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Differentiate Or Die! |
By:
J. Craig Mecham |
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Differentiate or Die!
J. Craig Mecham
Finding Your Unique Selling Position (USP) May be The Most Critical Activity for Your Success. Your advertising lives in a world of complexity and confusion. Consumers have so many choices in almost every product classification. When you're shopping for a service or product it's common to have even thousands of choices..
If you don't believe me just search the Internet for common products to buy and look at the search results. You could be faced with alternatives in the millions.
That's a good thing right? Sure . . . if you're the consumer. What about all of us marketing professionals who come to work everyday and try to find better ways of selling? How do we survive in such a world?
If Your Advertising Doesn't Make You Different, You've Missed the Mark. The first thing your advertising must do is show your customer how you're different from everyone else. I was consulting with a small business client the other day and we went to the yellow pages for her product category and saw a perfect example of how advertising should not be done..
We found pages and pages of ads--all so much the same that you could literally substitute one company name for another and not have to change the ads at all!
My client was depressed over this, but I was energized! Why? This was a great opportunity for her to differentiate her business. Whoever differentiates wins the battle for business!
Without Clear Differences--Price is the Deciding Factor. What do you think happens when consumers are barraged with choices and do not perceive any difference between one supplier and another? They evaluate and make their purchase decision based on the one thing they can measure--price! When there is no other point of differentiation, price becomes the deciding factor. That's not good for you and it's not even the best for your customer--especially if you're in a business where your value is best realized when you have an on-going relationship with your customer. Customers who come to you for the best price will leave you just as quickly as they find a better price. It's like being the fastest gun in the West. No matter how fast you are, there's always someone faster. Don't play that game. It's better to differentiate.
You can command higher prices through differentiation. Companies who effectively differentiate themselves from their competitors can demand higher prices for their products or services. The lowest price is not always the winner. Think about this for a minute. You don't always buy the lowest price. Even if you're the world's biggest cheapskate you can differentiate between bruised and fresh vegetables and you'll pay the higher price for the fresh produce. Right?
Are your customers any different? No. Certainly, you must have a reasonable price, but if you have highlighted an important difference in your product or service, customers will pay extra to have that benefit.
One of the most important paths to increased sales, more satisfied customers and better profits is to find the important point which makes your business different from your competitors. Then be sure to make that obvious in your advertising.
The author, Craig Mecham, is the owner of The Mecham Company http://www.mechamcompany.com/ The Mecham Company, a marketing consulting firm. With two decades experience in http://www.mechamcompany.com/ Business to Business Marketing and promotions, Mr. Mecham advises under performing businesses.
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Article Source: http://www.PopularArticles.com/article151921.html |
Article: Differentiate or Die!
Author: J. Craig Mecham
Total Views: 52
Word Count: 568
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