The Importance of Differentation
Posted on June 3, 2009 | Tags: Personal Branding
No two dentists are the same.
No two marketing approaches are the same.
No two shoe brands are the same.
No two individuals within the same profession will deliver the same service.
The ability to tell one from the other is the key to successful communicating.
When you’re communicating about yourself to a marketplace, your words need to resonate with your prospect. Your prospect needs to say “hey .. that’s for me!”
Whether you’re writing copy for a postcard or creating phrases for a Google Adword campaign, how do you verbalize what it is that your market is looking for that differentiates you?
A Gucci bag in the end isn’t much different in quality, design and construction than many other less expensive brands. It’s got a reputation. It’s got a “perceived value” over and above the mere materials and design.
Building your reputation is what differentiates you. It’s not an overnight process, but it doesn’t have to take long. Part of it is creating a “perceived value” over and above the actual service or product.
You want to be the Gucci or Nordstrom’s of your industry? Differentiate. It’s not complicated, nor does it require diabolical genius. It’s a process of examining what you do, analyzing what your customers have said about you, and your competition and identifying what’s different. The perceived value is often not something you might recognize yourself. Sometimes I discover it from reading testimonials or talking to my client’s customers.
When you differentiate, you lose a lot of concern over competition. Why? Because when you do it right and define how your company or product is different, and the value that’s perceived about you, you have a strength you can build on. You’re different.
Further, when you identify which market will appreciate and pay for your difference, you’re attracting the customers you want.
What makes one dentist a better service provider for a woman over fifty who needs rehabilitative work? When the dentist who has years of experience working with that exact demographic with rave results is being compared with a dentist just learning, there’s no contest. As long as she knows about the more experienced dentist, she’ll choose him, right? She’ll probably even fly across the country to get the experienced service provider.
Differentiate. Make it real. And then promote the heck out of it.
That’s personal branding.
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