Mother’s Day Miracle?

My mother is convinced that the cosmic forces of the universe conspired to set in motion an amazing coincidence on her special day.

Because my Mom lives 1,000 miles away, I shopped online for her Mother’s Day gift.

The day before Mother’s Day, she received notification of a package delivery. Lo and behold, when she went to claim her package, she discovered that she had not one, but two deliveries – one from her son, and one from her daughter.

Now for the amazing coincidence…

Both packages were shipped from the same address – even though the gifts themselves were completely different, and were from different brands.

“What are the chances of that?” she exclaimed with delight while telling me the story.

I wasn’t surprised at all, however – because I’m a student and teacher of successful business and marketing strategies.

I knew that the company I used to ship my Mom’s gift is home to six different gift brands, and does a tremendous amount of smart marketing for each of them, especially around the three biggest traditional gift-giving American holidays: Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. So I didn’t think it too far-fetched that my sister got her gift from a different one of these six brands.

Maybe you’ve seen some of their television commercials, or heard them on the radio, or gotten an email, postcard or catalog from them. You may have seen their banner ads all over some of the most popular internet websites, or had their “pay-per-click” ads pop up when you did an online search for any kind of “gift.” Maybe you know that all six brands are connected. Or maybe you don’t.

The fact is that all six of these brands are marketed extremely well, with compelling headlines, offers and deadlines. They also have excellent follow-up marketing – I use them quite a bit for my own business gift-giving, and I receive emails and direct mail from them every few days with their latest offers.

So when my Mom told me of the “amazing coincidence” that both my sister and I had sent her gifts from this same family of brands, all I could think of was how effective and persistent their marketing efforts really must be.

Think about it…

If you knew of someone with both Coca Cola and Dasani water in their refrigerator – would you be surprised? What if their two-car garage housed both a Buick Regal and a Chevy Impala? What if they had both Chips Ahoy cookies and Ritz Crackers in their cupboard?

I think you get my point. Each pair of brands is part of the same parent company, yet each is clearly marketed as its own separate product.

Many big companies produce and market more than one brand of similar products. They use the concept of synergy to cut their costs and boost profits – while they also make sure to have entirely separate and distinct marketing strategies and messages for each of their products and services.

Many small businesses actually do the same thing – but the problem is that their owners don’t look at it that way. They call themselves “Kitchen and Bathroom Remodelers” or “Heating And Air Conditioning Guys” or “Full-Service Lawyers,” etc.

What they should do is treat each one of their deliverables as separate for purposes of marketing. They should have separate ads, flyers, brochures, business cards, websites, etc. for each one – because people search for and buy specifics and specialists (and we pay more for them, too).

Not only is it a way to collect premium fees, but it’s also much easier to craft a compelling message if it is focused on solving one specific problem for one particular target market.

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “There’s riches in niches?” That means that entrepreneurs should present themselves as experts in very narrow markets in order to gain a competitive edge and attract more and better customers, clients or patients.

See if you agree…

If you lived in a multi-million dollar home and were looking for someone to take on your $80,000 kitchen remodeling project, who would you choose: a “Kitchen Remodeling Specialist,” or a jack-of-all-trades handyman whose yellow pages ad is cluttered with a blurring bullet-point list of dozens of competencies, from drywall to painting to roofing?

If you were arrested on a DUI charge, who would you want to defend you: a lawyer whose ad says he’s the go-to guy for DUI cases, or one whose ad lists everything from real estate to wills to divorce to personal injury – and, by the way, DUI defense?

I’m not suggesting you need to provide only one deliverable – just that for each product or service you do provide, you should do what works best: Provide your prospects a separate and clear, compelling, unique message for each one.

Your results could be miraculous.