July 9, 2010

SHOUTS For The ONE and ONLY

One of my earlier Blog Articles dealt with creating The Only Statement for an organization as a means of declaring it’s distinctiveness. The idea is to get away from aspirational intentions in favor of defining the specific thing that differentiates you from your competition.

Others also speak of the importance of this approach: “You don’t want merely to be the best of the best. You want to be the ONLY one’s who do what you do”—Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead is one such well known supporter. In addition, many Marketing Experts such as Seth Godin advocate a short, punchy, clean and crisp way to create a market position. In fact he says that if you can’t spell-out your position in eight words or less you don’t have a position.

My ONLY Statement approach definitely satisfies all requisites for clarity and brevity. And It has definitely caught on.

Here are some organizations that are using it to distinguish themselves from the competitive blur that pervades the marketplace these days. BE DiFFERENT SHOUTS to all of them for their leadership.

“CJSmusic is the ONLY music service in Canada that offers online music lessons and composition services for advertisers, filmmakers, and composers.”

“Squamish Riverjet... Featuring British Columbia’s ONLY Purpose Built adventure Tourism Jet-Boats”

“MUG Solutions... We provide the ONLY solution that permanently stops people from depositing bio-hazard contaminants through manhole covers.”

“Urban Pill is the ONLY city lifestyle guide willing to recommend businesses & activities that match your MOOD ... and offer rewards through natural gaming!”

“BE DiFFERENT or be dead is the ONLY book that offers a practical how to approach to enhance the performance of organizations to ensure they thrive and survive in the long term. The ideas presented here have been tested in the real world and have been successfully implemented across all critical business functions.”

“Queen’s Full-Time MBA is one of the world’s premier MBA programs, renowned for its leading-edge curriculum and innovative approaches to learning. But what really sets it apart is its focus on you. ONLY Queen’s provides personal development coaching to build on your individual strengths, as well as specialized electives tailored to your specific career aspirations, in order to help you achieve the greatest personal and professional growth.”

“ONLY CBS Positioning Campaign focusing on the Company serving YOU. Nice!

“Bruce Allen’s Reality Check: ONLY on CKNW Newstalk 980.”

“Introducing Live Agent ONLY for Business; ONLY from Rogers”

Ms Lube is the first and ONLY all-female automotive service center in North America…”

I encourage you to declare yourself from the ONLY perspective. Give it a try. It’s not easy otherwise everyone would be doing it. But it is worth it.

If you have an ONLY Statement that you want an opinion on or want to share connect with me. I would be pleased to assist in any way that I can.

Cheers,
Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter

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Posted 7.9.10 at 07:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 18, 2010

Reader Dialogue: Value-Based Offers and No Discounting

 

I enjoy having conversations with people who want to implement my BE DiFFERENT Practices. Jordan owns CJS Music, an on-line music lesson business. He is looking for advice on how to create a package without having to price discount. Here’s our latest exchange…

“Roy, We discussed a few weeks ago about how I could add more value into my services instead of discounting. I came up with a 25 lesson package that will include printed music flash
cards, a monthly report card from the teacher (me) and a free admission to one of our masterclasses during their studies with us. What are your thoughts on this?
Best, Jordan
PS I really like the twitter posts you are making very informative.”

My reply: Jordan, You are definitely on the right track. Make sure the attributes of your Package (i.e. the music cards etc.) are highly valued by your target customers. If not, you will have a clever Package that won’t resonate with customers. Test it . Do some Market Research to make sure the design is right.

The other point here is that if customers are not impressed with the overall value of the Package, they will not be terribly willing to pay you a Premium Price, right? Remember we don’t want to discount. Set your price and again do some testing with your target customer group for feedback. Once you are happy that your price point is ‘just about right’ then introduce the Package.

Be prepared to tweak it though if the market surprises you. Keep me posted.

Jordan is thinking about this the right way. Nicely done. Oh, by the way check out his ONLY Statement. Great job!

Cheers,
Roy
Remember to follow me on Twitter
Take the BE DiFFERENT Quiz: Are you DiFFERENT or are you dead?

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Posted 6.18.10 at 07:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 7, 2009

BE DiFFERENT Tips for Start-ups

So, you have created a great idea that you believe will capture the hearts and minds and, hopefully the pocket books of people. You have laboured for months and maybe years making sure your product or service concept works; the technology is sound and consistently stable.

You have now arrived at the point where you need to morph your idea into a business. More specifically your challenge is to turn your innovative idea into a thriving economic engine. So how do you do it?

The BE DiFFERENT mantra: If you’re not different you’re dead (or soon will be) should be your guide. If you can’t provide unique reasons to attract business then your startup idea will never get off the ground.

The number one consideration for anyone looking to start a business is that your idea has to be unique in some way or it can be morphed into a unique state. As I said above, you can have a great technology idea, but unless a BE DiFFERENT mindset is applied, you may never have a great business.

The starting point: develop your Strategic Game Plan based on answering three questions:
- HOW BIG do you want to be?
- WHO do you want to SERVE?
- HOW will you compete and WIN?

Declare your financial or market goals first. Second, select target customers that have the potential to deliver to your financial expectations. Third, create a differentiated market approach that will beat your competitors. Your Strategic Game Plan can be created in 3 days; you can start executing it on the fourth!

The essential component of the HOW to WIN part of the strategy is the need to create the only statement for your business; this is the essence of your strategy to beat your competitors in the trenches. The challenge is simple to explain but challenging to complete:
‘We are the only ones that…..’

This is the ultimate manifestation of a real differentiation strategy and you should look in every nook and cranny in your business for this edge. Figure it out with your team and then test it with prospective customers. Make sure it is real, compelling and believable and that you are not mesmerized by your own thoughts of grandeur.

Your Strategic Game Plan must be set in place first; all action plans, tactics and activities are driven from it.

The bottom line for you entrepreneurs out there is that if you cannot define your business in relevant terms to your target customers (i.e. you will deliver something that is a high priority to them) and if you cannot explain in clear concise terms how your offering is DiFFERENT from the other alternatives available then STOP. Continue to work on your idea until you meet the BE DiFFERENT criteria. You will reap the rewards later.

If you want a guide to your efforts, work with my BE DiFFERENT Quiz. Use the 40 Practises in the Quiz to build your business in a BE DiFFERENT way.

Cheers,
Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter

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Posted 9.7.09 at 07:41 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)