The crowd’s antics of this week’s Melbourne Cup reminded me that we love to stand out from the crowd, be it through fashion, state of sobriety or ability to choose the winning steed. It is a core of human nature and possibly on a race day a relic of mating prowess, the desire to show my choice is correct and superior to those around me.
This function of humanity is a modern marketer’s dream. Advanced product differentiation allows brand strategist to separate their product from the crowd and subvert their competition.
Let us take water for a basic example, be it still, sparkling, imported, sourced from an ancient frozen glacier or enhanced with vital vitamins you didn’t previously know existed. It is all the same as the product that pours from your tap - with or without fluoride – good old H2O
Traditionally, product differentiation has been perfected by the big corporate end of town where a few companies control a category through a multi-brand strategy in a bid to compete. Few people realise that consumer goods behemoth Proctor & Gamble controls 16 individual brands in the laundry detergent isle. Or that drinks manufacturer Coca Cola possesses 26 individual brands and that’s before you split on sub-brands such as diet, sugar-free, taste-free or can, plastic, bottle. In anyone’s language that’s a lot of foam and fizz.
The free market economy has meant that even basic needs of survival are being differentiated and marketed to our desires. The deregulation of industry delivers traditional commodity products in a whole new light. Take electricity – now one not only has to choose between dirty coal, renewables or home generation but also billing format, carbon offset programs and the community engagement of their service provider.
Looking to food branding, the trend is advancing rapidly in the age of the modern, educated, selfie conscious consumer. Walking down the supermarket isle delivers a plethora of never ever, free from, sustainably locally sourced, hogwash.
The free marketer within me screams “what’s the problem you dirty socialist?!” My problem is that certain parts of the food chain are differentiating product through short-term, focused, negative competition. These ill-thought-out strategies are delivering short-term market advantage through targeting the low hanging fruit of certain production techniques. Further sophistication of brand strategy is required and a macro view towards the triple bottom line needs to be taken before the next marketing campaign is simply rolled out.
Agricultural operators too often attack their fellow producers in a bid to differentiate, a strategy fraught with danger as highlighted by Four Corners this week in a spectacular fail for the Tasmanian salmon industry.
Looking at an example close to home, simplistically the beef market today tells us to produce black, grass fed, high marbling, HGP free, welfare accredited, walking rib fillets. That’s a cute paradigm if Australia’s rangelands were actually a giant version of King Island but the reality is that they are not.
In comparison, participants in the wine industry have perfected a sophisticated brand strategy particularly well for the betterment and growth of the sector. Difference of product is celebrated and enjoyed, industry arguments of oak versus double oak or cork verse screw cap are not debated in full visual of the consuming public. Further, while organic or sustainable labels exist, they do not market themselves to the detriment of others. It would be a peculiar dinner party for a debate to ensue about the food miles on the bottle of French fizz and while I might look down upon moscato drinkers, diversity of personal choice is revered.
Australian agriculture offers a wide wealth of diversity ripe for the picking for sector enhancing product differentiation. I encourage our marketers to look past the simplistic negative comparison of apple vs orange and commence celebrating the full gamut of the fruit bowl.
