What is an “only-one advantage” and how can it put your business on the road to higher profits?
By Joseph Cekauskas
Marketing Consultant & Strategist
JC Marketing Communications
Many salespeople or business owners jump quickly into creating their marketing tools without first having a comprehensive business/marketing “strategy” or “plan.” Consciously…or not…they skip the fundamentals and go right to the “tactic.” By “tactic,” we mean the physical execution or creative aspect of their marketing tools.
Those include:
designing & placing ads—writing & building a website—
design & printing of brochures/postcards/sales letters—
writing TV or radio spots—creating billboards…
……….AND SO ON…
Oftentimes, the rush to development is caused because there’s deadline pressure to get the message-to-market. On other occasions, it’s simply way more fun to work on the design and creative. Another reason planning gets back-burnered, is that this “strategy” phase takes effort. No matter which, JC Marketing Communications (JCMC) believes as a proven, accountable and reliable professional—it is OUR responsibility to educate our client(s) of potential pitfalls should they choose to perform their “tactic” before “strategy.” The importance of having a sound marketing strategy in place before you start investing your time and money in creating brochures, ads and other marketing tools cannot be over emphasized…AND we can prove it.
How would your income or
lifestyle change if you developed an
“only-one advantage” strategy?
Having an “only-one advantage” is a desirable method of sustaining a presence in people’s consciousness without compromising integrity. An “only-one advantage” is the unique reason why people should do business with YOU versus your competition. Most businesses don’t make the effort to develop an “only-one advantage.” As a result, they are forced to compete based on price. Their profit margins and market share suffer. It doesn’t have to be that way.
What if there was something about your business that literally forced people to buy from you? How would that affect your income and your lifestyle? Not possible you say? Please consider the following exercise. It will help you develop a “strategy” as a means to gain market share and leave your competition baffled. Throughout this exercise, you should analyze all your items from your customer…or buyers point-of-view.
Step 1—Do your homework:
Begin by making a list of all the things you do for your customers. Do a “data dump” of everything you offer from price…to products…to service. Take your list and cross off every item that is also offered by your competitors. Once completed—is there at least one thing left that your competitors don’t do? If not, ask yourself: why should people do business with us…versus our competition? Take a moment to evaluate your services in terms of relevance to your customers. Unless you know specifically what is meaningful to your customers/prospects, none of the items on your list will be the reason that makes you indispensable.
Step 2—Quantify your data:
The simplest and best way to know that your benefits are significant is to ask your current and past customers what they like best about what you offer. This part of the process just might be a highly rewarding AND profitable exercise for your company. Once you have identified what your customers really desire, you can focus on those benefits in your advertising and promotional efforts. Ideally, at least one of the things your customers like about you will be something that your competitors don’t offer. You can then test market this as your “only-one advantage.” Or it could be that what your customers like about you is also offered by your competitors, but they don’t publicize it. If you are the first to publicize it, you can preempt your competition. If you don’t have an obvious “only-one advantage,” you may have to create one. Remember to TEST your data first—to make sure it’s both meaningful to your customers and profitable to you. Be patient, perform a quick and easy feasibility study before you spend lots of energy and money. Poll your existing clients—if their feedback indicates that your offering is valuable or unique, ONLY then should you take the next step.
Step 3—Be innovative:
What if you’ve thought and thought and you can’t seem to come up with anything that makes sense? We suggest you use a fall-back advantage. It’s a methodology that has been effective for companies such as Dominos, Fedex and Sears.
JC Marketing Communications (JCMC) can help you take that next step for alot less money than those companies expended. Call us at 860.621.8866—you will have access to the answer to this question, as well as solutions toward your “only-one advantage,” brand development and marketing research/consulting. AND BEST OF ALL, we develop high quality CONTENT-DRIVEN marketing materials such as websites, brochures, direct mail postcards, ads, sales letters, tradeshow displays, video, radio commercials, etc.
Skeptical?
JCMC is unique because we produce marketing materials with a marketing mindset. It means we produce CONTENT-DRIVEN materials that include measurable, trackable strategies into your marketing materials. Unlike many of our competitors, we bring an “accountability” factor to your marketing effort because we employ our “direct response marketing” methodology.
One quick phone call to JC Marketing Communications (JCMC) can launch your business toward accelerated growth, larger market share and higher profits. From your infrastructure through your marketing strategy and materials—JCMC implements proven methodologies to increase market share, thus adding money to your bottom line. Call while the thought is still fresh in your mind—860.621.8866.
Leave a Reply