a leader. They figure you know more.

When you’re on top, make sure everyone knows it. Too many drycleaners take their leadership for granted and never exploit it. All this does is keep the door open for competition. Whenever you get the chance, slam the door on your competition.