All too often, an image is an afterthought in a concept.  So therein lay the problem: the right image could prove very fruitful, but the wrong one can make all the right words fall flat.  In some cases, the default concept image becomes a picture of the product or product line being showcased.  The smart marketer needs to ask himself whether that is adequate.  Let’s think.  The purpose of a concept is to determine if the positioning of the idea resonates with the target audience.  In my opinion, this might just be a bit of a cheat.  A concept can be functional, emotional, or somewhere in between.  It does not make a lot of sense to communicate an emotional idea with a carton, tube, bottle or box, does it?   I could see a picture of a product working well if there is a functional uniqueness such as the form or how it is dispensed that can be depicted.  Other than that, a bottle doesn’t help.

Building on this idea, if the positioning concept has an emotional component to it, picking the right image can be a little tricky.  The target audience will drive the type of image that will work best.  For example, if you have an “all family” product such as a shampoo, it may make sense for a picture to show mom with kids because she is likely the primary purchaser of the product.  In contrast, if the “all family” product is an amusement park, then having a dad in the image with the family may be more important.  Similarly, having people in an image can always be a little dicey.  The marketer needs to ask herself if it’s right to showcase different ethnicities, a certain age range, one person or multiple, or exactly what the people are doing.  All these questions are worthy of exploration.

Qualitative research is the perfect venue to identify the image that really brings home the concept.  In this setting, you can provide several images from which the consumer can pick.  By understanding the choices, you’ve gotten yourself a lot further along the path to final identification and qualification of you idea.  A few minutes might be all it takes to prevent a disaster in a quantitative study, which doesn’t have any flexibility to change once the image is put out there.

With some planning and consideration, you can develop the image you need for your product and your business will grow as a result.

Behind every successful product, service, or brand is a powerful concept.  It is really that simple.  Products and services that win in the marketplace are successful in presenting an idea that combines a clear benefit with invisible consumer logic.   Whether your business is big or small, just started, or in some stage of majority, you need a marketing concept.   Surprisingly, many marketers struggle with creating a unique and ownable concept.  It is much more difficult than most think.

So what exactly is a marketing concept?  Fundamentally, it is the mental picture of the benefit your target audience and your buyer believes they will receive when they purchase your product or service.  The best description I ever heard of a concept was in a speech by Larry Huston of Procter & Gamble in the 1980’s:

A true measure of a [positioning] concept is its simplicity.  When presenting a concept the concept to the consumer, [we] must provide a clean, easily defensible, clearly articulated, emotionally satisfying, thoroughly convincing, superior answer to the deceptively simple question,  “Why should I purchase from you?”

Two fundamental types of concepts exist: core idea concepts and positioning (or marketing) concepts.

• A core idea concept simply describes the product or service being offered and is used to determine whether an idea is of interest to a potential buyer.
• A positioning concept attempts to sell the benefits of the product or service.  It must tap into a real customer believe and provide a relevant context for the idea.

Your business needs a positioning concept, or you’ll look like everyone else in your competitive set.  Even worse, your target audience or your competitor might position you (and it might not want to be what you want to stand for).

Let’s look at a quick example on a mock business for “My Farm” organic milk.  The core idea for the farm’s product is that the milk has all the nutritional features of regular milk, but it’s all natural and free of hormones.  Ok, so that sounds like any product that is organic and customers may or may not be interested in hearing about that.  A positioning concept could offer a benefit such as: My Farm Milk is the milk you can feel good about serving your kids.  Hmm, if I am a mom, I might want find out about a product that makes me feel like a better mom.  If My Farm doesn’t communicate a positioning, the regular milk farmer might suggest that My Farm is the “expensive milk that isn’t worth the extra price.”  As the business owner, which one would you prefer to maximize your profitability?   My educated guess is the marketing concept that tells me what is in it for me . . . I feel good about serving it!

Creating your marketing concept requires some work on your part.  You need to understand three primary areas to develop an effective business positioning:  Content, Language and Relevance.   I call this “CLeAR” thinking to make it easier to remember.

• Content:  You must first make sure that you are communicating something meaningful in the content of your concept.  Does your business solve a problem or overcome an existing negative?  Have you identified believable and meaningful reasons that support why what you are offering is beneficial?  Are you filling a functional need (whiter teeth with a toothpaste) or an emotional need (feeling more comfortable while smiling)?
• Language: The language must be appropriate for the target audience.  If you are targeting a high tech business professional or a nervous, new mom you should be using their language.  Companies often develop an idea and communicate language that sounds like they are targeting the internal company owners and senior management than anyone who might actually want your service.   The language must be outwardly focused—not just company lingo.
• Relevance:  Make your concept relevant to your target, novel, and unique in the competitive set.    If you are selling a shampoo and merely claim that your hair will be clean, the product won’t be jumping off the shelf.   In contrast, if you promise healthy, radiant hair, you’ve offered something that might be aspirational to many.

Once you’ve developed and qualified a winning concept, it must then be turned into a copy strategy.  Contrary to what some believe, a concept is not a selling line such as “Hallmark, when you care enough to send the very best” or “Disney, where dreams come true.”  The marketing concept identified the winning approach; the copy strategy is the backbone of all of your communications—advertising, PR, sales, promotion, website, selling line, social media communications, etc.   The copy strategy is used to execute a winning concept idea.

