Do you want to beat your\u00a0competition? Do you really want to be the winner in your market?<\/p>\n
Then you need to be clear on why people should choose you rather than the others.<\/p>\n
Typical answers to the question \u201cwhy should I choose you over your\u00a0competitors?\u201d are things such as:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are better\u201d
\n\u201cWe have better customer service\u201d
\n\u201cWe have better quality products\u201d
\nThese kinds of answers just aren\u2019t going to cut it. Better according to who? According to what standards? Of course we should always aim to give our customer the best we can, within the confines of our positioning in the market. If we are going to be the cheapest, we are not going to provide luxury quality, but we can aim to provide the best quality within our affordable price range. But there is a fundamental flaw in choosing \u201cbetter\u201d as the main reason for choosing you over the competition. First of all, there are\u00a0no universal standards as to what is considered good, better or best, it is all relative and it is all in the eye of the beholder. Secondly, these kinds of things can be imitated. If you are doing or providing something better than the competition, they can study you and copy what you are doing. They may not always succeed, but they will definitely try, and may very well succeed. So whilst I am not saying you should not aim to be the best at what you do (you should!) I am simply saying, that it is extremely unlikely that this is enough and you need more.<\/p>\n
So why should people choose you over your competitors?<\/p>\n
Simple.<\/p>\n
Because\u00a0you are different.<\/p>\n
You need to be different in a way that appeals to people.<\/p>\n
There is a very well known book by marketing guru Seth Godin called\u00a0Purple Cow. In it he talks about driving along a road and seeing a purple cow. You\u2019re definitely going to notice it. What\u2019s more, you\u2019re going to talk about it. You\u2019re going to tell everyone about it. You\u2019re probably going to get out of that car and take a picture and you\u2019re going to post it on\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and Instagram. You could even blog about it! Bottom line is, when you see a purple cow, you will definitely notice it and have an opinion about it. How does this purple cow make you feel? Do you like it? Do you not like it? Is it weird? Is it funny? It\u2019s different, it is remarkable, it is either something you like or you don\u2019t. And you need to do that; you need to find your way to be different.<\/p>\n
Be different in a way that matters and\u00a0be brave\u00a0about it! Take it all the way; don\u2019t just sort of put a decorative banner somewhere that says \u201c OOOH! We\u2019re very different for an accountancy firm!\u201d Go the whole way\u2026 the whole nine yards! Actually be a different accountancy firm.<\/p>\n
Why should you do that?<\/p>\n
First of all, you can own that differentiation. If you have already established yourself as the pink funny accountancy firm, it would simply be lame for someone else to come into the market and do the very same thing. People would say \u201coh, they\u2019re just trying to be like that pink funny accountancy firm that is already around\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s old news, imitation, \u201cme-too\u201d. The other thing is that it will evoke feelings. People will either like it or not \u2013 and those that will like it are much likelier to do business with you. If you are just \u201cbetter\u201d then someone else can easily be \u201cjust better\u201d tomorrow. The definition of \u201cbetter\u201d can change in an instance, and it is different between different people. In some ways, being \u201cbetter\u201d is a bit like being the cheapest. Tomorrow someone else gets a better deal and can sell things cheaper than you and you end up with a price war on your hands. Think about transatlantic airlines. One airline started offering fully reclining seats to sleep in \u2013 better, yes \u2013 but before you know it, all the airlines in that price category were offering them! You end up with a neverending leapfrogging race! Be different in a way that matters to people and you are much likelier to reap customer loyalty as a reward.<\/p>\n
There are a few brands that I actually love because they\u2019re very, very different and if you check out my Pinterest page at\u00a0Pinterest.com\/thoranna, you\u2019ll find boards that are dedicated to some of my favorite\u00a0brands such as Virgin Airlines, Poo Pourri, Ben & Jerry\u2019s and Eat24. Have a look at them for inspiration. And I hate to talk in cliches, but there is a reason for them and classic examples are classic because they illustrate a point so well. Think about Apple. They have always been different. Like when they came out with the iMac \u2013 who made candy coloured see through computers? No one! And if someone had copied them? They would have just been that, lame copies. That was really really brave, and very very different.<\/p>\n
So what I\u2019m saying is that you need to be brave and be different, because if you don\u2019t someone else eventually will, I can promise you that. Don\u2019t be just like the others. Have character. Apart from everything else, it just makes life so much more enjoyable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do you want to beat your\u00a0competition? Do you really want to be the winner in your market?<\/p>\n
Then you need to be clear on why people should choose you rather than the others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17,21],"tags":[22,23],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-corporate","category-news","tag-brave","tag-different"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.exptheme.com\/juststartit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}