Differentiate or Die!

Filed Under Business |

by 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..

Think I’m crazy? Just search the Internet for everyday products and look at the number of search results. It’s possible to have alternatives in the millions.

Isn’t that how it should be? You’re bound to like it if you’re the consumer. But those of us who make a living marketing products and services will find it a challenge. What is a marketer to do in order to survive?

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..

There were pages upon pages of ads. They all had one thing in common. They were so much the same that you could have substituted one company name for another without changing the ad in the slightest.

My client found this depressing, but I was thrilled! Why? She had a great opportunity to differentiate her business. Whoever differentiates will win the business battle!

When there are no apparent differences customers will decide based on price. So what happens when customers are faced with hundreds of choices and dont see any difference between one business and another? The only thing left to compare is price, so that’s how they make their choice. If you haven’t shown that you’re different, price will be the deciding factor for your customers too. That’s not the best thing for you and your business, and this might surprise you, but it’s not good for your customer either–especially if your value is best recognized by establishing a long-term relationship with the customer. Business you get because you have the best price will go somewhere else as soon as they find a lower price. You may be the fastest gun in the West. But no matter how fast you are, there’s always someone faster. That’s a dangerous game. It’s much safer to differentiate.

If you can differentiate yourself, you can charge higher prices. Companies who can communicate their important differences to their customers can justify charging higher prices. The cheapest product or service does not always win the business. Consider this. No one will buy the cheapest product or service every time. Even if you’re a world class tightwad, you can differentiate between bruised and fresh produce. You’ll pay a higher price for the non-bruised produce. Certainly!

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.

About the Author:

The author, Craig Mecham, is the founder of of The Mecham Company The Mecham Company, a marketing consulting firm. With two decades experience in Business to Business Marketing and promotions, Mr. Mecham counsels with under performing businesses.