What makes your business stand out? In a sea of choices, why should clients pick your product?
Clients will be attracted to your business if you can offer them something different – something with an edge. The equation sounds kindergarten-simple, but most entrepreneurs don’t get started with this in mind.
Many people see opportunities in industries where they have already worked. If this sounds like you, be careful. Most of these new businesses end up with products and services too similar to their former jobs.
To differentiate yourself in the market, play on your experience in the familiar industry to find existing problems that no one else is paying attention to. Let’s take a hypothetical example. Maybe you used to work for a downtown dry cleaner, and you recognize there are no options for quick turnaround. People can pick up their clothes in 24 hours, but you know that very often Bay Streets suits will walk in with an embarrassing stain before a big meeting and no operation has the capacity to turn it around. If you can develop an innovative solution to this issue – you’ve just found yourself a market opportunity.
Once you have a problem in one hand and a solution in the other, you need to focus on your target market. Is your solution good enough, strong enough and valuable enough to cost a premium? If you have a unique solution that works, you should be able to receive a premium price for delivering it.
The key to unlocking a spot within marketing differentiation is to focus on what your potential customers want, need and value – or alternatively, what drives them up the wall. In the case of your hypothetical dry cleaners, your vision could take many forms. You could specialize in one hour cleanings. You could combine the cleaners with a store that rents alternative wardrobe pieces while customers are waiting – so they can go back to work. You could develop a unique delivery program. Maybe you even want to put yourself out of business by developing the world’s most instant, pervasive stain remover.
At Silver + Goren, we like to help you think outside the box and push boundaries. We can work with you to develop your ideas, and use our extensive experience to suggest what might work and what might not. The bottom line: if you find a solution that is so useful it is irresistible, the money will follow.