Everyone has a competitor.
As hard as we try, almost every business and product is compared to another company or brand. The challenge is to be prepared to explain, how are you different in a way that matters to your audience.
Several months ago, a client needed help to explain why they were a superior choice over the competition. In my mind, either your product is faster, better, simpler or cheaper. Or, you emphasize an area that the competitor doesn’t focus on at all. I asked my client to focus on one question:
What gap does your product (or service) fill for potential customers that aren’t being satisfied?
Different in a Meaningful Way
When Starbucks began, there were thousands of coffee shops. But they focused on the experience. They also worked hard to deliver superior coffee but they were in the experience business. They became the proverbial third-place between home and work. Today they have 17,000 locations for you to enjoy that third-place.
When IKEA started, they did something unheard of for a furniture store. They made you assemble it and bring it home yourself. No finished bookshelves or tables. You bought it and assembled it. They focused on value. IKEA is the largest furniture retailer in the world.
When Amazon opened as an online bookstore, they focused on selling not only the best sellers but the tens of thousands of other books that make up half their sales. They concentrated on being different by offering something a physical bookstore couldn’t do. They sold every book available.
Pirch is a retailer of specialty showers, kitchen appliances and more. They emphasize the experience of their product at retail, something an online store can’t do. You can take a shower to test their shower heads in their store. Seriously. That’s different.
Different To Whom?
You can be different in the business model you used like Airbnb or Uber competing with hotels and taxis with an emphasis on not owning the assets but borrowing them.
You can be different like Cirque Du Soleil by being a circus without animals or three-rings, but emphasizing the ridiculous theatrics, athletics, and gymnastic expertise.
You can be different like Zappos whose legendary customer service makes them different not because of the products they offer, but the way they treat customers, with a human touch, a sense of humor and joy.
Different in the Mind
Most products and services aren’t that different from their competitors. Through a marketing lens, you can find things to feature or highlight, that others ignore. The closer you are to your current or prospective customers, the more you’ll know what matters to them and where the voids are in your category.
I shop at Whole Foods for the experience, even though I can find things at the same price or cheaper at other supermarkets. I buy cat food and litter from Chewy because they bring it to my front door so I don’t have to schlep it home from Pet Smart. I bought my last car at CarMax because of Mohammed, the salesperson I met. He wasn’t pushy. He was knowledgeable. He never pressured me. He worked to find options that fit what I wanted, unlike most dealers that make the experience unpleasant.
Know your customers. Understand where the voids are. Fill them.
Need help finding a gap, a void or an opportunity in your market? Click my calendar to schedule time to talk so I can understand what problem you are trying to solve. Or call me at 919 720 0995 or email me at jeffslater@themarketingsage.com
Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash
The absolute best book on this topic is called DIFFERENT by Youngme Moon. Read my review about it here.
