The crucial reason why

Most organisations, and especially those in the private sector, recognise the need to explain what benefit their product or service offers a prospective customer. What, in the marketing world, is called a sales proposition, or if it is a claim it alone can make, a Unique Sales Proposition (USP). After all, who would think of buying a product or service from an enterprise which failed to explain the benefits it offered its customer? (Some just offer features, not benefits, but that’s another story …)

So we all expect to hear or read about the benefit on offer, maybe even one which trips off the tongue with clever wording or innuendo. And sometimes the speed at which an idea behind the sales proposition communicates can be very impressive. Take the famous Ronseal slogan for “Does exactly what it says on the tin”. It’s a line which has entered the vernacular as a no-nonsense guarantee. Even David Cameron had a Ronseal moment, claiming the Coalition government would deliver “exactly what it said …”

But there is another side to this.

The proposition, or promise, as it’s sometimes called, is fine until you ask yourself: “Why should I believe it?”  And if the answer isn’t clear you find yourself questioning its credibility. Am I being conned? How can they claim that? Where’s the evidence? David Cameron had a few problems providing the credibility behind his promise! Without a solid ‘reason why’ (another term in marketing parlance) – why should we believe it?

And this is vital information for someone about to make an important purchase. You can imagine the situation where you’re about to make a choice between a couple of brands – where both make clear the benefits they offer, but only one explains the reason why its promise is credible, while the other doesn’t. Simple choice. And the surprising thing is that so many companies simply don’t think it’s important.

Marketers need to remember this, and in the enlightened age of content marketing, there really isn’t any ‘reason why’ if they don’t.