Mindshare Hook Analogy

We were going to a restaurant in Atlantic Station for brunch today and my wife mentioned she wanted to stop by H&M. I had heard of H&M before but didn’t have a context for their type of positioning in the market. My wife started describing that they had trendy clothes at really low prices. In my mind, I immediately formed an analogy and said that it’s like IKEA for clothes. She said, “yes, exactly.”

Developing an analogy is critical for hooking into existing mindshare when explaining a business. Finding a brand or analogous situation makes it easier for people to remember what a business does and how it is positioned. For technology companies, I also recommend making an analog analogy whereby the technology is related to a non-technology company (e.g. when Amazon.com was first launched, it was like the Borders or Barnes & Noble of the web).