Differentiating your company and its products and services from the competition can be critical to the success of your business. Consider wireless service providers. AT&T Wireless, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint work hard to differentiate their service based on price, network coverage and their selection of phones.

As you work to thoroughly analyze your competitors’ product and key messages, and develop effective positioning, consider these five tips:

1. Know Your Competitor’s Product. Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein recently found himself in a pickle when he divulged to Kara Swisher of All Things Digital that he had never used an iPhone, the largest competitor to the Palm Pre. Rubinstein commented, “We don’t pay that much attention to Apple – I know it sounds really strange. I don’t have an iPhone. I’ve never even used one.” One of the key elements to differentiating your products and services from the competitor is to have a firm understanding of the key features and functionalities of your competitor’s offerings.
2. Understand Your Competitor’s Claims. This will enable you to analyze your company’s key messages and vision, and develop messaging that demonstrates how your products and services differ from competitive solutions on the market.
3. Determine Your Key Points of Differentiation. Next, begin to craft effective messages that will resonate with your key audiences. These points of differentiation could include cost, quality, performance, technology, leadership, service or customer support. Whenever possible, include supporting data points to help reinforce these points of differentiation.
4. Be Realistic. It’s important to be realistic in understanding how your company stacks up to its competitors. Otherwise, you’re doing your company a disservice and potentially making claims about your product or service that are misleading or simply aren’t true. Having a realistic outlook on your product/services’ strengths and weaknesses will enable you to set achievable expectations and goals for the future.
5. Test Your Positioning with Third Party Influencers. Once you have your competitive messaging in place, test it with a third-party influencer to ensure it resonates with potential audiences and validates your company’s messages, market strategy and overall product and service outlook.

Having a thorough understanding of your competitors’ messages and products will enable your company to develop clear and concise messages and effectively differentiate your company from others in the market. Ultimately, this will help you take market share from competitors and relay a unified image to customers, investors and business partners.

To learn more about distinguishing yourself from competitors, send us an e-mail at info@communiquepr.com.