Be Different or be dead

October 22, 2012

Why the ‘ONLY Statement’ is the best way to express your competitive advantage

Source: Pexels

Why the ‘ONLY Statement’ is the best way to express your competitive advantage.

The most challenging task in today’s world of aggressive and hyper competition is to carve out a competitive position for your organization that clearly separates you from the competitive herd.

Something that makes you relevant, compelling and special to the people you choose to serve.

Something that leaves them breathless every time they do business with you. That captures their undying devotion to you forever.

Today, the herd runs rampant over the economic landscape.

Marketing in the herd is lazy and unimaginative. Incremental product feature creep is the main strategy that tries to distinguish one organization from another.

Price is used to create the illusion of separation.

None of these tactics work.

Unclear value is communicated to the market and consumers are left to their own devices to determine who is capable of uniquely satisfying their wants and expectations.

Unfortunately, when value is not clear, people buy on price and everyone in the market ends up on a race to the bottom.

What’s the solution? How does a business create a unique competitive claim?

Stop copying ‘best of breed’ and ‘best in class’.

Decide that you will be the ONLY one who does something and claim your distinctiveness by creating your ONLY Statement.

The ONLY is simple, practical and effective.

It goes like this: “We are the ONLY ones that…”

If you can make this claim, you are well on your way to distinguishing yourself from the malaise of copiers, followers, and invisible herd members in the market today.

The ONLY Statement must follow these rules:

✔️ It must be about value which is relevant to your customers. It’s not about the product or service you provide; it’s about the set of benefits it creates (experiences, happiness, joy, fun, memories) for your fans. Don’t push products; communicate unique and compelling Value.

✔️ It must be specific. Avoid aspirational words like “best”, “greatest”, “premium”, or “number one”. These claims are not only difficult to prove, they also are constantly used by everyone else. A break- away ONLY is needed to distance yourself from this type of positioning.

✔️ It can never use price as an element of the claim. If you have to talk about price, you don’t have a competitive position.

✔️ It must be brief. ONLY is not a narrative. It is a concise expression of what makes you distinctive.

St John Ambulance in Vancouver: “St John Ambulance is the ONLY First Aid Advocate that provides safety solutions anywhere, anytime.” is a good example to consider.

Before proclaiming your ONLY to the world, test it to ensure it is both relevant (it addresses something your fans care about) and believable (it is true). Ask a group of your customers and employees. They will be delighted you asked for their help.

Finally, be patient. You probably won’t nail your ONLY the first time. Get it “just about right”, test it and start executing. Learn how it resonates in the market. Make adjustments as you go.

You will know you are in the right path when your competition notice what you are up to and try the ONLY themselves.

Nothing is forever. If you’re not constantly renewing yourself to be different, you’re dead (or soon will be).

Cheers,
Roy
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• Posted 10.22.12 at 09:50 am by Roy Osing
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