I work with a few small companies. They struggle to differentiate. It starts with unclear market segmentation and ends with me-too products and services. The local businesses cannot fathom how they can match the marketing and network strength of larger companies. They, therefore, attempt to compete on features. It's a dooms loop.
Differentiation is not only about adding more features to a product. It is about understanding the unsatisfied needs of a particular customer segment and developing a solution for it. This solution has to be then effectively communicated to the customers.
Al Ries was one of the first to identify and write about the importance of positioning. Positioning is an act of designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the target market's mind. He has provided a recipe for companies to position themselves in the minds of their customers.
Find an open hole: Every product and service caters to the specific needs of a customer base. They consciously or inadvertently ignore the people who do not fit into this set. For example, most of the products and services are designed for right-handers. The left-handers adjust to it. However, if someone works specifically on features that suit them, they would switch. It is not merely about convenience. It is about being acknowledged as an independent segment.
Narrow the scope: A broad segment is equal to the mass market. The mass-market needs standardized products and services that meet the minimum requirements of people in that group. It is, therefore, necessary to sharpen the focus. For example, Little Miss Matched makes and sells pairs of mismatched colored socks. They market it for only the high school girls. These girls wear socks of different colors and become the center of attention for the class.
Own the name of the category: Red Bull states that they are the first energy drink. Most of the small companies sell their product with the name of the company. The worst is they sell it with some model name like Super 101. A specific name creates a different category. When we started Aspira Lab, we were the first lab in the country to have workflow automation. We continue to state on our sales copy that we are India's first fully integrated lab. That position cannot be taken away by any other lab now.
Make your sales copy visual: The company's tagline should visually convey the emphasis to their target segment. For example, Aspira's tagline was Predict-Prevent-Protect. This clearly communicated that the company looked at health holistically. It is a lab focusing on educated people who value the investment in their health. However, in hindsight, we too missed out on better visualization. Coca Cola is synonymous with its curved bottle, while KFC has the image of Colonel Sanders. Those are strong visual cues.
Verbal cues of the brand: It is critical creating powerful verbal cues of the value that we are communicating for our brand. For example, BMW states that they are The Ultimate Driving Machine. Al Ries has provided 5 ways of creating such powerful cues. They are Rhyme, Alliteration, Repetition, Reversals & Double-entendre.
Nurturing over Advertising: Many small companies adopt the technique of mass marketing. These are meant for larger companies who already have a strong brand recall. Small companies should focus on the word of mouth marketing. The referrals of a customer carry with it their credibility. It is, therefore, way more powerful than an advertisement.
The fundamental of positioning is to know whether or not we are on the first rung of the ladder in the customer's mind. If not, then we should build a new ladder and occupy the first position on it.
Metrics:
Use the 6 principles stated above and reassess your brand.
Make suitable changes and run a pilot on a small customer set.
Subodh
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