Marketing For Dummies. McMurtry Jeanette

that use our products can relax and focus on other life issues, knowing that they are protected at home.

      Your ESP now involves creating messaging and positioning around confidence, joy, and relaxing as a result of using a product that delivers all three.

      

Here’s a real‐world example of how ESPs can work in the B2B world: I (Jeanette) once worked with a financial firm that was trying to get people to invest in their real estate fund by telling them how lucrative and smart real estate investing was. No one was buying it, especially since the big Madoff investment fraud scandal had just been exposed, and real estate had not performed well in recent years. So we changed the ESP of his sales presentation. Instead of walking in with a presentation about how solid real estate was and trustworthy my client was, we started off by talking about the potential clients’ fears and their preconceived attitudes or schema about real estate. We actually said things like, “You know, real estate has had its challenges and has been risky. And we can see why investors have been leery.” We just validated their feelings, confirmed their schema, and established trust. They listened, and they listened all the way to yes. My client closed four accounts with whom he had struggled to get a meaningful conversation.

Appealing to Consumers’ Happiness and Purpose

      Daily, we humans constantly strive to find and associate with happiness. Happiness is not only the greatest achievement we seek in life, but it’s also a magnet for brands that truly understand its power. Coca‐Cola has emerged as the beverage company in a league all its own and also one of the top brands globally for sales, loyalty, and brand respect. As of this writing, Coke has more than 100 million followers on its Facebook page. It became the leader of the happiness movement with its “Happiness” campaign that focused on delivering happiness to people in surprising ways around the world. Coke’s content marketing and marketing content had no mentions of its product, just videos, ads, posts, and web and social content about how to find and share happiness. Subsequently, it has held a steady position as one of the top five brands for respect and revenue worldwide in listings by Interbrand and other top analyst groups.