posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Apr 19
There’s a saying in aviation: “Keep the shiny side up!” Usually, it is said jokingly - often to a new student pilot or freshly minted private pilot. I imagine the saying may have started in early aviation when aircraft were not built to be as stable and trustworthy as they are today - when it was entirely possible that an inexperienced pilot could end up upside-down or in some other “interesting” attitude that would take a decent amount of skill to recover from. The belly of an airplane tends to get dirty more quickly than the “top” of the plane - hence the saying.
Here again, the metaphor to business is uncanny. Marketing is all about “keeping the shiny side up.” It’s about showing the benefits (NOT the features) of your product. I can talk all day about the higher powered engines and the fuel capacity increase on my newly designed model of aircraft, but that doesn’t mean you’ll understand that my new design will get you to your destination faster and without stopping for fuel.
Of course depending on how you market, speed and endurance could also be considered benefits. Benefits are different to different people. So the “shiny side” of your product can only be “kept up” if you know your customer (or potential customer) and if you use words that make the “shiny side” of your product valuable to them. If I am talking to a pilot, useful load, endurance, range, climb speed, etc. are benefits. If I am speaking to a small business owner looking for transportation, those are features. The coinciding benefits are “carrying more passengers” (useful load), “non-stop flights coast-to-coast” (endurance & range), and “spending less time in traffic at low altitudes and lower fuel burn” (climb speed). If you’ve been in an industry for a long time, it is hard to remember that not everyone speaks your language, so be careful!
As an example, a couple weeks ago, I bought some bottled water at the grocery store. It was the same bottle as any other water. The same size. The same water, essentially. But this company did something just a little different: they wrapped the caps with a plastic seal that matched the color of the bottle and prevented tampering. This is an example of a simple, inexpensive way to stand out from the crowd and add class to a commodity product. Talk about “keeping the shiny side up!”
How do you “keep the shiny side up” in your marketing? Leave a comment and let us know!
Fair Winds,
Andrew
