Cover Story: From Soup to Nuts
Merchants Know Thy Verbs!
The best advice I can offer merchants this year is to know what verbs your brand stands for. That's right. Your verbs. It all starts with an action orientation. Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen reminds us that products have a job to do for their customers. I wholeheartedly agree and believe that products also have a job to do for your brand. Each and every product becomes a brand signal — it either enhances your brand or detracts from it. There are no neutral products.
So take a new "verby" look at your top 50 product performers for each key selling season. These are the items that tell the best story about your brand — from your customers’ viewpoint. These are the products that your customers are coming to you specifically for. They have a need and your product offers a solution. Pay attention to the lessons underneath each of your products’ sales. Mine those lessons and identify those action-creating verbs. Let those insights become the blueprint for future product development. Create more products like these that customers will clamor for.
I encourage product developers to look up and outside of their industry to see how products from a wide range of sectors — e.g., gourmet food, fashion, nonprofits, publishing, home building and many others — can generate fresh thinking for your brand. When creating new products with my clients, I've always found it beneficial to pause and take a purposeful "thinkabout" together to look and learn from unlikely places. By exploring the product verbs from industry leaders like Tommy Bahama, Ben & Jerry's, Chobani, Title Nine, and Pendleton, merchants can reinvigorate their product planning efforts.
Andrea Syverson is the founder and president of IER Partners, a marketing and sales consulting firm. Andrea can be reached at asyverson@ierpartners.com.
