Product Market Fit is fine, but what about Brand Market Fit?

Some companies spend way too much time developing insignificant incremental features for their products. Nobody buys a product, or service for that matter, based on how long the feature list is.  Once it can get the job done, the product capabilities become irrelevant.

What becomes more important, as Pete Townshend might ask, is:

 “Who are you? Who, Who?, Who, Who? 

When you buy something that you’ve not bought before, you are taking a risk. You have to trust that the product will do what the company says it will, and that all the other aspects (billing, support, packaging, logistics, response time, etc, etc, etc) are in place and good for you. But how do you know? 

“Who are you? I really wanna know.” 

This is why Brand is so important.  

Your Brand is who you are and lets people understand what it’s going to be like to work with you and becomes a proxy for the answers to all the unasked questions.  So rather than investing crazy amounts of time on minor features – invest in your brand. If I know nothing about you, I am unlikely to do business with you.  Tell people who you are, what your vision is, what you believe, how you do business, why you do what you do. Knowing all about you doesn’t mean I will buy, but if your product and your brand align with me (who I am), the probability is incredibly high that I will.  

How do it do it?  

Start with your ‘About Us’ page. Lay it all out. Who runs the company? What is their motivation? What is their experience?  What do you believe as a company? How are you changing world? What promises are you making to your clients?  Extend this into your logos, tag lines, messaging, product names, colours, colors, fonts, contact information, company name. Design a ‘voice’ (playful, serious, sarcastic, visionary, scientific, etc..).  

If I know what motivates you, what you believe, who you are and where you came from – I am much more likely to trust you. 

Not convinced about Brand Market Fit? Consider Liquid Death. 

Water is the very definition of a commodity product. Water is, well, water, isn’t it? …. Not if you are drinking it from a Liquid Death can… The brand power of Liquid Death is truly amazing.   

Who are you?  I really wanna know. 

Andrew