It’s important that your narrative is strong enough to stand out and resonate with your customers.
The most important, yet easily ignored, part of any business plan is having a clear and solid point of difference. There are many ways to fill a target market’s need, but is your narrative strong enough to stand out and resonate with your customers?
Once the initial spark of creativity has delivered an idea, many people jump into considerations such as profitability, production and funding. It’s essential to take a long, hard look at your idea and be brutally honest with yourself. Does your new product or business have a strong enough point of difference to surprise and delight your target market?
Success often arises from meeting unmet consumer needs and telling a unique and compelling story that evokes an emotional response.
Does your business idea tick one of these boxes?
Engineering. The strongest point of difference comes in an engineering capacity where you create a better version of an existing product or create an unmet need the customer didn’t even know they had. This is often seen in the beauty industry or with small gadgets that people didn’t know they wanted. Research is key, so it’s important to discover if your innovation resonates with the target demographic enough for consumers to actually make the purchase.
Emotional. These products make a customer feel better once they purchase your product via increased happiness or decreased guilt. For example, it may evoke nostalgia, offer a sense of belonging, it could have diverse ownership that people want to support, be cruelty free, environmentally friendly or fill a dietary requirement.
Aesthetic and Tone. Over the past decade, aesthetic points of difference have become more important, especially with younger generations, but it’s hard to nail this. Often new businesses skimp on investing in professional branding agencies that understand their demographic. That can be their downfall. Branding can also stand out by having a new (sometimes humorous) tone of voice. The risk in this point of difference is that a larger company could replicate your look and feel, so your product needs to be amazing to use, too.
Price. Unless you’re a large corporation, it’s almost impossible to make a product cheaper than everybody else, as this involves large scale production. However, brands often find success in making a premium version of a more simple existing product. This usually involves high aesthetic value and matching price to consumer expectations rather than pure profitability.
Above all – do your research. Make sure you know for sure that somebody else isn’t filling this gap and that your product or service is genuinely strong enough to have ongoing repeat customers and your product can’t be easily replicated by others. Being honest with yourself and taking the time to ensure your product has a strong point of difference can save a lot of heartache.
Ellen Weigall is an entrepreneur with a passion for empowering women in business. Find out more about Ellen About | BABY Pink Gin