| New entrepreneurs frequently hear the
advice to "be unique" in their marketing. The basic idea is a valuable one -- to
get attention in a crowded marketplace, you must stand out in some way. Distinguishing
your product or service from the competition can make your marketing more effective.
Crafting a novel marketing message can attract the notice of more potential customers.
There's no question that an element of uniqueness in your
marketing can make your business more memorable, competitive, and special to your target
audience. These are all reasons why being different can be good. But how different should
you be?
A student in one of my classes had noticed there were no
display ads for management consultants in his local Yellow Pages. "What a great
opportunity," he thought, "to make my business stand out to prospective
clients." He spent over $200 per month on a large ad for a full year. The result was
not a single phone call, unless you count the ones from vendors trying to sell him
photocopiers and phone systems.
He had neglected to ask his consulting colleagues WHY none
of them had ads in the Yellow Pages. It seemed like a good idea to him, and no one else
was doing it, so he pulled out his checkbook. What never occurred to him -- and what any
experienced colleague could have told him -- was that companies don't choose management
consultants from ads in the phone book.
Sometimes you can be too unique for your own good. There's
a lot in sales and marketing that is tried and true. If you decide to forge a completely
new trail, you may be attempting an experiment that many others in your field have already
tried with no success.
It's not always just your marketing techniques that are a
little too different. The same problem can afflict the product or service you are
marketing.
I met a fellow while networking who had a "unique
process" for helping companies resolve conflicts between employee groups. When I
asked him to explain his process, he said I would have to experience it to understand it.
I inquired how it compared to solutions like mediation or team building, and he told me it
was a totally different approach that defied comparison.
Since I knew a company that needed help with a problem like
the one he described, I would have liked to refer him. But I couldn't picture myself
calling my friend at the company to say, "Hi, I know someone who says he can fix your
problem, but he can't explain how. You'll just have to hire him and see."
Being noticeably different from the competition can help
you attract customers and close sales. But claiming that you have no competition is naive.
Comparisons to a known quantity can help prospective customers understand where your
product or service fits in the range of solutions they are considering. If they can't
compare it to anything, it's doubtful that they will be able to see how your offering
could work.
Your market, too, needs to be a group of people who already
exist and can be readily identified. A reader once wrote to ask me for some advice on
getting her new book published. I asked what market category it fell into, and she replied
that she hadn't really thought about it.
I pressed her bit, explaining that her book needed to be
categorized in order to be marketed and sold. Even something as simple as where to shelve
it in a bookstore depended on having a category to print on the back cover. Was it
self-help, spirituality, careers, business? Who did she see as the audience for her book?
She asserted that she was creating a new paradigm, and if I
was going to help her, I needed to think more creatively. My reply was to tell her I
couldn't help her at all. Her idea may have been brilliant, but no publisher was going to
touch her project.
Creating the perception that your product or service is one
of a kind can help you capture people's attention and make them remember you. But you have
to be able to identify the people you want to reach and communicate how you can be of
service in words they can understand.
You know those car commercials that go, "Zoom, zoom,
zoom?" I had to see those ads dozens of times before I could remember that the car
being advertised was a Mazda. "Zoom" was unique alright, but what did it have to
do with Mazda? Or with the benefits of owning one? A catchy slogan like "Inspiration
Beats Perspiration" may be clever and unusual, but what the heck is it marketing?
Definitely look for a unique way to express the benefits
you offer to your clients, but make sure it still communicates what you actually do. It's
okay to get creative with your marketing, but don't bet the rent money on untried
techniques.
If you really want to make your marketing more effective,
cheaper and less stressful, stop re-inventing the wheel. Find models that work and
replicate them. I'm not suggesting that you plagiarize your competitors' marketing copy,
but when you see someone successful in your field, find out what they are doing right, and
follow their lead.
Don't let your business be a victim of "terminal
uniqueness" -- the belief that you are so different from anyone else that none of the
rules apply to you. Being distinctive is good; being eccentric can be unwise. |
