As a passionate animal lover, I often find inspiration and learn valuable life (and business) lessons from the animal world. Even when it comes to my work in helping clients to build brand visibility and attract their ideal client.
Take my miniature donkey Rory (left in the photo), for example. Rory has a very effective way of standing out from competitors and delivering his message in a way that attracts the attention of his ideal target market – me!
You see, Rory doesn’t heehaw like the other donkeys; he ‘sings’ with the pitch of a soprano! Every night at dinner time, Rory sweetly sings his message of ‘Feed me, feed me. Can’t you see I’m starving!’. And it works every time!
In his classic marketing book ‘Purple Cow”, Seth Godin urges us to put a Purple Cow into everything we build and do so that we create something truly remarkable. In a competitive and commoditised marketplace, you’re either remarkable or invisible – you’re either a purple cow or you’re not.
A purple cow and Rory the donkey stand out in a herd because they are different. But it takes more than being different for brands to cut through the clutter of a competitive marketplace.
Like Rory, a brand needs to leverage its point of difference in a way that makes it remarkable to those whom it wishes to attract.
The car market provides a good example of how vehicle manufacturers leverage their point of difference based on a specific attribute. For instance, Volvo leverages the attribute of ‘safe’, Mercedes Benz, ‘prestige’ and Jeep, ‘adventure’.
Each of these car brands wraps all its business operations and marketing efforts around the differentiating attribute it has claimed. Everything Volvo does is based on the attribute of ‘safe’. All research and development, manufacturing, marketing, sales and customer service is based around the theme of safety. Safety is Volvo’s ‘why’, and the company attracts customers who highly value this attribute.
Some ways to differentiate a brand and create a compelling point of difference include:
- Being first / biggest / most
- Attribute
- Heritage
- Market specialty
- Technology
- Target market
- Methodology
- Innovation
- Geographic area
- Unique product features
- Sustainability
- Ethics
If you leverage your point of difference in a way that attracts people who value the differentiating qualities it offers, you’ll quickly move from being invisible to being remarkable in the minds of those who matter.
©Ros Weadman 2022
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