What exactly is  Equivalence?

Equivalence is  a nifty little trick to get people instantly interested in what you have to say and it works so well because it is a brilliant way to paint a mental picture quickly and without going through lots of fuzzy, generic words.

As an example what mental image do you get when I say:

• Uber for Lawn Mowers
• Airbnb for cars
• LinkedIn for musicians.
• TONY ROBBINS for tropical monkies (not really)

You know that Uber for lawnmowers means that this business allows people to sublet their lawnmowers when they aren't using them.

You know that Linkedin will be a specialized professional social media platform for musicians

This is equivalence.

When to use equivalence?

• When you want to get your point across quickly
• When your business is a bit complex and hard to explain
• When you are talking to someone who has no clue to the subject matter
• When you want to stand out amongst many similar businesses

Frames of Reference & Associations

• Use a familiar frame of reference, for example Spain doesn’t have Uber so even though they may have heard of it the won’t necessarily get it.
• Please make sure it has a positive association - you don’t want a negative association.
• Make sure it has the right association
• Do not choose a reference  which has more than one predominant association.

 

How to use equivalence for the win

Look at the best global brands out there (Interbrand is great for this)  and  see how they do it, look at the best movie characters and fictional characters. For example Hermione from Harry Potter.

Look at what they stand for, is is longevity or loyalty for example - “I’m the Energiser Bunny of…” for longevity.

Your turn - GO!