I was watching or listening to Rich Schefren recently and he talked about his positioning as the “guru to the Internet marketing gurus” which he picked up from someone.
I think that someone is me.
I did a quick search on “guru to the Internet marketing gurus” and many of the references come from my blogs.
You see Rich Schefren has been the business coach to many of the biggest names in Internet marketing, a place where the word guru is often used because of their mystical powers to make money.
It’s a very strong personal brand and positioning which no one else can claim.
It’s ironic really because while Rich has built this great personal positioning, I’d say his main product – the Business Growth System – is poorly branded.
It’s a great course if you’re a serious Internet marketer, rather than someone who plays at it to make a bit of pocket money. (Read my Business Growth System Review).
But the name is bland and I bet many people struggle to remember what Rich’s coaching system is called.
In contrast, look at what Jeff Walker has done with the Product Launch Formula. It’s a very tightly focused brand, even though the words are still generic.
Or Frank Kern and Mass Control, full of sneaky psychological tricks to get people to buy.
Or Mark Joyner and Simpleology. I wish I’d thought of that name although I’m not so keen on the book which carries it.
A quick check on Google for search volumes is revealing – exact matches for global search
Business Growth System – 36 per month (and 46 for Rich Schefren business growth system)
Product Launch Formula – 1,600 per month (and 320 for Jeff Walker product launch formula)
Mass Control – 1,000 (plus an extra 590 for Frank Kern mass control and 91 extra for mass control Frank Kern and 260 for mass control 2.0).
Rich Schefren, Jeff Walker and Frank Kern are three of the biggest names in Internet marketing in recent years. This is confirmed by the Alexa.com rankings (Alexa is an independent source of traffic rankings) and is a great way to check on the credibility of anyone who claims to be an expert in the Internet and social media.
Rich Schefren with StrategicProfits.com is ranked at 12,965
Jeff Walker with ProductLaunchFormula.com is ranked at 24,031 and Jeff has just finished another of his launches for PLF so traffic spikes sharply in the last couple of weeks.
Frank Kern with MassControlSite.com is down at 54,267.
Rich Schefren is getting more general traffic but it’s not brand related.
The problem is that his Business Growth System is a business growth system. Product Launch Formula is a business growth system and so is Mass Control.
A strong brand name can become a generic term – think hoover and xerox – but a generic name can’t become a strong brand name.