I have a friend who was known as the khaki king by a close circle of friends. He was dubbed this moniker for the fact that he only wore khaki pants to work each day. He reasoned that khaki was the universal color. It was bland enough that it did not clash with anything, therefore, it did not matter what shirt he paired with his pants. Everything was a match! That’s the good thing about khaki: it goes with everything, it clashes with nothing. It is, to use a French term, blasé. The bad thing about khaki is it is not distinct. It is unobtrusive, yes, but it is also boring. It is meant to blend in, not stand out. Let me ask you a question: Is your marketing wearing khaki?

I recently read a marketing piece put out by an educational institution. It was meant to build excitement for the future. However, after I read it, I thought to myself, "so what?” It talked about being financially responsible and good to the students and faculty. Good stuff, I suppose, but shouldn’t every business be responsible with their finances and good to their employees? And it was pretty tame stuff. What they said didn’t really excite me and five minutes later, I could not recall the four points they were trying to make. I thought I might be jaded because I work in marketing. Maybe I am a little too close to all of this to see it objectively. So I sent the same marketing piece to my wife and asked her to read it. Without tipping my hand one way or the other, I asked her what she thought of their new direction. "What direction?” was the answer she gave me. "It’s all a lot of pompous words that sound like they belong in a doctoral thesis, not a marketing campaign.” She had pretty much the same reaction I did. You know what this institution of learning needs to understand? Good marketing doesn’t wear khaki! Playing your marketing too safe makes you blend into the background.

How do you keep your marketing from being indistinguishable? First, make sure you are marketing something that really resonates with your target market. Find out what they want from you. It does little good to offer a drink of water to a drowning man. It would make more sense to throw him a life preserver on a rope tied to a boat. This is not complicated! Yet so many businesses try to market themselves without ever analyzing what their customers really want from them. If you don’t know, simply ask them. Then be prepared to give them what they want.

Secondly, make your marketing something different from your competition. Think about it: if everyone in your industry used the same marketing techniques, do you know what color you all would be? (Hint: Khaki!)

Be distinct, but be effective in that distinctness. Be bold with a purpose. There are two keys to doing this. First, stick to one point in your marketing. For instance, if you are focusing on quality, don’t try to market other merits of your brand along with quality such as low prices, superior customer service, and fast delivery. What is there about your quality that is bold and distinct? Answer that question in a way that catches people’s attention and stick to that point. Why? Because you want your marketing to be memorable and a laundry list of features that are very impressive to you will be forgotten by your audience. Secondly, keep your words to a minimum. Campaign slogans should use seven syllables or less if you want your audience to remember them. Studies have shown that when we try to recall something we have heard and it is eight syllables or over, we have a hard time committing it to memory. Seven syllables and under tend to be remembered. And if you are too wordy, let me remind you that no one is going to read your marketing if you turn it into a novel. Your audience wants what they want from you, nothing more and nothing less.

You might want to know that when the khaki king got married, his wife completely changed his wardrobe. I think she really wanted to bring out the best in her husband and his bland wardrobe wasn’t sending off the right vibe. Make sure you do the same for your marketing.