To compete successfully, Hudson Valley organizations must be unique in the minds of their customers and prospects. Only by demonstrating that you”™re different, but not too different, will you overcome the growing threat of the tyranny of choice.
Although the average supermarket displays 40,000 different choices or SKUs, the average family meets a vast majority of its needs with 150 of them. To avoid being like the other 39,850 items not chosen, you must stand out and be noticed.
When you overload an electrical circuit, it blows out. Consumers overloaded by choices tend to block them out and seldom allow new ones to enter. Like the electrical circuit, the multitude of choices can overload the human mind. In the last 30 years:
Ӣ Over-the-counter pain relievers soared from 17 to 141.
Ӣ Running shoe styles increased from five to 285.
Ӣ Colgate toothpaste varieties went from two to 17.
The customer has so many alternatives that you pay dearly for your mistakes. Remember Enron, Circuit City and Lehman Brothers? Once large and successful, they are now gone forever. How can business owners develop a strategy to thrive in such a choice-driven world?
The answer is to devise an approach that”™s clearly stated and highly focused. Then constantly communicate it to customers and prospects by emphasizing one compelling point. That point must answer this question: Why should customers buy from you rather than anyone else?
In “The Innovators Toolkit,” authors David Silverstein, Philip Samuel and Neil DeCarlo remind us the ideal answer to that question is found by describing a job to be done. “The reason customers buy sanitizing soap is to keep hands clean and germ-free. If you can do this job better than your competitors, or at a lower cost and with no harmful side effects, then you can win market share. It”™s as simple as that.”
It”™s called positioning. You must find a way to differentiate your product or service as the most attractive market alternative. Although Crest owned cavity prevention, taste, whitening ability and breath protection were open game. Toyota is America”™s bestselling car leaving trucks, minivans and SUVs as a wide-open marketplace, but perhaps not for long.
Each product category is like a ladder, and each brand name is a step on that ladder. To move up the ladder, you must either dislodge the one that”™s above or link your brand to another product category that”™s higher up on the scale. The mind has no room for what”™s new and different unless it”™s connected to the old in some way. Early automakers called their product a horseless carriage. A more recent example would be a wireless telephone.
In the words of former Apple CEO John Sculley, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” The more complicated a product or service, the less useful it is. The late Steve Jobs has made Apple products the ultimate in simplicity:
Ӣ Customers want to push a button and watch it work.
Ӣ They do not want to read a 200-page ownerӪs manual.
A brand needs to stand for something specific. Domino”™s focuses on home delivery. Xerox does this with photocopiers. FedEx does the same with overnight delivery. The point to remember is simple: To capture mind share and conquer competitors”™ business organizations, you must create, in the minds of your customers and prospects, a strong and unique position for your product or service. Demonstrate that you”™re different, but not too different.
Questions for discussion:
Ӣ What is the singular message we can genuinely deliver to our customer that tells them why they should do business with us rather than anyone else?
Ӣ Have we defined the jobs our customers are trying to get done and told them how our products or services helps them do it better, faster or cheaper?
Joe Murtagh is The DreamSpeaker, an international keynote speaker, meeting facilitator and business trainer. For questions or comments, Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com, www.TheDreamSpeaker.com or call (800) 239-0058.
