Positioning lessons from Schaefer Beer
Gobbledy is the one newsletter to read, when you're reading more than one
Hello Gobbledeers,
How’s it going?
Thanks for the kind responses to last week’s deep dive into why every software company “has your back.” I appreciate all the various examples of other types of companies having your back that you sent along, but since this week is going to be Family Week (tm) at Gobbledy, so I’ll include this example my sister sent in:
Everything Is Branding
I’m a fan of making sure every customer-facing bit of communication aligns with your brand (duh). Of course, most companies don’t do that (also duh). Which is one of the reasons why I loved this “product not found page” from meat purveyor Nueske’s
I also loved it because my wife sent it to me, and frankly if you can’t sleep your way into this newsletter, then why the hell am I even doing this?
Gobbledy Is Like Morning Brew, Only Not in the Morning. Also Not Brewed. Also No Puzzles.
I’ve had a few conversations recently where I was speaking with marketing folks about how to describe how their product is different from their competitors.
The funny thing about these conversations is that I’d imagine that if I asked a non-marketing person, “hey, how are these two sodas different?” They might say:
“Why are you asking me that?”
And I might say, “Just play along. How are they different?”
And they might say, “Dude, I’m at a funeral right now.”
And I would say, “Whose funeral?”
And they might say, “My wife’s cousin - he was like 92. Also never paid his taxes. Terrible person. Nobody’s upset.”
And I would say, “Then you probably wouldn’t mind me asking you about how these two products are different.”
After 15 more minutes of that, the person could tell me why the two sodas are different (maybe one is more expensive, the other less…or the color of the cans…or where you buy them…whatever).
Conversations about differentiation in software usually involve a lot of hemming & hawing, and wishing you were at your wife’s cousin’s funeral because that would be less painful than trying to describe how your product is different from the competition.
“Well, it’s like an email tool, but it’s a little easier for some people. And also it’s modern? And headless. But like not fully headless. You can componentize it headlessly.”
I usually suggest to marketers that they make it easy on themselves by telling me who their biggest competitor is. And then what’s the biggest way that it’s different from the competitor.
The pushback I get is often, “yeah, but that reason doesn’t matter that much.”
But it does matter that much to somebody. You just need to go find those somebodies.
Allllllll of that said, I’m always surprised I don’t see that phrasing used in software - “It’s like Such and Such, only it’s _______”
Which is why it made me so happy to this ad from apparel brand Fabletics:
If you were a dude who plays golf and was in the market for pants, and you were wondering why you should buy Fabletics pants instead of pants sold by another schmatta hawker like - for example - Lululemon, I think saying that the pants are “like Lulu but a third of the price” is pretty brilliant.
Fun (“fun”) exercise for ya - what’s the most obvious way your product is better than your biggest competitor, and don’t worry about whether anyone cares about that reason. How is it different? Now, mock up your homepage where “Like Salesforce, but our font is larger” and see how clear and obvious it is on your site.
Now, go show it to people internally. You did that? Great. Now, die a little inside every time you have that conversation because everyone is going to tell you a hundred things you forgot to put in there.
Now it’s time to go back to your desk and reconsider why you got into marketing in the first place. But you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re right.
It’s the One Beer to Have If You’re Getting Wasted
If you’re the marketing exec at Schaefer Beer back in the middle of the 20th century, you were faced with the same issue beer execs have today - how do you let people know how you’re different from your competition and then, who would be interested in that? (Hm…that sounds like a similar situation we just discussed 75 words ago…oh right, that’s marketing! My bad, I thought marketing was arguing about attribution of leads you scanned at the conference happy hour. Oops!)
But I did leave out one additional consideration — as you segment the market, it may make sense to think about who your most profitable customers are.
Schaefer (which was a popular beer in the Northeast, a fact that could explain why you’ve never heard of it…also because it’s all-but-disappeared) did some research (likely after having a few beers at lunch) and decided that they would target frequent beer drinkers. And not just frequent beer drinkers - beer drinkers who like to have a bunch of beers when they sit down (or stand up….or fall over) to have a drink.
Their target was “people who like to have a bunch of beers all at once.” And while that may seem insane now, for whatever reason it wasn’t considered insane then. In fact, they wrote a jingle emphasizing their positioning:
“Schaefer is the one beer to have/when you’re having more than one.”
That jingle proved so popular that it stuck around from the 1950s well into the 1970s, back when selling beer based on the fact that you could drink a whole lot of them at once didn’t seem bananas.
You can hear a version of it in this commercial from (based on the number of fedoras in it) the late 1950s or early 60s:
There’s a lot to unpack in that one, but the script is excellent and is incredibly specific about all the things we talk about here - who the product is for and what differentiates it. And while this part is wackadoodle, it’s crystal clear:
Schaefer - like any fine beer - tastes wonderful in that first cold glass. But - and this is what really sets Schaefer apart - the pleasure of this beer doesn’t fade after one glass or two. Even after your thirst is gone, the pleasure of ice cold Schaefer keeps coming on. The last one is every bit as rewarding as your first.
Even after you’re long past the point where you’re even slightly thirsty, the “pleasure” of it keeps coming on. I have no idea what that means. But I really like “sure, any beer is good when you’re thirsty…” messaging. Like if you’re a guy who comes in from a hard day at work, and your wife takes your fedora so you can sit down while she goes and pours you a cold beer while fully dressed like she’s going to a garden party (?) and then she goes and gets you another cold beer from a fridge that literally only contains beer, this is the beer for you.
That “beer to have if you’re having more than one” messaging worked for 25+ years because it was so clear and differentiated (and because nobody else took that space, which I guess is kinda understandable…no cigarette company ever went with “Pall Mall is the right smoke if you’re smoking 4 packs a day.”). And because that beer drinker (likely?) wasn’t ashamed to be drinking more than one, it resonated. Brilliant.
Let’s Chat…
I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed the 25 minute conversations I’ve been having with readers. I might say it’s the one conversation to have if you’re having more than one…
If you want to chat about your website or positioning or how to make sure you have someone’s back or whatever, here’s my Calendly link.
As always, thanks for reading and please please please share Gobbledy with your friends…
A Final Couple of Words on Schaefer
They made some great commercials that I wanted to link to because we don’t make ads like these anymore.
This first one I love because the commercial is about the jingle. The jingle at this point was so well known that the commercial was ABOUT THE JINGLE. The guy singing in it is Larry Kert, who was the original Tony in West Side Story. And at 44 seconds in you can see a very young Paul Benedict, who played Bentley on the Jeffersons.
This next one is also basically about the jingle.
I don’t know who directed this, but they were obviously pretty high on something (whichever cocaine is the right cocaine to have if you’re having more than one line of cocaine, I’d guess), but it features composer Edd Kalehoff playing a funky-ass version of the jingle on a Moog synth.
You likely don’t know Kalehoff’s name, but you’ve heard his music, including the themes to The Price Is Right (and many of the music cues that play when prizes are introduced), the theme music for Double Dare, Monday Night Football, ABC World News Tonight and a million other theme-type songs.
That does make it more clear. I mean, we're not animals. Thanks, Gobbledy!
So I'm confused. You're saying that "having a bunch of beers all at once" is insane? Always seems like the way I've seen it done. Or so I've been told. Asking for a friend. Or whatever.