In the technology sector, we're always looking for what's next. It must be different, disruptive, and truly better, and it must solve a real problem. Obsoleting your product is certainly common in the technology businesses. Intel and others have been doing it since the mid-1970s.
How a product is made can differentiate it. Is it made a new way? Is it made the traditional way? These days, it had better be made in an environmentally sustainable manner. Perhaps your very greenness is a difference. Where your product is made can also be a distinction. Being an expert or a specialist narrows the brand focus and can help you carve out an effective niche in the mind of the market. Duracell accomplished this in the battery market as the alkaline specialist against the generalist Eveready. I'm sure you can think of others.
Its not just about products
Market position is a perceived customer value. If your brand is already leading in some way, don't be bashful. Claim it, unless a competitor already has. Two brands cannot claim the same position.
The unique value may be in sales, technology, or science. Perhaps your speed of distribution makes you a leader. FedEx won in its market on speed. Discovering a new place to be a leader or valuably different is the essence of effective marketing strategy.
Just don't try being more than one thing to your market. People can't remember more than one attribute or value connected to a brand. Sometimes geographical or cultural factors require a brand to take a different position in one place versus another. You may be a leader in one part of the world and an unknown or newcomer elsewhere. Adapt.
Bigness may be a liability in some sectors. Small is still preferable in some high-touch industries, including professional services. Simple is attractive to customers. Is your brand simple to engage with? Compare how easy it is to your competitors. That may be an option.
Lastly, get the CEO's buy-in on the positioning message. "That's the only person who can consistently keep everyone focused on the same message." Thank you, Jack Trout! I highly recommend that anyone working on differentiating a brand read Jack's Differentiate Or Die and put it to work in nailing your difference.
How is your brand at expressing a clear, singular customer value?
Ariella - Amazing how few marketers get this simple truth. instead they throw a dozen or more things at customers to remember, often just mimicing industry buzzwords.
What tech brands have you found that clearly and simply express their competitive differentiation? Some good examples are out there along with the many that fail.
Open Forum featured an explanation of differentiation in the fitness industry. And, as if you haven't heard about content marketing already, the founder of the company explains that content is key: "Almost all of our traffic is driven from social networks because we're writing specifically for certain communities-thinking from the very beginning of our editorial process about how to make our content relevant, shareable and awesome."
That more marketers are discovering that creating informative content helps grow business and customer engagement is wonderful but not new. I object to alledged new media pundits or digerati who think they're discovering a new form of promotion and giving it a new name like "Content Marketing." Sorry, do a little research. Gaining target audience or community attention by producing valuable content has been going on well before many of these "digital marketeres" were born. For more on this go to: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2010/3900/content-marketing-has-been-a-successful-pr-strategy-for-decades
Today's online reality is, if you've got a web site, you're in the publishing business. The good news is that publishing and producing informative content written, audio or video, is easier and less costly than ever. Kind of like desktop publishing was in the mid-80's. Similarly, marketeres have a lot to learn about how to effectively apply all these new, affordable tools. There's lots of junk content being rapidly produced just as there was (and still is) with desktop publishing. Quite often its well worth it hiring pros who can do it right the first time. A lot like NOT photographing your own wedding.
@Ford I couldn't agree with you more! I'm so tired of hearing about it as if it's a new discovery. It's only a new discovery to certain people who seem oblivious to the fact that brands used content marketing way before the internet even came into existence. It's only that the web makes it easier for content to travel via sharing on social media. Rather than clip newspapers, people can hit the like, tweet, +, or whatever share button appears above or below the piece.
Now as for your line on NOT photographing your own wedding, that reminds me of a photographer (one among a few I know of) who did content marketing by writing about photography in local newspapers. He included that he intended to carry a camera to his own wedding. As far as I know, he never did get married.
He may have been a photography pro and he may have intended on taking a camera to his wedding but it sounds like he didn't really never intend on getting married.
Suggest that doing brain surgery on yourself may come under the same heading. One of those occasions when skiled, experienced, professional help is worth the investment.
EBN Dialogue enables and encourages you to participate in live chats with notable leaders and luminaries. Not only editors and journalists, but the entire EBN community is able to comment and ask questions. Listed below are upcoming and archived chats.
Archived Dialogues
Thailand Stages a Comeback Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Euro-Crisis: What It Means for High-Tech Firms Join EBN Editor in Chief Bolaji Ojo and Contributing Editor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday, July 12, at 10:00 a.m. EDT for a Live Chat on high-tech and Europe's economic difficulties.
Microsoft Surface: Potential Winners & Losers What are the implications for the electronics industry supply chain of Microsoft Corp.'s decision to launch its own tablet PC? Join industry veteran and EE Times' systems and OEM expert Rick Merritt on Tuesday, July 3, at 12:00 pm EDT for a Live Chat on this subject.
Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Peter Drucker famously said "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window." Yet in the razor's-edge world of electronics—with a lean supply chain and just-in-time demands—the need to know the future is vital.
While no one really can accurately predict the future, we can take guidance from another Drucker saying which is the best way to predict the future is to create it.
You've heard the saying "the No. 1 supply chain risk is your people." That hasn't always been the case. But today's complex global supply chain requires a new type of multitalented employee. It's one who understands, finance, marketing, economics, is savvy with technology, graceful with relationships and can think analytically.
Where are these people? Are universities properly preparing the next generation supply chain professionals? How do train your existing workforce for these new, demanding positions?
Brian Fuller, editor-in-chief of EBN, will lead a 60-minute Avnet Velocity panel discussion that will ask and answer these and other questions swirling around today's supply-chain talent challenges.
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