The Germans have an expression for something that tries to do everything, ‘eierlegende Wollmilchsau’, which I have loosely translated in the title of this post. Many brands fall into the trap of trying to be everything to everyone. It’s a kind of ‘throw in the kitchen sink and toilet as well’ philosophy to make sure every possible benefit is covered off. If you miss out a benefit, a competitor might come along and steal the show, so try to occupy the middle ground on everything.
Now things aren’t just organic (German ‘bio), not even cosmodynamic (this is an anthroposophical approach I wasn’t aware of, based on Steiner principles), but now we have the Demeter brand linked to ‘cosmobiodynamic’ claims. What is this? Judging by the symbol of the human being floating under a Christian cross, hovering over the world, with four wings left and right: this food is spiritually spacey, religiously adjusted, organic and dynamically humane. What next?
Let me have a stab: food only grown within walking distance of the store, zero emissions, doing away with fuel-burning transport. I’ll call it microloco-zero-em-cosmobiodynamic.
What’s the message of this blog post, or the lesson we can all learn from these examples? If you have a brand or product, ask yourself a simple question: how would you explain the key benefit(s) in a simple sentence – or even a couple of adjectives – to someone like your grandmother? If you can nail it in a short and succinct set of words, you have clear benefits. And don’t try to do too many things at the same time.