The key to using this model is stepping away <\/em>from the features and functionality of your product. Look for issues that both the company and the customer care about, and build your program around these mutual or shared values.\u00a0 As the model shows, you\u00a0 start with how the customer uses the product, but you don’t stop there. You’ve got to move onto the emotional. What do they care about when they use your product? What other things do they care about?<\/p>\n You then link these things to your product. Starting with features, but also including attributes — the intangibles you want people to associate with your products — and corporate values.<\/p>\n Now, while this is never <\/em>an easy process, it is a bit easier with new and entertainment products. But how does it work with a product that’s been on the market for a while. Or one that is almost a commodity.<\/p>\n For example, cotton swabs. <\/strong><\/p>\n Is it possible to develop a pitch related to cotton swabs that would resonate with bloggers? I say yes.<\/p>\n In fact, I’ve got two, both aimed at parent bloggers.<\/p>\n These examples use information from Unilever’s Q-tips brand, but I imagine the programs would work equally well for Johnson & Johnson’s Cotton Swabs brand. The first example skews toward families with younger children; the second is applicable to a broader age range.<\/p>\n <\/a> This screen shot identifies the key market USE segments for cotton swabs: family care, home care, and arts & crafts.<\/p>\n Putting aside beauty uses, let’s focus on two areas that relate specifically to families.<\/p>\n First, family care. Cotton swabs are permanently linked to ear care. The brands don’t even need to remind us of this. In fact, the main concern is to make sure we don’t poke the swab too far into our ear. Now, step into the shoes of a parent of a younger child. Say ages one to three or four years of age.<\/p>\n An issue that tends to be top of mind is ear infections. How to protect their toddlers. If their child is prone to ear infections, should they get the ear tubes or not?<\/p>\n To reach these bloggers – a very active parent blogging segment\u00a0 – why not develop a website and program devoted to education and information about this critical parenting issue? This is valuable information that bloggers will want to share with their friends and readers. While not about the product specifically, it is in that shared value segment<\/em> of ear care <\/strong>and family<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Relevant – check. Blogworthy – check. Consistent with brand – check.<\/p>\n As I noted above, my second example skews a bit older, and relates directly to the use of cotton swabs in arts & crafts projects. Any parent of an elementary school age child knows what a big deal arts & crafts can be.\u00a0 I often wonder whether they are evaluating the child or the parents, but that’s a topic for another day (and my other blog).<\/p>\n Parents love to see their children recognized. Kids love recognition. Hold a crafts contest for kids, promoted either exclusively or extensively through blogs, with both blogger outreach and online advertising. Obviously cotton swabs need to be involved, either as tools or materials, but the less rigid the criteria, the better. The prizes don’t have to be that big. In fact, offering more prizes to more children is preferable to a few BIG prizes. What makes it work isn’t the value of the prize. It’s that the child stands a really decent chance of being recognized.<\/p>\n The shared value space? Recognizing the achievement of children. Family. Relevant – check. Blogworthy – check. Consistent with brand – check.<\/p>\n Forget about your features. Look for the shared values with your customers. That’s where you’ll find a pitch that resonates for them and delivers results for your brand.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are two key elements to successful blogger relations: the execution and the pitch. A successful campaign needs BOTH to be good. Today we are going to talk about the pitch. I’ve written before about the secret sauce for the perfect pitch and earlier this year, I introduced a model I’ve been working with to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[36,5,40],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":687,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"value-mind-map1\"](\"https:\/\/\/\/i0.wp.com\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/value-mind-map1.jpg?resize=457%2C322&ssl=1\" "\\"value-mind-map1\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"qtips2\"](\"https:\/\/\/\/i0.wp.com\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/qtips2.jpg?resize=380%2C292&ssl=1\" "\\"qtips2\\"")
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