BusinessSeptember 20, 2010
Ask the experts: How can I carve out a niche?
Local marketing gurus Gera LeGrand and Dana Hukel offer advice for small business.
Q: How can I uniquely position my products and services in the market so I can grow my business?
Gera Legrand
Marketing gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout titled their 2000 book " Positioning A Battle for the Mind." Positioning your business is the process of owning the mind of consumers, so they think of you when they want or need the products or services you offer. Positioning is not easy; it takes research, time and money. It is also impossible to fully explain in this space, but I will get you started.
The first step in positioning your business is complicated. You have to take the time and research what position you CAN own! Typically, unless you have unlimited resources, you can't own a position that one of your competitors already owns. You have to examine the strengths and challenges of each competitor, you have to examine your own strengths and challenges, you have to study your market segment to determine if there is a new position you could take that could be important to consumers for the products you offer, but has not yet been capitalized on.
You have to be honest with yourself; you can't own a position that you do not deliver. You cannot be known as the largest, if you are not the largest, you cannot be known as the fastest if you are not the fastest. You have to be able to deliver on the position you are trying to establish.
After you establish which position you can own, you must communicate to consumers with consistency and frequency. Consistency means you are communicating with the same style and the same main message, no matter where the communication occurs. So no matter if it is the radio commercial, the billboard, the newspaper ad, the way your phone is answered, the way your employees dress, your signage or your in-store displays--the look, tone and feel of your marketing message, your communication, must be consistent with the position you are taking. You can't be fun and crazy one month, and then super-sophisticated the next. Frequency means you must communicate often, so your message is not forgotten.
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The trick is to find a position, put it into a positioning statement and then plan your marketing around it. It's not easy but it can be done, usually with the help of marketing professionals.
Dana Hukel
Start by making sure your brand promise delivers. Great harm can be done to your business if you promise one thing through advertising and fail to deliver once the customer reaches your doors, whether in person on online. This can be avoided if you have done the homework to ensure your brand is positioned in accordance with your product so that customers are buying the brand, even more so than the product.
If the brand is built correctly, from the inside out, company personnel also believe in the brand. This belief radiates outward, as they work hard to make a better product, which in turn generates greater faith and trust among consumers, which increases sales volume and repeat business get the idea?
Next, look at incorporating a diverse marketing strategy into this product or service that includes traditional advertising, networking, word-of-mouth and inbound marketing through online media. Before you design or write text for an advertisement, write down the top goal you want consumers to glean from that advertisement. For example, do you want to sell something, drive traffic to your website, increase awareness for a service, or differentiate from competitors? Regardless of the answer, your ad should focus 95 percent on supporting that goal. The rest of the advertisement should include tagline, contact information, and other support information about your business and product.
Finally, get creative in your marketing approach. Know what your competitors are doing and then develop your own strategy. Determine your differentiating factors and push that message out to the public. Ask yourself, "Why should they choose us?" and then give them the answer.
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