How to create a stand alone brand in your market.

If you feel like your brand isn’t standing out from your competition and you find yourself stuck in the price war, check this out:

You probably feel like this because in your mind, your product/service can be easily copied and replaced by your competitors. 

In other words, what you are selling is a commodity. 

Now, is this a bad thing? In the world of business, yes, yes it is.

If your customers perceive your brand as easily replaceable, more often than not they will go for another (cheaper) alternative instead of purchasing your product/service. They will also choose to consume other brands' content and experiences instead of your because well, to them it’s all the same..

But, there is a way out of the commodity space, and funny enough, you won’t have to change what you are actually selling at all. Let me explain:

The key concept here is changing perception.

In order to get rid of competition and have a stand alone brand that yields the returns you are looking for, you need to change how your ideal audience perceives your product/service. 

That’s actually the definition of branding: to influence someone's perspective on a particular product/service in relation to the brand's objective (mission). 

What does this mean? If you are experiencing that your brand is just stale, showing no signs of growth, and you are competing on price as a result, what you need to do is change how your brand shows up for your end consumer.

On the other hand, If your customers feel like your product/service is made just for them (perception), then you’ll be able to differentiate your brand from the rest, charge what it's worth,, and escape the price war. 

Here are 3 steps on how to do this:

1. Niche down: If your product is for everyone, you will attract no one. Craft a customer profile that is very specific and focus on building a brand for that particular individual.

   • Example: You sell running shoes for casual runners in their 30s that want to take their health a bit more seriously, but still want to go out and have fun on weekends. This person also cares about fashion (how the shoes look with casual clothing), and doesn't want to be seen as part of the “gym bro” culture. 

   
   

2. With this specific person in mind. It’s time to design a brand aesthetic (visual identity) that appeals to that persona. If we refer to the example above, our brand's visual identity needs to appeal to our casual runners. Everything from our logos, to our content on social media, to our website and packaging needs to be designed with that person in mind. 

   
   

3. At the same time you are designing a brand that is visually appealing to your niche audience (the casual runner in this case), your messaging needs to also resonate with them. What you say about your brand is as important as the aesthetics of it, and HOW you say it (tone of voice and lingo) is crucial. 

   • This applies to the copy in your website, the captions of your social media posts,  the weekly newsletter you send to your subscribers, and so on. The messaging needs to always be written in a way that connects to your audience. 

If you do the above steps correctly (or hire someone that can do so for you), all of the sudden your brand will be perceived as the go to brand for (insert your audience), and you’ll have effectively created a whole new market segment for yourself, where you can charge what you want and increase sales, without having to actually change your product, resulting in the great escape from the price race. 

Cool right? 

If you need help with any of the above, let's hop on a call!

Nonetheless, I hope you find some value here. 

Cheers.