[Case Study] Standing Out From Your Competitors
“Competitors”
One of the scariest words to a business owner.
Yet, if you’re in a market, without any competition, it’s either a weak market and you’re struggling and barely making any income or you’re a pioneer in the industry and the competitors are right now in their garages working out a plan to launch their own business.
In other words, competition is a “necessary evil” of doing business.
However, one of the major problems business owners face in different industries is standing out from the competition.
If I must have competitors, how do I make sure I’m able to stand out, be visible to my potential customers and clients and meet my revenue expectations?
In this article, I’m going to share with you a quick way to combat that and share case studies of how two companies were able to stand out from the competition by thinking out of the box.
Guideline: How To Stand Out From The Competition
Look at the top 5 – 10 competitors in your industry/market.
Take note of the following:
- What are they offering?
- How do they offer it?
- Take a close look at price points, How they deliver, their customer service, their packaging etc.
- Then, ask yourself, are there any weak spots?
- Lastly, ask yourself “How can you leverage all this information to be different?”
- How can you do things differently without undermining the value of the products and services you sell?
Hint: Sometimes, all it takes is improving the experience your customers and clients get doing business with you.
Alright. Now to the Case studies.
Case Study #1: Rebecca Minkoff Stores
I stumbled across an article about her in Inc. Magazine and you can check that out here.
Here’s the story in a nutshell:
She launched her brand of ready-to-wear accessories, handbags, and footwear in 2005 and knew it won’t survive as a regular store.
So, she set out to create the perfect shopper experience.
So, when shoppers enter flagship stores, they are greeted by a digital touchscreen wall that displays the latest runway selections, offers style suggestions from Rebecca Minkoff herself and can even take drink orders.
Then, each item contains an RFID tag that detects when a shopper enters a dressing room. When the tag is scanned, an image pops up on a mirror with suggestions for complementary accessories.
Talk about innovative. She really did create a unique shopping experience.
Case Study #2: The Trunk Club
It’s a subscription service for male fashion.
Here’s how it works. When you subscribe, a consultant gives you a call and talks with you to find out your “style”. Then, each month, you get a trunk box (miniature size, of course) of selections for the month packed attractively with price tags on each.
You have the choice to take what you want and return the rest. Whatever you don’t return, they bill to you.
You can check out this guy here as he receives his first trunk box.
Bottom line: Another innovative way of standing out from the numerous online shopping sites out there.
That’s it. Go through the guideline again and begin to come up with new ways to stand out from the competition.
One last thing: The two examples I gave happen to be in the fashion industry, but there are many companies out there in various industries being innovative and coming up with new ways to stand out from the competition.
“In order to progress into the unknown, people need to be more transformational in their thinking, with background outside the industry, and not be so intent on maintaining the status quo”
So, think outside the box.
What cool innovative ways have you seen companies use to stand out from the competition?
I hope to be there live!
Hi Luqman,
Thanks for stopping by.
I suppose you’re talking about the event?
We look forward to seeing you there as well. 🙂
Very insightful article, Pearl.
Thanks for sharing and enabling us to think outside the box.
Hi Bambo,
I’m glad you liked it. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂 – Pearl
Hi Peal, am an allumni of the 21st Century entrepreneural seminar held last week at Four Point by Sheraton. I was into Network marketing before it stop because the so called have withdraws their operations from Nigeria. So am currently believing God for a good business to start again. So can I come and have a chart with you and see if we can finetune something good out? Thanks for been there.
Hi Joseph,
I saw your email and responded. Look forward to hearing back from you.
Am glad to be here, learnt a lot. Please up me with other interesting Topics for a growing new business. Thanks.
I’m so glad you’ve been learning a lot.
You can get our free ebook here: http://marketingstrategiesforsmes.com/
This will also allow you to get emails anytime we have more topics on the blog.
Finally, we’re having a LIVE Free training and we’ll love to have you join us.
Register for it here: http://bit.ly/ssca-webinar
Thanks again for stopping by.
Thank you so much Pearl for this eye-opening article, it’s very real and practical. I hope to try recreating some of the suggested ideas.
Thanks for the article but pls i need more insight on Email marketing.tha ks
Hello Temitope. What do you want to know about Email Marketing? We also have weekly webinars that we treat different digital marketing topics. Email marketing is on the list so definitely, we will answer some of your questions. I’d also advise that you ask any question you have on our facebook group so you get immediate answers. Have fun. Hope to hear back from you.