What are you selling? Hint, it may not be what you think.

We have had a lot of conversations of late about helping companies know what they sell. To know your audience and how they buy, you need to know what they are buying. This helps you know how to sell. Ask yourself this question:  “What does our company sell?” and gather answers from everyone, even your clients if you can. Any surprising answers? I’ll give you a hint on the direction; it’s probably not a product or service.

Let’s take a company example in Vera Bradley. (I was disappointed in their message on their website but I’ll stay focused to the task for now) They are running a print campaign, in some national publications even a full spread, that says ‘Make life more colorful’ with a very colorful image of a youngish woman in a hot air balloon holding one of their newer fabric backpacks. The name of the pack and the price are small and insignificant to the ad. The ad is selling a lifestyle. It’s selling add some flavor to your life by adding color. Be rich with color and exude the beauty and wonder that this woman and hot air balloon are doing for you right now. It has very little to do with that backpack. Vera Bradley knows their audience has a certain lifestyle and approach to life that makes their product, i.e. handbags and such, part of that life. If they wanted to just move some product they could have lots of thumbnail shots of each new bag with a price under it and their website.

Let’s also talk about that price. The backpack was $92. If the whole ad would have been about the product with the price, in today’s economy, that may give some people sticker shock. We all know a solid backpack can be found for much less than $92. Selling the lifestyle makes the price less glaring and less painful. While some would not like to admit it, there is a price tag for certain lifestyles. Vera Bradley knows this and is banking on knowing which category their audience is in and their appropriate price tag.

Now on to their website. This is where I was disappointed. No mention of color in my world, even, (even!) lack of colorful imagery on their site. The people on the homepage were much younger than the woman in the ad, which can go OK or terribly wrong depending on the audience you’re starting with. They didn’t bring the campaign home and speak to me once I went to their site to make a purchase. This is sad. This would be the part I would suggesting making sure you don’t repeat and tie in the right online message to your offline world.

An image inside the Vera Bradley website