Know what you are really selling. Know what your competition is selling.

It's not always obvious what you or your competition is really selling. It is my experience that the consumer seldom buys the product. They are buying a brand and what that brand means to them. They are buying a solution to a need. As one of my mentors would say, "people don't buy quarter-inch drill bits, they buy promises of quarter-inch holes." The purchase is motivated by an expectation rather than the product itself. For instance, the purchase of a Maytag washer is what is involved in the purchase transaction between the salesperson and the homemaker. But while the homemaker will say that the purchase is a washer, is it really? Or is it really a purchase of a promise that there will be no breakdowns; the Maytag repair-man will continue to live the lonely life cooped up in his office.

--Are Craftsman tools purchased for their durability or is it the lifetime warranty?
--Is it the "Good Hands" of Allstate instilling the trust factor motivating purchase?
--Is it Clorox's promise of stain removal?
--Is Dawn purchased because of the image as a grease fighter?
--Is it Bounty paper towels' quicker picker-upper image influencing the purchase?

If we look at all the major brands, we find that there is something that sets them apart from all other brands in the category. These attributes can be looked at as the Tie Breakers. In the case of washers, all brands supply a solution for the basic category need. That is, they will wash clothes clean. It is the Tie Breakers that separate the winners from the also-rans.

It's the Tie Breakers that define the market Segmentation. It's the Consumer Needs that define the potential Tie Breakers. Success starts and ends with the consumer. It is our task to identify the needs and the importance of each opportunity relative to one another as it exists today.

New opportunity exploration is the area I consider the most difficult in consumer research. There are, to my knowledge, no set methods for identification. Opportunities can come from many directions such as: technology, life styles, environmental positioning, legislation, new materials, market changes, corporate or brand heritage, etc. Brand differentiation can come in the form of physical properties, in-use properties, efficacy, economics, emotions, packaging, etc.

An excellent method for identifying the Tie Breakers in a specific product category is the Negative Brand Share method I wrote about in the Views of October 17, 1994. For both defensive and offensive marketing, we must identify the Tie Breakers in our areas of business.