Part 3 – of “Focus on Business and Marketing Strategy”
Knowing your competitor is almost as important as knowing your customer, especially when it comes to differentiation.
In a previous article I discussed the importance of using research to understand your competitors. The emphasis was doing research beyond the features and finances.
Following is a brief recap from that article:
Going beyond the features and the calculator might include examining competitor's positioning clues. Review the web site, press releases, sales materials, editorial coverage, speaking opps, awards etc. By reviewing these materials in the public domain you will gain unique insights regarding your competitors positioning. Here are some other questions to ask while reviewing this material:
· How are your competitors positioning themselves in press releases?
o How is the editorial community embracing that positioning?
· Are they getting influencers on board?
o Who are these influencers?
o What are they saying about them and the market?
· What are their speeches about and where are they speaking?
o How does that differ from what you are doing?
· What are their key benefit statements?
· Who do they appear to be directing their message to?
o Is it middle management, is it end user customers, is it C-Level executives, is it the channel?
So the next step in this process is going through this material and seeing the patterns of communication. You might notice that one of your competitors will concentrate almost exclusively on channel messaging; this is a pretty good clue that the channel is their focus. Another competitor might be using more financial high level 30,000 foot view of the market and how they fit in to the landscape, this could be a sign that they are pursuing financing or a high profile strategic partnership. Yet another competitor might simply have great market positioning that is being embraced by the industry influencers, analysts and media. The opportunity is to review each of these against your own approach, to then create positioning and messaging that is more innovative, perhaps even taking the market in a new direction.
One example might be to create a new category. (FYI, this is reviewed in detail in my book The Credibility Factor.) I worked for the company that held the paten for USB flash drives. The market lumped us in with other “storage” manufacturers like CDs and DVDs etc. To combat this we created a new category and called it “keychain storage.” This new category allowed us to describe the product in terms that consumers could understand; it is small enough and portable to hang on a keychain. This clearly differentiated us from other storage companies. Eventually the analyst community renamed it USB Flash drives, but we were able to establish the concept so the market and analysts would go there. The added benefit is by creating the category we were automatically the leaders of it.
There are a multitude of ways to differentiate from competitors, from strategic marketing programs (such as category creation) to the type of influencers you bring on board. One of the important tenets of credibility branding is influencers, using them to increase trust and brand awareness, to accelerate the sales conversion. So, for example one company might bring on board a celebrity to establish more of a fun lifestyle brand, and another company might use a well known business leader to establish credibility in a more serious manner.
All of the strategies and ideas mentioned in this article always lead back to knowing your audience and the market landscape well enough to determine the best persona (AKA brand) to present. Then creating unique strategies to implement and establish that persona. In all the cases the strategy is always to build awareness while also differentiating the brand.
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