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It has been said that most of the world’s most powerful brands are not in the business of selling us products or services.  They are actually selling something much more intangible; they are selling experiences and emotional connections.  And given a little thought even smaller companies can take advantage of the same thinking and approach.

The underlying strength of many of these brands is attributed to their success in providing a customer experience that is second to none, where the question of what they’re selling really begins to tap into the emotional and intangible experience that customers have with the company they are engaging with.  Let’s look at some household names and see how they do it:

• Rolls Royce sells status and luxury, not cars
• Jeep sells adventure, not cars
• Apple sells simplicity and user friendliness, not tech
• Coca-Cola sells diversity and community, not drinks

In each of the examples above these companies have gone way beyond the old standard of selling “features and benefits”.  Each of these companies has managed to connect some for of intangible emotional “pull” to what they are selling.  Very clever!

They have articulated this, through various media in a way that might be described as their “purpose”, which focuses on the benefits or the capability that is being sold, rather than features or benefits.

Let’s pick apart a pastiche example company in a market we might be interested in, say, a heating and plumbing contractor whose main clients are large property management companies.  If we look at the features and benefits approach we might get something like this:

• Feature: We are a qualified and experienced contractor. Benefit: We’ve seen most problems and can fix things quickly and efficiently
• Feature: We are Gas Safe, NICEIC, OFTEC registered Benefit: We are qualified to work safely and legally on various heating systems and you get a certificate to prove it

Wow, that sets your world on fire!  And I’m sure you can imagine a deluge of facilities manager rushing out and banging on the door of these guys.  Not!

I suspect, “so what!” is a more likely response. There is absolutely nothing here that sets these guys apart from their competition.

But, they know their competitors. Like many contractors, much of their competition is notoriously unreliable.  So, instead they could be defining their purpose, the benefit and capability that they provide, as something like:

• We let harassed and stressed property people know that their heating and plumbing issues have been solved efficiently and professionally and, critically, let them know, when we’re done.

The above is much more emotional, it’s all about comfort, security and Peace of Mind for the busy and stressed property or FM manager.

But, clearly, they have got to be able to deliver on their purpose, meaning that they will absolutely need to have systems and processes in place that ensure they do what they say and let the client know when they have fallen short, long before the client finds out.