Over the Christmas break, I was given some tickets to a Hi-5 concert so with two excited girls in tow, Michael & I set off for an afternoon of entertainment. Now to be honest, I'm not really that 'into' Hi-5, I always feel as if something is missing from their performance. So as I sat watching them live (in a half-full theatre), I started to think about what makes the Wiggles so much more appealling than Hi-5 and how this relates back to business?

So I came up with:

HI-5 don't seem to be clear on who their target audience is. They might like to think it is boys & girls aged between 0-5 but what they do and how they portray themselves does not reflect this.
Their songs and dance moves are complicated and seem targeted for an older group of 'clients'.
Their appearance is too complex - lots of different colours; each person wearing a different cut or style. And possibly even the fact that they have 2 guys & 3 girls in their group?
Their roles aren't clearly defined. Yes, they all dance and sing but they seem to want to out perform and out dazzle other team members, making the performance very busy.

The Wiggles on the other hand seem very clear as to who their ideal clients are ~ boys & girls aged between 0-5 years of age. Therefore they have targeted their songs, appearance, branding etc to this audience.
Their songs and dance moves are simple, uncomplicated and easy for their 'clients' to understand, repeat and remember. Any complicated dance moves are left to their support dancers, and in most cases are performed more in the background than out front.
Their appearance is also simple, uncomplicated and easy for their 'clients' to identify with: Purple shirt= Jeff; Blue shirt = Anthony; Red shirt = Murray & Yellow shirt = Sam. Each member dresses the same for simplicity. Even when Greg, one of the original Wiggles left, they still decided to keep his 'colour' as it was easy for the kids to continue to relate to them as a whole.
Their roles are simple and uncomplicated: Jeff sleeps; Anthony loves fruit salads; Murray likes to play music and Sam likes to sing! They seem comfortable in these roles and don't have to or feel the need to 'over' perform to get noticed.

Now, I could go on with the comparison, but I wont. Three things you can take away from this are:

a) Don't try to be all things to all people. If you do, potential clients may have a hard time trying to understand what you can do for them.

b) Keep it simple. Don't overcomplicate your message, or how you describe the benefits you can provide your clients.

c) Be clear on your message and repeat it over and over.  Do this until your clients are repeating if for you.

As always, I would love to hear your comments and thoughts around these articles. Place your comments below.

(Ps. I am partial to the Wiggles but that is because I used to enjoy watching them back in the 80s when they were the Cockroaches. Who would have thought I would still be listening to them now?)