It's Easy to Make a Product. It's Hard to Stand Out. How Can Framing in Marketing Change That?
How can some brands steal the market when their product or service is similar? Here's why framing in marketing matters and how it can change your success.
You'll get 3 simple steps to kick off your process and examples of masters at framing in marketing.
Framing in Marketing: Why It Matters
There is no right or wrong framing in marketing. There is your framing.
Creating your brand image - how you want to be perceived as - will set you apart. Ask yourself, whom do you want to appeal to and how? Positioning your brand is crucial when deciding your framing in marketing.
Framing enables your target audience to resonate with you and, eventually, closes the deal.
Consider this. Is your brand so good that:
- everyone has it?
- no one has it?
These are two sides of the same coin.
The first is an everyman brand like Coca-Cola - so good and affordable that everyone has to try. That's their strategy to people's hearts.
The second one is clearly appealing to luxury - hard to access and scarce. Any high-end fashion brand is a great example, e.g. Louis Vuitton. They've built an empire around selectiveness and being out of reach. It extends way over their product line.
When you enter their store, the first person you meet is security. You might not even get in! If you do, you might need to wait for half an hour. Of course, they collect your contacts before letting you in. Once you're in, they quickly start building rapport by offering you a welcome drink. So you instantly feel being treated nice and owe them a favour out of reciprocity. That's all part of their framing in marketing.
Here’s how you can approach this.
#1 Step of Framing in Marketing: Audience Persona
Creating audience persona will get you leaps ahead in understanding whom you're speaking with.
You can even do a trick and reverse engineer this process by putting yourself in the audience's shoes. Where would you seek information if you had a specific problem to solve - online or offline? When would you do it? Where would you seek validation - would you ask a friend, turn to forums, etc.?
Write down your audience’s business specifics - what type of company they're working at? What industry is it in? Is it a small or a large company, etc.
Also, think of who does this person work as. What are their daily tasks and how you help them beat challenges and reach desired gains.
Don't forget about their background, such as demographics, lifestyle, tastes, interests, aspirations etc. This is a shortcut to make content more relatable to your audience.
Think of where they are active - online or offline channels? Which brands are they already interacting with and like?
All this will make them feel that you're actually speaking with them, not a robot.
Creating your framing in marketing becomes easier when you’ve defined the audience persona and know exactly whom you're targeting.
You're free to try out my persona template. Let me know how you get on!
#2 Step of Framing in Marketing: Positioning
Look at your competition. By observing them, you'll figure out what sets you apart. What is your differentiator in the business category? What are your strengths and weaknesses? How is your offering unique?
You can take it a step further and draw competition maps. Define 2-3 opposite values and position your brand and 3-4 competitors on the map.
Your first map can include these values:
- emotional vs rational;
- aggressive vs safe.
- accessible vs exclusive;
- niche vs comprehensive.
You don't have to overcomplicate it. Use this simple line to define positioning.
"Our [offering] is the only [category] that [differentiator]."
#3 Step of Framing in Marketing: Value Proposition
It sounds like such a buzzword. So, let's break it down.
What is value? It's how you help customers get what they desire, how easy, fast, and risk-free you do it.
Think of it this way: would you take seriously a brand who’s always beating the drum around their product or someone who makes your life easier? Which one is more convincing?
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The key is to understand what customers really want. The simplest way to get started is to put yourself in customers' shoes.
What would you struggle with? What would you avoid doing? What would you desire? What would matter to you in getting there?
Do this.
- List the jobs and tasks on customers' hands.
- Define the pain points that are barriers to what they want to achieve.
- What are the rewards they're looking to maximise?
Also, analyse the following about your brand and product to support your value proposition.
- Functions & features - what features or functions does your product or service include?
- Functional benefits - what functional benefits do you deliver to customers? How do you help them get form A to B. What jobs will they get done?
- Emotional benefits - how would your customers feel if they chose your brand?
- Brand values - what 3-5 values do you represent?
Now, frame your value proposition. Start with writing a paragraph on who you help and how. Narrow it to 1 sentence. You can use this template.
“We help [target customer] do/get [goal, benefit] doing/using [our offering].”
Masters at Framing in Marketing
I promised to share some examples of how the masters of framing in marketing have managed to ride the waves of success. Let’s dive in.1. Ryanair: Less Is More
It turns out that the way to customers’ hearts is not always talking about how good you are. On the contrary, there are cases where less is more. It’s a bold move to build your framing around why you’re bad, but it can work.
Ryanair is a great example. They based their service design on being the low-cost alternative. Though, it didn’t come without struggles. At first, people associated the cheap price with low flight safety.
The trick was to make customers realise where the cheaper price comes from. Ryanair explained what services are not included in the ticket: no luggage, no flexible booking and seating, no meals, no check-in, etc.
Once people realised what they have to sacrifice for an affordable price, safety wasn't a concern anymore.
Screenshot from ryanair.com.
So, it can be a good idea to frame your brand around what you do not offer, instead of what you do. The shortcomings must come at a cost and you can take advantage of that with smart positioning. That’s one way to go about your framing in marketing.
2. McDonald’s: Keeping It Real
Along these lines is McDonald’s who opts for simplicity. If you look at their social media content, you won’t really find polished and overproduced content. It’s mostly shot on an iPhone, just as it happens.
Why does it land? Because it matches the rest of their brand image. It matches the audience's expectations. No one goes to a McDonald’s expecting fancy service. We’re used to the service and experience being a bit rough around the edges.
They have brilliantly tapped into that and used it for their advantage. Keeping it simple, relatable, and real.
Screenshot from McDonald’s ad featuring Kai Cenat.
When it comes to celebrity and influencer endorsements, McDonald’s is again ahead of the game. They took their partnership with a Twitch superstar, the streamer Kai Cenat, to the next level.
They launched a new menu item and used his stream to do taste tests and reacts, reaching millions of Cenat’s viewers = new potential customers.
3. Good Work: Dare to Have Fun
Good Work is a YouTube channel that grew out of the media company Morning Brew. The essence is adding a funny twist to complex and serious topics, without losing journalistic integrity. They’re mocking finance, investment banking, and all things Wall Street. But what sets them apart?
They deliver high-quality content and comedy at intentionally low production value. Using legacy 1990s PowerPoint effects, shooting on an iPhone, using a massive handheld mic, making fun of typical management consultants, throwing in memes, handmade sketches, and industry jokes all thrive their brand.
Screenshot from Good Work's video.
They’ve also mastered the art of making the audience feel smart. And that is not easy. As the famous saying goes, “Never overestimate your audience’s prior knowledge and never underestimate their intelligence.”
Your job is to find that balance, just like Good Work did here. They’re making fun of Credit Suisse being a serious financial institution, a running industry joke.
Screenshot from Good Work's video.
These creators skillfully drop in easter eggs to their videos. These are either funny remarks, titles, or meme-type logos that make you rewind and take a second look. It’s a win-win: the audience gets in on the joke and it improves their retention.
And you know what? People love it! They have taken a totally unique approach to the topic and found the right audience for their type of niche and framing in marketing.
Want to Take Your Marketing Even Further?
If you found this content useful, you should check out this post about demystifying consumer behaviour and why maths doesn’t work in marketing.
What If I Told You These Changes in Marketing Can Explode Your Brand?
If you want to grow your brand with some simple hacks anyone can do, let me know. Get a head start, because many tech companies are missing out on this!
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