Are you failing to make sales on a product that other companies are already selling? How can you make your product different from your competitors’s products?
One way to differentiate your company is by developing a unique product or service. Even if you’re selling a common item that other companies have, it needs a different qualification that persuades customers to believe your product is the best.
Keep reading to learn how to make your product unique, according to Mike Michalowicz.
Develop a Completely Unique Product or Service
Knowing how to make your product unique eliminates all your competitors by redirecting customer demand in a new direction that no other companies are pursuing. And since you’re the only one operating in this new niche—an extremely unique position—you’ll attract customer interest and your company will grow more successful.
To do this, identify your industry’s standard operating procedures—the unspoken rules that everyone follows and expects from a company in that industry—and then do the opposite. Specifically, Michalowicz recommends identifying which common strategies and policies irritate people. If your opposite approach resolves those issues, you’ll attract customers both by being extremely unique and by improving their experience.
One example of a company that developed a unique service is Amazon. Amazon made online shopping fast, convenient, and reliable, which radically changed the way people shop. Arguably, its success is partially due to the ways it resolved the annoyances of online shopping: Long shipping times make people more reluctant to shop online, so Amazon delivers packages within a few days—or even on the same day—of an order being placed. People don’t want the hassle of buying their products through several niche stores, so Amazon offers a massive range of products. As a result, Amazon is the largest ecommerce company in the world by revenue and is on track to surpass Walmart as the largest of any company in the world.
| Further Advice for Developing Unique Products or Services In Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne agree that developing a unique product is a good way to differentiate your company. In fact, they say doing so is one of the keys to business growth and success. In a study the authors conducted, they found that 86% of new companies launched in existing markets—entering competition instead of pursuing a new direction—and only generated 39% of profits. In contrast, 14% of new companies created new markets (or niches) and generated 61% of profits. Kim and Mauborgne also agree that you should overturn industry norms when designing your product. Specifically, identify whether your industry prioritizes functionality or emotionality and prioritize the opposite. For example, cosmetics lean toward emotion: They’re designed to make customers feel beautiful. Meanwhile, house paint leans toward function: It’s designed to provide objective benefits like durability. You may differentiate your company by taking a more functional approach to selling cosmetics, such as emphasizing how a product is long-lasting. Or you might take an emotional approach to house paint, such as making homeowners feel better about themselves and their homes by emphasizing how the paint makes them look refined. Finally, when identifying irritations to resolve, Kim and Mauborgne emphasize that you should consider everyone in the buying chain. Sometimes, the person buying the product isn’t the end user, and that end user may have different irritations that you can resolve. For instance, if an office manager buys 100 office chairs, they may be irritated by pricing or the inconvenience of transporting the chairs after purchase. However, the office workers are the end users, and they may be irritated by the chair’s cushioning or the difficulty of adjusting its height. If you can resolve issues for both parties, you’ll likely generate even more interest and success. |
