Differentiation is the Key to Real Success

If you don’t have a successful role model to emulate, look at what all the other people are doing and don’t do it. – Earl Nightingale

If you want to be really successful in business, you must differentiate your product or service in a meaningful way. I consider this the golden rule of marketing. Disregard this rule and, in the eyes of potential customers, you will appear the same as everyone else. In such situations, customers make their buying decision based mostly on “price.” As a result, your profit margins will suffer needlessly. Follow this rule and promote the compelling benefit your product or service offers and you’ll be in the driver’s seat, selling on “value” and achieving higher sales volume and higher margins while your business grows and prospers.

How can you clearly differentiate your business and put yourself in this position? When developing your unique selling proposition (USP) look for an advantage that customers can get only from you and make sure they perceive it as being valuable. This advantage should be something that your competitors are not offering and cannot easily copy. Even if they make an effort to copy it later on, you would still be able to position your firm as the first company in a particular market or industry to offer it.

Here is an example of differentiation:

Boston is well known for its rich history and many historic sites easily accessible on foot. Its nickname is "America's Walking City." According to the Feb. 4-10, 2005 issue of the Boston Business Journal, 3,000,000 people walked Boston’s Freedom Trail in 2004. The majority of these individuals took self-guided tours while others participated in group walking tours offered by several organizations. I’ve taken many of these tours myself.

By the time I decided to establish my own walking tour business in the city, I had studied the competition, knew exactly what they were offering and made a distinct decision not to emulate them. Not because I thought their tours weren't well run, I simply felt the last thing the city needed was another guide doing the exact same type of tour. I was determined to offer something completely different.

My two hour tour would cover 14 historic sites along Boston’s Freedom Trail but would also take participants back in time in a way that no one else ever has or could. I would reveal stories passed down in my family for over 200 years about life in early Boston including a connection to the Sons of Liberty and Paul Revere. Participants would “hold history in their hands” as I shared my extensive collection of rare newspapers printed in colonial Boston from 1769-1805.

I would position myself as a published children’s book author who had done extensive genealogy research and turned the story of his early Boston ancestors into a tale of historical fiction. The audio version of my book, One April in Boston, would be given away free to each group as a unique premium. Again, something that only I could offer.

The tours were promoted to schools, families and groups with great success and I continue to offer them, mainly on weekends, each year. As a tour guide, I don’t dress in colonial costume (that would be emulating the competition) but participants find it intriguing that my early Boston ancestors actually did!

I hope this example of differentiation will start the wheels turning and motivate you to develop unique ways to set your own product or service apart.

Fall Update 2005 - The differentiation continues... the MP3 download version of One April in Boston was just released and our school programs expanded.

Every student who participates in our school programs receives free access to download the MP3 audio files which can be played on a home computer, burned on 3 CDs or transferred to an iPod. Participants can also view illustrations and color photos from the book itself online.

For assistance with your marketing strategy, including developing a compelling USP that will strongly differentiate you from the competition, contact Ben Edwards today at 617-670-1888, ext. 1.