Marketing Ideas

If you have recently started a small business and have begun to market your company and its products or services, you may have come across the term “product differentiation.” You may know that this term has something to do with advertising your product’s unique qualities, but if you are like most small business owners, you have probably never had a marketing class before and don’t quite know all the ins and outs of this marketing strategy. You may even be wondering why you need to know the details of product differentiation. The reason is that becoming familiar with the term will help you advertise your offers successfully.

Product differentiation is distinguishing one product or service from another that you offer or from the products of the competing business down the street. Differentiation is merely creating the perception of a difference, even if there really is none. You are simply trying to make your product more desirable to a niche market by listing the differences between your product and another.

Many factors affect product differentiation but, contrary to popular belief, are separate marketing strategies. Branding, changes in the product itself, and distribution are all different marketing tactics that can influence product differentiation but are not differentiation itself. For instance, your brand is simply a packaging difference, not what makes the actual product unique.

When using product differentiation to reach your target audience, compile a list of what makes your product better than the rest. This list should be tailored to the consumers you are trying to reach. Some examples are differences in quality, price, features, or design. You may also want to reveal the limits of the competing product. Remember that the purpose of product differentiation is to make your product appear different even if it is very similar to competitors’ products. Your job is to take a stance in advertising that influences customers’ perceptions of your product. For successful product differentiation, you must make consumers believe that your item is the best out there.

A lot of people don’t really understand just how broad advertising can be. The standard and well-known forms of commercial printing are not the only ones out there. And of course, even if you are using an often-used style you can still find ways to tweak things so they go beyond the norm.

First, let’s go over some of the different styles of commercial printing just waiting for you to take advantage of. Have you ever considered invitation printing for your advertising? What you do is have a number of letters printed up that look like formal invitations. This is great for a store opening, or a big, upcoming special.

Don’t go for the normal, over the top large letters screaming sale, and instead send something subtle. You don’t have to always be loud to get someone’s attention, and when a person is handed something they aren’t used to seeing they’re more likely to take the time to look at it.

But let’s look at the better-known forms of advertising as well and see about adding a unique twist to them. While a lot of companies use them, have you ever considered something like magnetic business cards for your company?

This won’t work for every kind of industry, and you’ll have to ask yourself first whether or not this will be right for you, but you might be surprised at how many companies fail to take advantage of something so simple like the magnetic business card.

Part of the charm will always be handing something to someone that they weren’t expecting to get. This can get a conversation started right away. Once that talk is over with you’ve handed someone something they can easily put on the fridge to help them remember you.

Unique images are another way to add that extra bit of flare to your advertising. If you send a lot of postcards out, think about getting some art postcards made up. Find a painting or image you particularly like, and goes well with your company, and augment your postcards with this wonderful picture.

After all, a postcard needs to stand out in the pile of mail people are going to be sorting through, and nothing will help you better than a colorful, unique picture when it comes to being noticed.

There are all sorts of ways you can add spice to what would otherwise be a normal advertisement. If you’re hiring someone else out to handle your graphic designing, ask them if they know of anything different to try out that they think would work, and if you’re designing your own advertising with programs like InDesign, take the time to look at all the features open to you.

There are a lot of options out there for you. Figure out which ones work the best.

If your sales presentations aren’t getting you a lot of return phone calls, you should read the following tips for ensuring your sales presentation is the best it can be.

1. Time it. Your audience has a limited attention span, no matter what their age! CEOs get bored just as quickly as teenagers. If you drone on for too long, you’ll lose any interest gained in the first part of the presentation. Keep it short and to the point.

Follow the 60% rule: however much time is set aside for your meeting or presentation, use 60% of that total time. If you have a half-hour scheduled, use about 18 minutes for your presentation. If you have an hour scheduled, your presentation should last about 40 minutes. This allows your prospect to think it over and ask questions without being rushed.

2. Match your prospects’ tone while speaking. If your prospects (or main prospect, the highest-ranking person in the meeting) talk fast, you should talk fast. If your prospects talk slow, and take time to pause before the next phrase, you should try to do the same. The way they speak is the way they best understand speech back to them.

3. Watch your body language. The way you hold yourself can contradict the words coming out of your mouth. If you’re slouched over and have your arms crossed, it’s going to be hard for the prospects to get excited about anything you have to say. Stand up straight, use eye contact with everyone in the room (not all at once – although that would be an interesting trick!) and be careful of how much you use your hands. Use your hands to point to posters or other visuals to emphasize a point, but try not to let your hands get distracting by flailing about.

