Dec
5
Do You Innovate or Imitate?
It’s not easy for companies to be as innovative as Apple or to create a product that explodes in popularity like…the Snuggie. Nevertheless, Small Business Owners still must apply an innovative mindset to their every undertaking.
History has shown that it’s not the public who pushes for major innovations. No, it’s always been the forward-thinking inventors and entrepreneurs who take the initiative to explore new ground, thereby leading the way for the rest.
Flickr image ©MommyVictory
The public was content with the horse and buggy, they weren’t clamoring for automobiles. Music fans were satisfied with the Sony Discman, they weren’t asking for a pocket-size device that could hold thousands of songs. And, couch potatoes weren’t revolting over the fact that their blankets didn’t have sleeves.
Thankfully, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, the Slanket guys (the Slanket was actually the original Blanket with Sleeves, and the Snuggie is a recent, more popular improvement on the concept) and countless other innovators have not settled for “business as usual.”
Innovation belongs to those who continue to ask themselves, “What if there’s a better way, an easier way, a more unique way” of doing something?
This also applies to the branding and marketing efforts of your small business. When Small Business Owners take a “business-as-usual” approach to their operations and their marketing, they don’t project any Meaningful Difference to set them apart from their competition.
In that case, customers make decisions based on convenience of location, or even worse, on price alone, which essentially reduces your offerings to commodities.
If you didn’t intend to enter the commodities business, you need to seek innovative branding and marketing solutions to communicate your Meaningful Difference to your audience so they perceive your offerings as unique, valuable solutions to their problems.
If you examine several advertisements by different companies in any given category, it’s often difficult to tell one business from the next. That’s because many companies simply resort to Imitation Marketing. This is when Small Business Owners look around at what’s working for other companies in their category and they tout the same old features and the same old solutions to the same old problems.
Whether the reason for this is lack of time, knowledge or desire to make the necessary efforts to properly position and market a solid brand doesn’t matter. Companies that resort to Imitation Marketing will never stand for anything meaningful in the minds of their prospects or customers.
So, HOW do you apply innovation to your marketing? That will depend on your category, but there are two places you need to start:
1) You need to be an absolute expert on the Quality Advantages of your offerings.
• Know what your company does BEST
• Know how your superiority will benefit your customer
• Communicate your superiority as your Core Marketing Message
• Seek to continually improve your offerings
2) You need to understand fully the Meaningful Difference of your offerings relative to your competition.
• Know the strengths and weaknesses of your competition
• Know how they are positioning themselves in the marketplace
• Know where you CAN challenge them and where you CAN’T
• Be flexible enough to change strategies if necessary
In this “seen-it-all” world, it IS a challenge to come up with something truly unique. But, if you don’t attempt to give it your best efforts, your small business will unwittingly blend into the faceless cluster of companies using ineffective Imitation Marketing practices.
The small business that aggressively seeks to innovate with its products, services or operations will create a strong brand with a unique message and rise above the pack to gain a larger part of the market share.
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If you need help defining the Unique Value of your small business and articulating an innovative Core Marketing Message, contact BAM! Consulting for your FREE Needs Assessment.
Phone: Nikolas Allen (530) 859.5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com
