THINK ABOUT IT: Differentiating Your Brand

We must differentiate our offering to stand out from the crowd and drive customer preference.

So, we begin our journey to differentiate by developing a “brand” positioning strategy. Not product, but brand positioning.

The product is a commodity. It addresses physical attributes and benefits that are not meaningfully different from its competitors.

The brand addresses physical and psychological benefits. It encompasses a constellation of shared values with the target customer and their experience with the brand.

However, differentiation alone—even on the brand level—will not necessarily win the day.

Differentiation without relevance to a specific target customer segment is an oddity.

We need to offer relevant, meaningful differentiation.

Relevant means that it is essential to our target customer.

Meaningful means the target customer can experience differentiation in the absolute and relative to the competition.

Where can we create relevant, meaningful differentiation within our brand positioning strategy?

Everyone looks to the benefit. But there’s more. Much more.

Each element of the brand positioning strategy allows us to differentiate our brand from the plethora of products and brands on the market.

We start by creating differentiation with the Brand Idea—the reason for our brand’s existence.

We can also differentiate our brand based on which competitors we target to source our sales and market share.

Indeed, we can differentiate with our benefit, going beyond the physical to capture the psychological.

We can also use each of the different benefit types—product, customer, and emotional—to differentiate from competitors' shills.

Let’s not forget reasons-why as an avenue to differentiate. A more compelling reason-why can strengthen believability for the brand’s benefit promise and drive customer preference.

But we’re not done differentiating. What’s the one additional element that I have not addressed?

The target customer!

We may also differentiate with our brand positioning strategy based on the target we identify and choose to serve.

Choose the target customer segment that believes what we believe—our Brand Idea and positioning strategy.

As Jack Trout and Steve Rifkin wrote, DIFFERENTIATE OR DIE.

Wherever and however you choose to differentiate, make it relevant and meaningful to your target customer.

THINK ABOUT IT:

• What elements of your brand positioning strategy have you differentiated from your brand's competitors?
• In what way is the differentiation relevant and meaningfully differentiated? How do you know this to be accurate instead of merely your opinion?
• How has it impacted your brand’s growth?
• By the way, what is your key competitor's brand positioning? If you don't know this, you can't possibly know you've differentiated your brand's positioning in the marketplace.

MAKE YOUR MARKETING MATTER MORE:

• Identify your key competitor’s brand positioning strategy.
• Differentiate your brand’s positioning strategy to thrive.
• Check to ensure with your target customer that your brand’s differentiation is relevant and meaningfully differentiated.
• Don’t do the same as your competitors. Do different that’s relevant and meaningfully different.

Found this post informative or thought-provoking? Follow me at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/richarddczerniawski/ as I share my perspectives from 50 years of successful worldwide brand marketing experience each week.

Peace and best wishes for making your marketing matter more,

Richard D. Czerniawski