When you’ve got lots of competitors, how do you ensure you stand out?
For photographers, having a unique angle is a way to stand out in a gallery, helping people to notice the picture and inspiring them to think or take action.
In marketing this is known as ‘differentiation’ and working out how to differentiate your brand from your competitors is critical for growth.
Sometimes a brand can get a head start through an innovative advertising campaign or a better way of doing things. Several years ago, startups like AirBNB could use superior user experiences to stand out. Nowadays standards of UX are much higher across the board, making it less effective as a differentiator.
Another way to stand out is honing down to the needs of a very specific target audience. Effectively you become the go-to brand for that audience niche.
And because you understand their world so well, you can tailor your proposition to the unique problems they’re trying to solve.
Niching down is always a challenge. The temptation to be everything to everyone is potent, especially when your organisation starts to grow.
But having a niche allows you to focus in a way you won’t achieve when you spread your resources across a broad target audience.
So how do you find your unique angle?
In the 3P customer strategy, I wrote about finding the combination of Problem, Person and Purpose:
- Problem – Solve a specific problem
- Person – For a specific audience
- Purpose – To achieve a specific result
Being clear on your 3Ps provides you with a framework for defining the unique angle for your brand.
Thanks for reading 🙂