The Differentiation Game: Critical to Business Success
Identifying your innate differences to win in a crowded marketplace

There’s a lot of talk out there about being different.

As a society, we’re a bit obsessed with our personal differences. We are continually sizing each other up and examining our friends, colleagues and neighbors to better determine how we stack up.  However, sometimes being “different” translates into merely taking leads from others and copying them, while not being true to oneself. That tactic just does not work.

The same holds true with a business. Identifying how your product or service is different is one of the factors that will make or break your business.  Why? Because being different, and being able to successfully communicate that difference, will secure a welcome niche in the marketplace.

According to marketer Dan Herman, successful differentiation has two defining characteristics: (1) it is not imitated by your competitors even though (2) it brings you unmistakable success with consumers.

So how does one identify the innate differences in a business, product or service?

Put your business in the 360-degree mirror to get beyond the expected.

In order to really capture your product or service’s unique qualities, you have to take a good, honest look. You can do this by standing in the metaphorical 360-degree mirror and looking at your offering from every angle. Don’t just check yourself out from the front where your benefits are obvious - but check yourself out from the back, the right and left and from above and below. No matter how nervous you are about how you look, you must do it. Why? Because “The unexpectedly simple and wonderful secret of successful differentiation is: Do not look for it [differentiation] around the core benefits of your product category; rather think of ‘off-core differentiation,” according to Herman.

If you are standing in a simple, front-only mirror and looking at your product, you’ll only see the obvious differences.  “Core benefits”, says Herman, “are the benefits that the customer already expects to receive from your product….everything that the consumer has already come to expect from products in your category is included in core benefits.”  For example, if you own a frozen yogurt business, your core benefits might be that your frozen treat is cool and refreshing on a summer day and also tasty and sweet. But frankly, so is everyone else’s frozen yogurt.

If you put that same frozen yogurt in the 360-degree mirror, you can come up with a slew of truly original points of differentiation. Maybe your yogurt was made in such a special way that it takes longer to melt, making it perfect for summer eating. Or perhaps your yogurt flavors come from fruits handpicked by Mayan elders. Or maybe it is a recipe handed down by your grandmother. Whatever the difference really is, it becomes a differentiation that your competitors will be far less likely to claim.

“To create differentiation that won’t be imitated, you have to think beyond the core benefits that are (already or even just in potential) considered important in your market,” said Herman. “The companies that have succeeded in maintaining their differentiation over the years and weren't imitated even though they were making tremendous profits are those that innovated in qualities beyond the core benefits of their market.”

And the differentiation must be real. If your product or service has nothing unique or special (unlikely or you would not be in business), you have to look at what you DO bring to the marketplace that is unique to your business.

Focus on a USP

USP is not to be confused with UPS, the folks who deliver packages. Your USP is your “unique selling proposition.” By definition it is “doing or saying something about yourself or company that is unlike what anyone else does or offers. According to marketer Mike Shutz here, being different is grounded in providing customers with a unique value that they cannot get from any other competitor; however the difference must be true, factual and provable.

A great example of an identifiable USP is the Swatch Watch. This nifty plastic watch comes in bright colors and unique designs.  Swatch’s USP isn’t that it is a reliable watch (although it is) or that it is priced reasonably (but it is). Instead, Swatch’s USP is that it became a pop culture phenomenon for its fashion forward design. It capitalized off its unique selling position of hip and cool to establish its place as a one of a kind accessory. And it is still doing that successfully. Still reliable, still priced reasonably, and still inventing new ways to be a watch that is different.

Or how about Jet Blue? Sure, all airlines will take you from Point A to Point B. And all of them will take you so for pretty much the same cost. So what makes these airlines unique? For Jet Blue, it is its zen-tastic, jet-setting approach to flying, offering a no-frills friendliness and of course, DIRECTV and XM Satellite Radio at every seat. Jet Blue even offers a “Shut Eye Kit” created by Bliss Spa, to embrace its trendy, young flying hipsters. 

Think about your USP. Is your USP truly yours? How is your product and service unique? Are you simply focusing your marketing message on what everyone else is doing and offering? If you can’t say without fail, unquestionably, that your USP is unique, different, and inherently yours, go back to the drawing board and do some more work.

• Your marketing messages,
• Your marketing materials, and
• The entire customer experience.

If there is a disconnect between your USP and any of the above, you will fail to establish credibility...or worse, lose it entirely.

Branding Lesson from Vanna White

If the world knows you for turning letters - don’t recite Shakespeare. The importance of branding.

For years, Vanna White has turned letters on Wheel of Fortune. Vanna mutely reveals letters upon the prompting of contestants. She smiles. She wears a pretty dress. She IS pretty. It is from this unique brand that she has made a career. Yet on the very rare occasion...she speaks. In fact, Vanna White even went so far as to play a role in a 1989 television movie. She played a full speaking role…that was panned by critics across the country. It wasn’t only that the script and plot were poor, but that critics were turned off by the idea of Vanna White talking. Dialogue was not the “Vanna brand”. While her career recovered solidly, it has lasted over twenty years due to one simple fact: Vanna knows her unique differentiation (her brand) and to be successful she sticks to it.

Take some time to think about what your product’s or service’s differentiation (brand) really is. Do you pride yourself on being customer-friendly? If so, does everything you do - from the FAQ on your Web site to the length of time a caller spends on hold when placing a phone order - support this fact? If not, revisit the essence of your product’s or service’s branding.  As a reminder, here is what “branding” means. Branding is the perception of your business that is created at every point of contact with the public.

For example a funky, vintage clothing store and a fine consignment shop should never have the same logo, Web site or even play the same music in their stores. The employees you would find at each store would probably be entirely different types of folks, as would the apparel sold. Imagine the confusion regular customers would feel if a prim and upper-crust fine consignment store suddenly staffed its store with pierced, tattooed, purple-haired students and blasted AC/DC songs over the loudspeakers.

According to John Jatsch at his blog, branding is the art of becoming knowable, likeable and trustable by your audience.

Are you struggling with how your product or service differentiates itself in the marketplace? Let the team at corecubed help! We provide an outside look at your product or service. Let our team of experienced marketing professionals thoroughly examine your product or service in a 360-degree mirror to find the USPs that are the best fit and that do not compete with others in your space! Then, we can craft an integrated marketing communications plan and campaign to help create your niche in the market. From Web design to brochures to public relations and brand identity, corecubed can meet your marketing needs!

corecubed.com
800-370-6580 ext. #1
info@corecubed.com
© 2008 corecubed