HAPPY NEW YEAR! --- (BTW your brand is boring)

I got an email from a blog reader who was looking for some adviceon marketing her product. She wants to start the New Year by giving her brand some life, some personality and some wow. 

Without revealing the details, she was concerned because she felt that her brand was BORING. She wasn’t in a glamorous category, didn’t have a particularly cool aspect to her product line and was in essence a “low-engagement” market segment. 

An example would be shoe laces or buttons. How much do you think about or care about those categories? Probably not much. What she meant by BORING was that no one gave a flip about what she sold and it was less than exciting – even to her.

She asked for help and a few ideas. I’m sharing it but respecting her request for privacy and not describing the specific brand or category. I think the ideas are worth sharing with others who may be struggling with this same type of issue. 

What do you do when your brand, product or category is 

B  O  R  I  N  G  ?  

SPRAY PAINT AWAY THE BORING:You can strip the boring away from anything if you humanize, personalize and tell a compelling story. Don’t get stuck in your categories sameness, tell me an engaging story about how the product played a part in someone’s life. The dullest of products can be a hero to someone. 

I recently used some Gorilla Glue to help fix a crack in a bath tub. It was common everyday glue - pretty boring. But it became my hero as it solved a ridiculously stupid problem for me. I plan on blogging about it someday. Someone may already be talking about your boring product as a hero. Search twitter, Facebook, etc.

SHOW YOUR ORANGE:You clearly never had a professional help you with your packaging and it shows. Go ahead and use 99 designs or a great professional graphic/packaging artist to help you like Cowan Graphics.  Invest a little bit of money to bring your product to life. Imagine a world where everyone wears grey clothes. Now imagine that same world where you add a little orange color where you least expect it. Shazam! Noticeable and not so boring. 

LEVERAGE LANGUAGE:Create a short tagline that sells the benefit of what you sell – not the features. That short phrase will get repeated over and over again so that others can explain it to their friends who may need the same product.  An extraordinary phrase can take the mundane and make it magnificent. Don't be afraid to feature your boringness in the tagline, it might help it stick out from the dull and ordinary. 

Tagline idea: We may be boring, but we get the job done!

INSTAGRAM:   Your particular product could be shown in funny settings on Instagram and could be infused with a strange, odd personality. Don’t be afraid of your boring category but instead put it to use. Show how when your product is in different settings, it brings everyone to life. Take a clue from what Ben & Jerry’s did on Instagram with their #captureeuphoria campaign.

Create something novel like #crushtheboring or #borenomore  and let people who use your products have some fun. Show off these photos on your Facebook page too to spread the word.

THE BORING NEWSLETTER:  Make fun of your boring product. Create a newsletter or email campaign that laughs at the silly, boring product you sell and endears it to others. In my past life, we used to make fun of our brand, Slim Jim® all the time never once taking things too seriously. It helped us earn some cool from our fans. A newsletter or monthly email blast of BORING THINGS IN HISTORY would get my attention and be a subtle reminder of your products underachieving status.

Final Boring Words

Don't let boring be an anchor that weighs you down. Instead, let it be a fun and humorous part of the personality of your brand. Be the anti-cool brand. Stand for something different. Let boring work for you and your product offering. Tell people that you are too busy making great products to worry about being cool. 

Now, that may be boring but it is also different. People notice different.