Starer with your customer

• Do we understand their needs, the problems they have and how we answer and solve them?
• Do we know the functional benefits we deliver through our products and services?
• Do we understand the emotional benefits we deliver through our products and services?
• Do we understand what brings them into the market (the category entry points)?

These are important for designing and creating the best offerings and communicating about them in the best ways.

Then your category

• What does our competition do?
• Where are we stronger, and how can we maximise that advantage?
• Where are we weaker, and how can we minimise that weakness?
• What new opportunities could we explore to create a new competitive advantage?
• What do we have, or can we create, that would give us pricing power (the ability to charge more)?

Pricing power is what we want.

“If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business. And if you have to say a prayer before raising the price by 10%, then you’ve got a terrible business.”

Warren Buffett, businessman, investor, philanthropist, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

How does your competition communicate?

Most categories are a sea of sameness, with everyone saying and doing very similar things. Those who spend the most usually win.

• How can we present our brand in a distinctive way?
• How can we present our brand as something different?
• How can we use creativity to stand out in our category’s sea of sameness?
• How can we ensure every dollar we spend in media works harder for us because we are distinctive and different?

Speak to your customers and get outside advice.

Beware of confirmation bias, which is hard-wired in all of us.

We believe claims we like without fact-checking or seeking alternatives (naïve acceptance), and we reject claims we dislike, inventing alternative explanations (blinkered scepticism).

Knowledge doesn’t make us more aware of our biases. Instead, it can make us more susceptible to them, which often means we don’t open ourselves up to new and better ways of doing things.

This can be very detrimental when it comes to swimming against the tide in your category.

To detect confirmation bias

Ask yourself:

Do I want this statement to be true?

If the answer is yes, be mindful of blanket acceptance and ask if there are any rival theories that could be better.

If no, beware of blinkered scepticism and take the claim seriously.

Thank you, Alex Edmans and his book "May Contain Lies" for reminding me about the dangers of confirmation bias.

Let’s finish with you and your company.

• Ask yourself, what is the one big thing we believe about our customers and what we do for them (your vision)?
• What will we do to ensure we always live up to this belief (your mission)?
• This sets your direction and what you place your focus on.
• Then, how do we best position and present our brand and offering to be seen as the best choice?
• How do we make our brand the most salient (unprompted awareness) for category buyers?

Build a stronger brand to build a stronger business

Your brand is a collection of memories you build in your customers and prospective customers’ minds.

Building more positive memories is everyone’s responsibility, and every touch point with a customer or prospective customer needs to play its part.

People will only have a few memories of your brand, meaning a single negative one could turn them off your brand for life.

Be the brand more potential customers want to buy

• It starts with answering your customer’s needs and solving their problems.
• Then provide a better experience than your competition.
• And present yourself as something different, something distinctive, and use creativity to stand out.
• Create greater brand salience and a greater desire to choose your brand over the alternatives.
• Be visible and present at the points where potential customers enter the market.

“Brands are moats”

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s most successful investors, believes strong brands act as moats, not only attracting customers but protecting businesses from competitors.

• You need to build “moats” – defences so strong competitors can’t even get close.
• A strong brand keeps rivals at bay.
• How will you create and build “moats” for your brand?

Something Different is here if you would like some outside help.