The Red Velvet strategy
Why differentiation through creative branding and positioning makes ordinary products stand out, and how to apply this reframing strategy in marketing.
In this issue
Hey 👋 The Crew here.
Do you ever go bananas over something? Yeah, us too.
But do you ever actually think about the first time someone said weird slang like that—and it stuck? Yeah, us neither, until now.
Okay, time for marketing…
Reading time: 4 minutes, 29 seconds
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Entrepreneurs and investors are great with metaphors. We have oceans, we have moats… but today we’re going to look into a “tastier” analogy.
Meet the Red Velvet cake.
Soft and creamy. Delicate but filling. And rather mysterious for anyone who hasn’t seen it before.
But did you know it’s just chocolate cake with red food coloring and buttercream frosting?
Yep. It’s just a new paint job on another type of cake.
And yet, that’s not how it’s perceived.
And therein lies today’s lesson: Even when you’re one of many in a market, there’s a way to stand out.
You just have to get creative with the “coat of paint” you add to it…
Three ways you can leverage the Red Velvet strategy
Before going into the examples, there’s one thing we have to mention.
You should not do this just for the sake of being different.
The end result of applying these tactics should come from research about your customers, the market, the psychology that pushes them to buy… you know, all that good stuff marketers call homework.
OK, now to the examples.
Quite literally, a creative paint job, aka branding
The first and most obvious way is to get creative with your visual branding.
And we don’t mean how Sprite is different from 7UP.
We’re talking about tap water vs Voss vs Liquid Death.
Your visual brand should be supported by other brand elements like tone and voice, motto and slogans, and values and principles to make your product the Red Velvet cake of a crowded space.
Make it your own
Heard of AI? No, not that AI…
This AI:
Apple is the company that pulls all the stops when it comes to marketing. Sometimes it misses, but it often makes general and commonly available features uniquely its own.
Apple Intelligence instead of AI is just a recent example. There are more…
High pixel density screen? No, it’s a “retina display.”
Video calls? No, it’s “FaceTime.”
Screencast? No, it’s “AirPlay.”
You get the idea, right?
The caveat: This works best when you’re already a leader in your market, because it can help you get even more ahead.
Make it simple
Automated cloud data backups for your online store? Probably too complex for your average Shopify merchant.
How about simplifying it with one line:
That’s more like it.
So many tech products are positioned for other techies. At first.
But ultimately, tech products are made for consumers, not techies.
There are several industries where this simplification can help you reach a different, usually bigger, audience:
- Tech.
- Fitness.
- Health and medicine.
- Finance.
And more…
Everything that is backed by more complicated science and math can benefit from being simplified for consumers.
And hey, if you manage to put all three examples above together, you have yourself a slam dunk winner, we think.
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AI MARKETING:Turns out, churning out AI-generated content or images aren’t the main reasons marketing teams are embracing AI tech—it’s data analytics, for instance. So if you want to learn more about how AI adoption is going, this article can give you some insights.
SOCIAL MEDIA:Things are on the up for X. The popular platform posted positive Q2 number data—with 6% more logins and 8% more time spent on the app than last year. Nothing huge, but still, positive signs.
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ICYMI, last time we looked at Loss aversion.
The “Painted” Crew
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