The Math of Marketing

Often times when you sit down and look at two products, they seem remarkably alike. In fact, when you look at the makeup of a product, two products can have all of the same characteristics, but something, this unknown factor makes them different.

This is where the math of marketing comes into play. It is really a very simple equation.

Let’s look at two identical car dealerships. We will call one Old Macdonald Dealers, and the other New Macdonald. Clearly, these companies offer the exact same product, but how to market them? A car from Old Macdonald, and a Car from New Macdonald are the exact same in every way, so when you are coming up with a marketing strategy, what to do you do?

Well, let’s do a little back story here. Old Macdonald is a family run company. They have been part of the community for several generations. Most likely they sold your parents their first car. They pride themselves on customer service and satisfaction, and will go the extra mile to make sure you are happy.

New Macdonald just opened. They have a state of the art showroom, and the highest quality tools to make sure your car is kept in tip top shape to the newest in industry specifications. New Macdonald uses all of the tools at their disposal, a cutting edge website, mailing list, search engine marketing and optimization, social media, and a multitude of other mediums.

You can start to see a clear picture here, possibly because I wrote the stories that way. However here is a simple equation:

Idea 1 – Idea 2 = What Makes You Marketable

Seems simple enough doesn’t it? Well yes, Old Macdonald needs to sell cars; they also need to sell what makes them different than New Macdonald. For them it’s all about customer service, longevity, and loyalty. It’s the safe decision. They market that, they were your parent’s company, and they are the safe choice.

While that might work for Old Macdonald, New Macdonald looks and says, well, ok, subtracting what makes us the same, we might not have the history and track record, but we do have all of the cutting edge equipment to make sure that your car is taken care of in this generation.

I know this seems very simple, but a lot of time I find it’s forgotten. What makes you different from your competitors?

Old Macdonald                        New Maconald                         Mustache

One of my favorite journal articles has always been “On Popular Music” by Theodor Adorno. While many ideas are shared in this article (which I highly recommend reading) the relevant one to this article is the idea of pseudo individualization. This was the idea that all bands are made of similar components; think bass, drums, guitar, and singer. On top of that, they share similar influences. While these bands may plead to the ends of the earth that they are not at all alike, and that they are the most individual thing to ever happen to music, it’s the slight difference in between these bands that make them marketable.

Let’s use a band like Black Keys for instance. They are playing what can best be described as blues rock and seem very different from anything else on the radio today. Not only that, they are a duo. Radically different than your standard four piece. However, what they share with other rock bands, and pop bands, is similar song structure, they use the same instruments; you aren’t really surprised by where they are going. Although they are giving you something new, it’s familiar enough that you aren’t scared off. That’s the idea of pseudo individualization, and its appeal. People like what is familiar to them. If you can make something “like” something people have heard before, but tweak it ever so slightly, that is what makes it marketable.