The Brand Factory's Branding Blog

Who are you trying to be (when you’re not being you?)

Justin Cooper Added about 1 year ago

Deep down – whether we believe it or not – we're all unique. We all offer something no one else can. The trick is finding what that uniqueness is.

In the meantime we get busy conforming. Without knowing what our 'point of difference' is, we look for ways of fitting in, conforming and generally refusing to stand out in any way, shape or form that might draw attention to ourselves. We are products of our society – short poppies in a field of identical poppies. Keep your head down, work hard, and 'she'll be right.'

And the same goes for our businesses. Why? Because small business is merely an extension of the owner or manager of that business. We may not like it – we spend money trying to distance ourselves from our business – putting a barrier between us and the work that we do. We try to create something we think people will prefer than ourselves. But the reality is that in small business, owner = business.

And small business marketing tends to mimic that of other small businesses – in attempt to 'fish where the fish are.' So we end up looking like every other Tom, Dick and Nokia. We use the same terms as they do – like professional, passionate and committed. We try desperately to be what we're not, because we assume people will buy that other thing – the thing everyone else is offering.

Conclusion? To truly create a unique business proposition in the SME space requires us to look at ourselves first. We need to identify what drives us to do the business we do. We need to look at how we do things that differentiates us from our competitors. We need to look at why we are in the business beyond merely making money. There has to be a bigger reason – whether it's to give back to society (altruistic), to prove to someone we can achieve our goals (whether to ourselves, to family or to friends).

Once we work out what drives us, we can get clear on what we offer. Then it's a question of identifying exactly who needs this and who will buy what we offer.

Traditional marketing thinking would have us believe that we need to start by working out what the market wants, then make it. This works some of the time, and often for a short time. This approach can turn into fads. In fact a famous Australian fad died quite recently in fact http://www.smartcompany.com.au/entrepreneur-watch/20101102-krispy-creamed.html)

New marketing thinking requires us to work out what drives us before creating our offer, then ensuring the right audience hears about it.

So go ahead – be you – you might just find things work a little easier that way.

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Posted by Justin Cooper at 8:31 pm 0 Comments