How to Help Customers Give Up a Competitor's Product or Service
Learn more about the "Four Forces of Change" growth marketing strategy.
Note: “Four Forces of Change” is one of the frameworks featured in Growth Marketing SuperBoost.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this article on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
Marketing communications are most effective when you understand what unique value your business or organization provides.
The first framework consists of two parts that help uncover the unique qualities of your business or organization and its product or service, so you can translate them into key messages.
Start by making two columns, one titled “Highlight Feature” (the most outstanding features of your product or service) and the other “Customer Benefit and Description,” and fill them in.
Then, make another two columns, one titled “Customer Benefit” (from the previous two columns) and the other “Key Messages,” and fill them in.
Finally, make two more columns, one titled “Force to Address” and the other “Key Messages.” In the “Force to Address” column, list the two forces that prompt customers to switch a product or service, as well as the two forces that prevent customers from switching (four forces in total).
The first force is “push from the current solution” and your key messages should answer why the current solution that the customer is using falls short of satisfying their wants and/or needs.
The second force is “magnetism of a new solution” and your key messages should be your product or service’s highlight features.
The third force is “anxiety of the new solution” and your key messages should describe what makes customers anxious about switching solutions.
Lastly, the fourth force is “habit of the current solution” and your key messages should address specific ways that your offering improves on a core feature or attribute of their current solution.
There’s more where this came from at the Growth Marketing Institute.