Climbing the benefit ladder: How far is too far?

Have you climbed too far up the benefit ladder? Double up the 3Cs as a final acid test, says Mark Ritson

The path to a good brand positioning goes like this:

Start with the 3Cs framework – what does the consumer want, that our company can deliver, better or differently than the competition? Next, we take the (two or three) things we want to say about our brand, which pass all of the three Cs tests, and we go up the benefit ladder…

On the lowest rungs is signalling (“Look at me! Look how big and important my brand is”) and category entry point positioning (e.g. back to school). Then we move up the benefit ladder through product features, customer benefits and emotional associations. And with each step, we hope to find a brand positioning that connects more compellingly with consumers.

To use one of Mark Ritson’s examples from the MiniMBA in Marketing, Walmart turned around declining sales in the mid-aughts by using the benefit ladder to reexamine what customers truly gain from shopping at the discount supermarket. Under the expert eye of newly hired CMO Stephen Quinn, Walmart climbed from “always low prices” (product feature) to “Save money. Live better” (customer benefit).

Taking it a step further, Walmart tugs at consumer heart strings with a brilliantly executed advert showing a sweet family moment – made possible with a bit of extra cash. Viewers get a rosy-eyed window into a family holiday, complete with long car rides, sibling squabbles, beach frolics and tuckered out children being carried back to their hotel room; ending with the emotionally charged: “Walmart saves the average family $2,500 per year. What will you do with your savings?”

The idea is to stop at whichever rung is appropriate for your brand

Up at the very the top of the benefit ladder is sociocultural purpose. Walmart doesn’t go there, and nor should most brands – unless they have a demonstrable commitment to a cause or disrupting the status quo.

The idea is to stop at whichever rung is appropriate for your brand. The problem is… marketers and brand managers care more about our brand than consumers do. And tend to evangelise its importance in customers’ lives.

Sure, it would be great if every brand could inspire us to “think different” or be “in business to save our home planet.”  But we can’t all work at the Apple Inc. and Patagonias of the world.

So how can you tell: how far is too far? At what point are you spouting nonsense? Equally important, at what point are you disserving your brand by forgetting the benefits consumers really care about in the search for emotional resonance?

The most pernicious danger in climbing too far up the benefit ladder is commoditising your brand. For many products and services, there will be a finite number of emotional benefits you can reasonably get away with.

The most pernicious danger in climbing too far up the benefit ladder is commoditising your brand

If every brand clambers straight to the top then, inevitably, everyone lands on the same things. When you position on the same things as everyone else, in the eyes of the consumer, you become the same as everyone else. And then what’s left to differentiate on but price?

Let’s say you are a bog-standard martech platform. Talking about “unleashed human potential” does nothing to help you stand out from everyone else who is saying the same thing. Are you better off stopping at customer benefits, then? For some brands the answer will be yes, others no. A good way to find out, says Mark Ritson, is to double up the 3Cs test.

“I’ve always done positioning in terms of doing the 3Cs and then stepping up that ladder to see if we can go higher.” But in some cases, says Mark, “you might not want to do that.”

(Or just that.) He explains:

“The 3Cs is an inalienable test. The 3Cs will always get you through. If you get anything that ticks the three Cs boxes, that we can deliver better than or different than the competition, which our customer really wants – that’s the answer.”

A potential problem with the benefit ladder is that it “can take us up to a point where our positioning becomes kind of generic,” says Mark.

“One of the criticisms of brand purpose is that, when you get to the top, it looks frighteningly like everyone else’s brand purpose. There is a lot of: connecting people, people who are connecting together, connecting the world…

“So what you want to do is go up the benefit ladder and then go back to the 3Cs to keep it straight,” says Mark. “Make sure the 3Cs is your final acid test.”

Learn more about the 3Cs model, the benefit ladder and how to position your brand on the MiniMBA in Marketing. The advice in this article is taken from one of  Mark Ritson’s course Q&As* with MiniMBA students.

Cover image: New Africa/shutterstock.com

*Q&As with Mark Ritson

Biweekly Q&As are a key part of the MiniMBA in Marketing, MiniMBA in Brand Management and MiniMBA in Management  – giving learners a chance to raise any questions, share their thinking on the previous weeks’ modules and glean extra insights from the course professor.