Does what you are matter more than who you are?
I saw an article that caught my eye today in Advertising Age. The subject was, essentially, “how to establish yourself and win your business category.” Find the online article here. The author is Al Reis, a very well-known marketing strategist. I’ve probably been aware of Mr. Reis for more than 30 years.
This time out, his point is that every brand, including yours, is associated with two names: the brand name and the name of its business category. In his view, too many marketing people spend all their money and effort on the brand, and yet over time, the name and description you give your category can have a tremendous impact on the success of your brand.
Case in point – diet versus light.
Only about 30% of carbonated drinks sold in America are of the diet variety. Conversely, about 60% of U.S. beer consumption is light beer. Light, it seems, means you can drink more of it and it’s less caloric – tastes great/less filling. Diet, on the other hand, seems to stand for less fattening/tastes lousy.
What could this possibly mean to us?
If you are a continuing care retirement community, how much emphasis do you think your independent living prospect puts on the category phrase “continuing care”? When prospects say “I’m just not ready for that yet,” what is it, do you think, they’re referring to? What is it they’re not ready for? Maybe it’s a smoke screen objection. Maybe it’s not.
For years, there has been a debate going on regarding whether or not the CCRC target audience objects to the label of “senior” because, the logic goes, so many of them believe it implies elderliness and frailty. Some communities don’t like to use the word “retirement,” because they believe their audience will associate it with a lack of activity.
But for some prospects, maybe it’s the label “continuing care” that has too much intuitive baggage for them to wrap their emotional selves around. After all, it does seem to say the primary idea here is care.
So what do you think? Do you think you should give your category a new name, and with it, a new definition? If not, why not? If so, how about – A Lifetime Retirement Community – where people like you enhance and protect all the possibilities for their future.
Let the debate begin.
Way to go, Skip! Great concept and right-on! Thanks for your very astute comments and accuracy in what is REALLY going on out here in the trenches with the multitudes of “Never Ready Eddies!”
Lauren
Thanks, Lauren. “Not ready” can be a legitimate objection. Question is, not ready for what? Not ready to be associated with a place calls itself a care community? The only real way to find out is to ask and help those prospects verbalize what it really is they’re not ready for.