What’s your focus re product vs marketing to get results?
Superior product vs marketing – what do you think works best?
We’re on the My Kitchen Rules (MKR) bandwagon now, watching home cooks battle it out night after night for the chance of fame and a big chunk of cash.
What has grabbed my interest has been the emergence of a potentially nation-splitting issue…
How does each team really improve their score?
Is it due to their:
- Amazing food, that approaches perfection; or
- Popularity?
Comparing both approaches is instructive – I want you to think about your role and which elements you may need to question.
| Strategy | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| a. Amazing food (i.e. superior product) | Can build a solid reputation over time | Takes a long time to get it right |
| Your product is your point of difference | Competitors can overtake you simply by copying your approach | |
| b. Popularity (i.e. superior marketing) | Faster avenue to market | Hard to convince a cynical market that you’re the real deal |
| Can test and refine what works as you go | Can crash and burn big time with no turning back |
My sense in the MKR scenario is that the contestants who knuckle down, practise their dishes, maintain their cool and continue to learn from their experiences will progress through the competition.
I also believe that there’s probably a lot of timid, polite and all-round nice people who are great cooks but didn’t make it through the auditions.
Two ‘take-aways’ re product vs marketing
Take-away one – reliance on a superior product:
This is a solid approach, it makes sense to keep doing what works well. The challenge is that our market expects ‘superior product’ as the baseline. And if you’re setting the standard, there’s always going to be someone trying to knock you over. Just watch an episode of MKR to see this in action!
The key thing is to be thinking of (and implementing) ‘what’s next’ to keep you ahead of your competition.
Take-away two – focus on your marketing:
Move from being:
- A ‘do-er’ of what you do
- To being a marketer of what you do
- To being a marketer of you
This will most likely be uncomfortable for you, especially if ‘superior product’ is your default position. It will result in you being at the forefront of the minds of your target market and get you ahead of your competitors.
Let me know which of product vs marketing is working for you and what you’d like a hand with.
PS – I’d love to get your feedback on the professional development support that you’re looking for in 2018. All I need is less than 3 minutes of your time to answer this super-brief 3 min questionnaire.
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