4. Use visual aids. Visuals aids should be just that – things that help you make your points – they shouldn’t be your point. Don’t rely on your visual aids to tell the whole story for you. Visual aids can reinforce your message and they increase retention, so definitely use them, just don’t abuse them! And definitely don’t read straight from them like a boring college professor – paraphrase the words on the visual or add information to them with your speech.

5. Keep your prospects involved. Do this by asking questions or use your presentation as a stage for a demonstration. Let the prospects use your product as they or their customers would in a real situation. Use their reactions and questions to gauge their interest.

6. Avoid clichés and overused phrases. People will start to ignore you when you say “We’re the best, forget the rest” or “I’ll be honest with you.” If you use phrases that are old-hat, you’ll lose attention and interest. Take time to rehearse your presentation and if you find you’re using clichés when you don’t mean to, write down some alternative wordings and practice with those.

7. Practice, practice, practice. You can also find phrases or parts of your presentation that don’t work and you’ll have time to fix them before the real deal. This is the best piece of advice because the more you practice, the better you’ll become and the more comfortable you’ll become with your presentation.

As your organization grows, your marketing needs will change. As you add materials to your marketing arsenal or add products to your product line, you need to change your brand to reflect your current business image.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them” that identifies the products and services of one business and differentiates it from other businesses.

Branding often appeals to the emotions – you want people to feel a certain way when they see your packaging, your Web site, your brochures and other marketing materials. If these items are inconsistent people will get confused. If you want your branding to make people feel like they can trust you, using copy emphasizing trust in your flyers and using copy emphasizing consistency on your Web site, your potential customers may get confused.

Here are some pointers on how to evaluate your brand and decide whether to rebrand:

Has your brand promise changed?

Your brand is your promise to the customer. It should convey to them what they should anticipate from your products. It should tell them how you are different from your competition. Your brand should be based on who your company is, what you want your company to be and what people perceive you to be. You need to review your promise first, because that promise is at the core of all your brand messaging. If your promise has changed, you need to rebrand.

Evaluate your branding look

If you created your brand look – the color palette, fonts, photos, etc. – years ago, you may need to rebrand. There’s no definite number of years that a brand can last, but if your look just isn’t capturing the feeling you want customers to feel, it’s time to update the brand. If your business has grown and now uses the latest technology, your brand should show that. Homemade-looking materials that worked years ago just won’t work now. You need to keep up with the changin’ times.

If your logo or another key element of your branding design is out of date, you can just update that one item – there’s no need to update every element of your brand if only one piece isn’t working.

Another tip is to not change your brand design just because you are tired of it. Many people haven’t even seen your brand yet, so if it’s been working and it still gives the feeling you want people to receive, don’t change it. If you’re a cliché person: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Update for consistency

If you add product brochures for each new product you make, you need to make sure it looks consistent with all of your other product brochures and other marketing materials. All of your materials should look like they belong to a family when viewed together. A family has certain characteristics that look similar, but that doesn’t mean they look identical. The elements that should stay the same are: color palette, graphics, fonts, and logo usage. Lay out all your marketing materials and see if you can tell they all represent the same company. If not, it’s time to rebrand for consistency.

Rebranding is not something to take lightly – make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons and that the rebrand will enhance your customers’ understanding of your business and will give them the feeling you want. Rebranding willy-nilly whenever you feel like it without doing some evaluation will just end up confusing people in the future.

Promotional items of every type and variety can be seen at trade shows. These days, attendees of trade shows expect their schwag at each booth visited. Many business owners do not put sufficient thought into which items they select. Oftentimes, they end up picking whatever is cheapest. This proves to be a mistake.

The first consideration is durability. If you give an item which only last a few days, then you are spending far more per time viewed as opposed to an item which sticks around for a year. You should think of it in terms of a billboard. Which is more valuable, a billboard which will be up for a year or one which comes down after three days? This obvious answer is ignored by those purchasing promotional items.

Items which are displayed out in the public are great choices. A tee shirt or baseball cap are salient examples. The wearer essentially becomes a walking advertisement for you. Close attention must be paid to quality and wording. A torn and frayed tee shirt does not convey the branding message you desire.

Color is very important. Psychologists have derived a quick guide to color selection. Blue is good for men in general while pink is obviously good for women. Those in the healthcare industry should receive white. Orange is perfect for construction, building or safety. Green being the color of money suits bankers and others in finance. Techies like gray. Who knows why?

Next time you are purchasing promotional items put sufficient thought into your selection. It can often be the difference between wasted marketing expenses versus high advertising ROI.