MARKETING FEATURE
Romancing Your Stone
Most MSPs offer the same services — so how do you stand out ? Learn how to transform your brand with storytelling , creativity , and passion to make your business unforgettable .
BY ROBIN ROBINS
This year on Valentine ' s Day , when taken out by the flu , I ended up clicking around on the TV and stumbled across the movie Romancing the Stone starring Michael Douglas .
I ’ m sure you ’ ve heard of the movie , and likely even watched it . But what you might not know is that the term “ romancing the stone ” actually comes from the world of advertising and means taking an ordinary product or service and turning it into something sexy , new , and exciting .
There are a lot of ways this can be done , from hiring celebrities to endorse it ( Air Jordans ), by the packaging ( Tiffany ), by the demonstration of the product ( think Billy Mays ), and / or by weaving a story about how the product was created or discovered ( Airborne ).
In many cases , it ’ s a mixing of these factors , like Cindy Crawford ’ s Meaningful Beauty skincare line that has celebrity ( Cindy Crawford ) and an interesting backstory . As a supermodel , she traveled to Paris to see a renowned cosmetic specialist , Dr . Jean-Louis Sebagh . After her first treatment of super antioxidants from a rare melon grown in the South of France ( mystique ), she saw instant , glowing results ( demonstration ), and together they developed Meaningful Beauty .
Weaving an Interesting Story Helps You Stand Out
Most MSPs find this to be extremely difficult , given the technical nature of what they do and ( more to the point ) their lack of creativity in how they position and market themselves . Truth be told , MOST products and services on the market are a commodity . A “ stone .” Inherently boring and dull . When you get right down to it , all MSPs are essentially offering the same types of services , with the same tools , hiring from the same pool of talent , and packaging and pricing things very similarly .
Given those facts , there ’ s not much you can do to really develop a radical , transformative service that is TRULY unique from everyone else . So the ONLY way to stand out IS to “ romance the stone ” a bit and weave an interesting story about you , your services , your customers .
One of my favorite examples of this is the George Foreman grill . Before George made it the single most popular kitchen appliance in the world , it was only trotted out at Christmas time as a gift to give someone you didn ’ t really like or as a gift to your college-bound child as a means for making a grilled cheese sandwich in their dorm as well as to dry their socks .
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