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I bought a jar of almond butter at Trader Joe's for about $5.
Then, my sister came over and when I told her about it, she said she'd been paying $15 a jar for a different brand.
"Really," I said. "Here, try this and tell me if your brand is worth 3 times the price."
With that a spoon was scooped and sampled.
A moment passed, she pondered then said, "not convinced."
"What," I said, "are you seriously telling me your almond butter is 3 times better?"
And, that's precisely where I lost the argument, and where so many marketers lose the prospect and the sale.
Because I was using a metric that made sense to me, but not to her.
In her mind, it wasn't about being 300% better, it was about being $10 better. And, not just $10, but $10 in the context of a monthly household budget that made that $10 only marginally significant. Ten bucks in the context of how much more delightful her brand would be as she savored it every day over the monthlong period it would take to consume the jar.
In her mind, it didn't need to be 3X better, it needed to be $10 a month more delightful...and that it was.
At least for her (I still love my Trader Joe's).
So, the question is...
When launching a new product, service or solution or reworking an old one and the messaging around it, who's metric are you using?
One that's relevant to you?
Or, one that's relevant to the person you'd most like to delight?
Jonathan Fields is the author of Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love. He writes and speaks on meaningful work, being a lifestyle entrepreneur and creativity at JonathanFields.com and is a twitter heavy-user at @jonathanfields