Let’s look at my own business.  When I first started out, my company was called Consumer Reactions, and I was a moderator of qualitative research.  Most of my business was consumer focused so the company name made sense.   When my husband’s job took us to England, I stopped working.  Upon our return, I opened my business again, but I was smarter.  I recognized a unique opportunity in my prior practice to help my clients provide better concept stimuli for their research.  When I identified that niche, my company became The Rite Concept, and I was now something much broader than a moderator:  I am now known as “The Concept Queen”.  This new positioning and communication was created by seeing a void in the market and realizing that helping clients ideate, research, and develop concepts was a much more unique and relevant to my target audience.

You can do it too.  Large or small, you can find that niche that will help your business, product offering, or service grow much more rapidly.  The time and effort focused on developing your concept and communicating it well will make new sales much more effortless.  And who doesn’t want that?

There are 2 kinds of concepts:  Core Idea and Positioning.  The Core Idea Concept simply describes the product or service. Typically, a core idea concept does not attempt to sell any benefits to the potential buyer, but will highlight some of the features the product or service offers.  In contrast, the Positioning Concept attempts to sell the benefits of the product or service to a potential buyer.  The positioning concept must tap into real consumer beliefs that provide a relevant context for the product idea.  A positioning concept focuses on the benefits a buyer will receive or feel through experiencing the product offering.

Ultimately, your product will need a positioning concept.  Why?  Consumers whether they are doctors, lawyers or Indian chiefs – buy benefits, not product features.  Also, it is important to keep in mind that if you don’t position your offering, someone else will.    So when writing a positioning concept several key areas should be kept in mind:

• Stay focused on the benefit – You are going to sell the product benefit so make sure you have the best possible one that fits with what you offer and excites your consumer.  The benefit is the hero that solves the problem or frustration that is currently being experience.  Make sure it is crisply written and not a laundry list of things the product offers.  If you truly believe the product has that many benefits, then write separate concepts and compare.
• Don’t add many features – It is very tempting to add lots of little things you know about what your product can do or stands for, but this doesn’t make a solid concept.  The features, showcased in your reason to believe (RTB), should only be those that directly support the benefit.  It is unnecessary and often confusing to put in many “extras” that don’t fit with the primary promise.  Remember, your concept becomes a communication strategy for all your venues – it needs to help all elements stay on strategy.  Extra features give the product room to stray and leads to mixed messaging.
• Make sure it is logical – If you’ve done the first two areas well, then the concept logic should flow.  The complete concept should fit together and make sense when read.  The moment someone thinks “What’s that got to with the product offering?” you’ve wandered off.  The best concepts should speak to your consumer and get a head nod of approval that they are tracking with what it being said.

CLICK HERE  Extraordinary Women – Martha Guidry (3 minute excerpt)

The Concept Queen putting her business skills to work with a pro bono consulting project for Oasis Hospital in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

http://www.bestsellersworld.com/2012/01/03/marketing-concepts-that-win-save-time-money-and-work-crafting-concepts-right-the-first-time-by-martha-guidry/

1. Be aware of the author(s) – In any situation, it is important to know who actually wrote the concept.  If you happen to be standing in front of the author, this is probably not the time to reel off about how badly the concept is written.   Similarly, if the concept was written by the most senior marketer of the brand/business, be sensitive to the politics within the audience – even if the person is not present in the room.
2. Be knowledgeable – Your advice is only as good as your expertise.  You need to be informed about what makes a concept strong.  As much as I’d like to say that there are great references out there, I had to write a book because I couldn’t find one.  So, yes, that’s a shameless plug for Marketing Concepts that Win! Honestly though, I believe it will materially improve your knowledge and skills.  Buy a copy at Amazon.com or visit my blog at ConceptTalk.com and peruse the articles.  Both will allow you to make better, more confident recommendations.
3. Ask “Are you open to suggestions for improvement?” – Chances are they’ll say  “yes.”  In my experience, most folks are receptive when asked it they’d like free advice.  Wouldn’t you be?  In the highly unlikely event they say “no” you can’t do much so move on.  Generally, if you are in a qualitative setting, an unreceptive client will find that the consumer won’t hold back – if they don’t get the concept, they will let you know – so, eventually, you’ll be able to help make the concepts more effective.
4.  Ask “What’s the big idea here?” – Fundamentally, this is what a concept is all about – a single-minded (hopefully) big idea that will sell lots of products or services.  If the folks you are working with can’t articulate it OR have different ideas, you will have the opportunity to facilitate a discussion to move toward suggestions for improvement.
5. Isolate elements & discuss – And, finally, a build on the previous point.  Try to isolate various concept elements and talk about how they do or do not support the “big idea.”  You can facilitate a discussion about key elements:  the benefit, the accepted consumer believe, the reason to believe, and the headline.  While a concept is all about the entire communication, the individual pieces must make sense, or collectively they don’t stand a chance.

Hopefully, this will provide you with a starting point when you’re faced with lackluster concepts.  Again, every situation is unique, but a bit of awareness, knowledge, and tact can take you a long way!  Remember that a change of perspective can be a good thing, and always stay positive.  Good luck!

The Concept Queen signs her book, Marketing Concepts that Win!, for Tom Rich at the QRCA Conference in Vegas