Maybe what you should be praying for is one good enemy…
Author Holly Lisle penned those words as advice for aspiring writers. Having someone to pit yourself against can inspire you to greatness. It worked for Lisle. Her determination to prove her ex-husband wrong resulted in many best selling novels.
In the corporate world, good enemies have another function. Having an adversary gives an organization a way to define itself in the public eye. Sierra Mist, maker of lemon lime soda, is trying to harness the power of one good enemy for themselves in their most recent advertising campaign. They’re pitting themselves head to head with Sprite, according to this article in Ad Age.
The confrontational approach is not one Sierra Mist would have undertaken without a reasonable degree of certainty that it would be effective. Comparative advertising abounds in the beverage industry, capitalizing on people’s innate tendencies to categorize things in similar groups. When you’re perilously close to being a commodity product, highlighting differences becomes non-negotiable. You need the right differentiation to secure a place in consumer consciousness, where your product becomes the definition of that category.
Which Way Do We Go?
When you don’t know where you’re going, any route will do, but when you have a fixed destination in mind, the map suddenly becomes much smaller. Sierra Mist has a long list of potential differentiators that it can use to position itself within the lemon-lime beverage category. Any organization that is trying to carve out its own place in the market does. The question is which differentiators are important? Which ones are critical enough, appealing enough, powerful enough to build a brand upon?
One way to find the answer to this question is to turn to your Brand Lovers. Brand Lovers are your best customers. They purchase your products more often than any other offerings in the same category, they buy more of your products than the average customer, and they’re enthusiastic about promoting your products to their family and friends. Brand Lovers tend to be your most profitable customers. They’re also your guide to even more profitable positions, if you’re willing to listen to what they have to say.
Every company has Brand Lovers, although not every organization has them in the same quantity. The more successful and dominant an organization is, the more Brand Lovers they have. Dominant organizations place a premium of being aware of and responsive to the wants and needs of their Brand Lovers.
When selecting what kind of ammo to bring to the latest version of the Un-Cola Wars, Sierra Mist would be wise to listen to their Brand Lovers. Why do these customers select Sierra Mist, rather than Sprite? Why do they reach for a Sierra Mist instead of a Coke, Mountain Dew, or Barq’s Root Beer? Why choose Sierra Mist instead of apple juice, soy milk, or chai?
Understanding what makes Sierra Mist appealing to the people who love it the most will help Sierra Mist’s team craft a message that will resonate not only with their existing Brand Lovers but those customers who have the potential to become Brand Lovers.
Sierra Mist is emphasizing their natural ingredients and lack of high fructose corn syrup. Are these qualities important to their Brand Lovers? Time will tell. Right now, Sierra Mist controls 1% of the soda market. If the approach is effective, a year from now, those numbers could look very different.