When I was in Sydney at Christmas, I fell ill.
I know you may feel that is karma, but it was pretty shitty.
So after going to the doctors, I went to the local chemist and it is there I saw this …
Proud To Be Cheap.
Words you don’t hear very often.
Either because everyone is trying to come across as ‘aspirational and premium’ or they’re repositioning price to mean ‘smart and discerning’.
And yet, not only did those 4 words stand out from everything else, they made me smile.
It owned its truth.
It said exactly what it was.
It was, quite literally, proud to be cheap.
There is something incredibly refreshing about that.
But more than that, there is something incredibly valuable about that.
Not just because – as I mentioned earlier – it stands out.
Nor is it because it allows them to minimize their investment in store experience.
[Though, the service I got was brilliant, and not just because I was expecting shite]
And not even because by saying it, they rob the competition from trying to diss them for it.
The reason I think it’s valuable is because it immediately feels more inclusive and approachable than so many of the ego brands out there and so attracts a certain sort of customer rather than trying to constantly chase or seduce them.
It’s a bit like Dolly Parton [yes, I’m going there].
She is very self depreciating …
When she said, “It takes a lot of money to be this cheap”, she was proudly owning who she was and accepting her tastes were not what society likes.
OK, so she was talking about her cheapens from the sense she has a lot of money whereas this chemist is talking about themselves from the perspective they don’t cost a lot of money … but owning their truth has immediately separated themselves from the sea of competition.
Years ago I wrote about an approach to strategy that I had which I called unplanning.
I’ve talked about this a lot – from James Blunt to Eminem – but really this about authenticity.
Knowing who you are.
Being true to who you are.
Living by the values that shaped who you are.
And accepting that in a World where brands are often shaped more by what the competition force you to do than what you want to do, by being yourself you will be different.