Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.
Companies invest heavily in research and development, and still seek a product performance edge wherever it can be found, it is a marketing maxim that differences in performance now are often minimal at best. Hence determining your business's characteristics is important as regards
What is your business all about? What is your mission, and what are your values?[/i][/b][/i][/b]
What are the unique services and/or products that you offer?[/i][/b][/i][/b]
Who offers the same or similar services or products as you? Who are you consistently quoting your service against, or competing with for shelf space? These are your closest competitors, the ones with which you should be most concerned in the definition process.[/i][/b][/i][/b]
Determine who makes up your target market. [/i][/b][/i][/b]
When you talk about competitors think twice don’t get afraid of them, even if you do take into consideration the following:
Your competitors are often afraid of you, because you're their competition, too! So, keep that in mind. Inaction, indecision, and postponement are other often-overlooked competitors.
Partnering with your competition can expand the services that you offer, enhance your product offering, and allow you to brainstorm and leverage the knowledge of others in your industry.
An alliance with competitor to sell their information products as an affiliate, and make some extra money that way.
Competition between your business and other businesses can generate publicity for your service or product offering
By stating how you're different from a competitor who is widely known, you can often more easily express your differentiation.
When you concentrate on niche marketing to create a stand in the market by targeting a specific segment of the market, thus narrowing your services another form of differentiation. By narrowing the types of services you offer, you niche horizontally. By narrowing the types of businesses to which you offer your services, you niche vertically. Using both types of niching is the most specific and targeted way to niche. Differentiation can also help you to focus in your own business—it can help you to decide which products and services you can best deliver, and what you should outsource.
To niche well, there are several questions to consider:[/b][/b]
Affordability of your services?
Do they put value on your services, and will they be willing to buy?
Do they understand your services?
How hard is it to find the people who are in your target market?
Are there a lot of other competing providers in your niche?
Is this niche within your abilities to deliver, and are you credible in it?
Is the niche big enough to sustain your business?
The optimal benefits for a brand to claim are those that are:
(1) Very important to the target customer
(2) Supported by organizational strengths
(3) Not being addressed by the competition
Points for differentiation [/b][/b]
The brand stands for something important to the customer
Its values align with the customer’s values
It reinforces the customer’s self image or how the customer aspires to be perceived
It can serve as a ‘badge’ or other form of self-expression
It possesses admirable qualities
It provides unique or superior customer service
It delivers a unique product purchase or usage experience
It is entertaining
It delivers superior performance
It is venerated, has heritage (continuity, trustworthy leader, since …)
It is the technology leader
It has noble aims/values
It tells an engaging story about itself
Its founder has unique, admirable qualities
Looks/feels/performs different(ly)
Before and after comparisons
Year of founding (since…)
Patented technology
Secret/magic ingredients
Superior ingredients
Ingredient brands
Unique process
Extensive publicity
Unconditional, money-back guarantee
Make sure your customer service matches the messages you’re communicating to consumers. Everything and everyone has to be consistent and in synch
Make sure you deliver on the brand promise every time. Of course, companies should do this all the time, but all companies have a tendency to forget this when the money is rolling in.
Exceed customer expectations for your brand.
When the economy is struggling, your brand experience needs to exceed customer expectations more than ever.
Created brand experiences that add value.
Instead, think out of the box and develop brand experiences that help customers during a time in their lives that might not be a bright spot.
It’s particularly important when the economy is weak and people are actively and aggressively looking for both value and help.
Companies invest heavily in research and development, and still seek a product performance edge wherever it can be found, it is a marketing maxim that differences in performance now are often minimal at best. Hence determining your business's characteristics is important as regards
What is your business all about? What is your mission, and what are your values?[/i][/b][/i][/b]
What are the unique services and/or products that you offer?[/i][/b][/i][/b]
Who offers the same or similar services or products as you? Who are you consistently quoting your service against, or competing with for shelf space? These are your closest competitors, the ones with which you should be most concerned in the definition process.[/i][/b][/i][/b]
Determine who makes up your target market. [/i][/b][/i][/b]
When you talk about competitors think twice don’t get afraid of them, even if you do take into consideration the following:
Your competitors are often afraid of you, because you're their competition, too! So, keep that in mind. Inaction, indecision, and postponement are other often-overlooked competitors.
Partnering with your competition can expand the services that you offer, enhance your product offering, and allow you to brainstorm and leverage the knowledge of others in your industry.
An alliance with competitor to sell their information products as an affiliate, and make some extra money that way.
Competition between your business and other businesses can generate publicity for your service or product offering
By stating how you're different from a competitor who is widely known, you can often more easily express your differentiation.
When you concentrate on niche marketing to create a stand in the market by targeting a specific segment of the market, thus narrowing your services another form of differentiation. By narrowing the types of services you offer, you niche horizontally. By narrowing the types of businesses to which you offer your services, you niche vertically. Using both types of niching is the most specific and targeted way to niche. Differentiation can also help you to focus in your own business—it can help you to decide which products and services you can best deliver, and what you should outsource.
To niche well, there are several questions to consider:[/b][/b]
Affordability of your services?
Do they put value on your services, and will they be willing to buy?
Do they understand your services?
How hard is it to find the people who are in your target market?
Are there a lot of other competing providers in your niche?
Is this niche within your abilities to deliver, and are you credible in it?
Is the niche big enough to sustain your business?
The optimal benefits for a brand to claim are those that are:
(1) Very important to the target customer
(2) Supported by organizational strengths
(3) Not being addressed by the competition
Points for differentiation [/b][/b]
The brand stands for something important to the customer
Its values align with the customer’s values
It reinforces the customer’s self image or how the customer aspires to be perceived
It can serve as a ‘badge’ or other form of self-expression
It possesses admirable qualities
It provides unique or superior customer service
It delivers a unique product purchase or usage experience
It is entertaining
It delivers superior performance
It is venerated, has heritage (continuity, trustworthy leader, since …)
It is the technology leader
It has noble aims/values
It tells an engaging story about itself
Its founder has unique, admirable qualities
Looks/feels/performs different(ly)
Before and after comparisons
Year of founding (since…)
Patented technology
Secret/magic ingredients
Superior ingredients
Ingredient brands
Unique process
Extensive publicity
Unconditional, money-back guarantee
Make sure your customer service matches the messages you’re communicating to consumers. Everything and everyone has to be consistent and in synch
Make sure you deliver on the brand promise every time. Of course, companies should do this all the time, but all companies have a tendency to forget this when the money is rolling in.
Exceed customer expectations for your brand.
When the economy is struggling, your brand experience needs to exceed customer expectations more than ever.
Created brand experiences that add value.
Instead, think out of the box and develop brand experiences that help customers during a time in their lives that might not be a bright spot.
It’s particularly important when the economy is weak and people are actively and aggressively looking for both value and help.