One of the biggest challenges confronting many businesses of all sizes and stripes is differentiating their product line or their company from competition. Afterall, what compelling thing is there to say about one store selling the same products as the one across the street, or one Plumber versus any other available in industry directories, telephone books, or on the internet? The reality is that the consumer experience of using one supplier's product or service is very likely to be roughly equivalent to the experience enjoyed with the competition's offering. When the shopper has multiple choices that are viewed as being similar to one another it can spell disaster for the suppliers.

Typical Responses

What many business owners will attempt to do when finding themselves in this quandary is to begin to compete with lower prices. The product is not different on its own merits from what is available elsewhere, so being willing to accept a reduced margin becomes the advantage over other competitors selling the same or similar things. Of course, this is often met with an equal or greater price reduction by competition and then neither competitor gains in the downward spiral race to the bottom.

Another gambit used by businesses is to rely on features and benefits. By choosing a component, ingredient, or some aspect of the product's make-up or the way the company conducts business, the hope is that it will be viewed as being beneficial or desirable by the

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shopper or consumer. The problem is that choosing the right features and tying it to a magnetic enough benefit to provide incentive for a customer to choose the product or outlet is not always as easy as it may seem. For instance, spotlighting that a ceramic mug has a handle attached to it is a feature. The natural benefit to mugs having handles is that one can drink a hot beverage without burning hands. The obvious marketing message then is akin to, "Buy Your Mugs Here, Don't Burn Your Hands." The problems with this approach are:

-Most mugs have handles, is the feature so truly outstandingly that it cannot be duplicated or claimed by others as well?

-It assumes that the mug is to be used for hot beverages. If it is not to be used for coffee, tea, or Hot Cocoa - the feature may no longer be as much a decision criteria factor

-Perhaps somewhat humorously, it also presupposes that burning one's hands is to be avoided. There just may be customers that enjoy burning their hands - as odd as that may strike most people. To prevent them from enjoying the feel of blistering hands may be to deny them their pleasure. Surely, those people would not be captivated by the promise of not being able to feel the heat of their beverages on their hands.

Idea: Who It Is For

Rather than focus on the product, change the perspective to the shopper target. Include photos, testimonials, or quotes from the users of the product or company's services and how well their needs were met, how satisfied they are, how willing they are to shop or use the company's offerings again. Knowing who you are targeting and then using that to your advantage can help focus the shopper on thinking that the business or the product is superior to competition:

Draw on the power of aspiration - I want to be like the people pictured. I want to feel what they feel.

Use affiliation - I am just like those people, and they seem to know this is better. I work, live, eat, exercise, etc. at the same places they do, I ought to use this product as well.

Leverage authority - if a particularly respected member of the community, or a celebrity, or other appreciated member of the industry, region, or neighborhood endorses a product or business, it will very often lead to others believing that the person is "in the know" and therefore has access to better decision-making criteria or other means to choose wisely.

Idea: Visualize the What

While competitors are selling widgets, gadgets, or commodities; smart businesses are selling outcomes or solutions. Rather than marketing the pixels, the construction, or the engineering of the copy machine; market the inability to identify the copy from the original, the durability if it should be bumped or dropped or the free time it creates through speed of copying, etc. The more vivid the language the better able the prospect will be at envisioning themselves enjoying the benefits of shopping with one supplier over another.

If it is possible to use graphics, photographs, or illustrations to make the point, then do so. It is markedly easier for busy people to capture the meaning of something they can see and relate to than it is for them to read through text and have to interpret meaning and then try to visualize it for themselves.

Cases in point:

-Automobile tire manufacturers have used babies in car seats, babies playing within tires, or kids in general to make the point that driving on bald tires puts passengers at risk. No amount of verbiage about tread, steel construction, lifetime wear and tear, etc. will ever communicate as powerfully as seeing a sleeping child in the backseat strapped into a car seat on a rainy day as a parent swerves to avoid a road obstruction.

-Adult beverage manufacturers have escalated the power of the visual to both an art and a science by pairing attractive people drinking their products in advertisements with the message that the beverage is what makes them attractive to others.

Idea: How It Happens

There is likely to be skepticism with any marketing messages placed before the shoppers or customers of your products. In a world where nearly every pizza delivery box professes, "You Have Tried All The Rest, Now Try The Best" it is just not possible that every pizzeria has the best pizza. The business will at times have to demonstrate how their approach or process is better than others in order to be believed. Is it because the pizza is made in an oven that cannot be replicated by others, is the person making the pizza using a different approach than competition, or are the ingredients, process, or methods unique?

By further personalizing the effort by including quotes of the pizza maker sharing how her Great-Aunt from Palermo, Italy shared a secret recipe that is only available for customers of this one pizzeria, or showing how the brick oven is constructed to maximize the heating of the freshly picked ingredients, etc. - the product is improved. If the business is in a service, like Accounting, Consulting, Medicine, Legal, etc. - the business can offer White Papers or research that demonstrate the latest thinking on issues, offer workshops or seminars on topics of interest or in other ways demonstrate expertise that separates the business and the owner from competition.

It is rare that a business has the market to itself with a unique offering. Few companies will ever be in a position to claim their products or services are truly one of a kind and unavailable from any other competitor. And even when that does happen, it is not too long before a competitor has a similar product or service. To sustain growth, however, requires moving the dialogue with customers away from merely product attributes and onto how they stand to improve through the use of being a customer of your business versus others.

David Zahn is a serial entrepreneur and consultant to Fortune 100 businesses (www.zahnconsulting.com) as well as entrepreneurial startups (www.startupbuilder.com).

The opinions expressed are the author's and not necessarily those of connpost.com. Please direct comments to cdauber@ctpost.com.