Your challenge is to determine not just how you’re going to play the game, but also how you’re going to win. In other words, how to differentiate your Brand and create an important and meaningful point of difference.
Your Brand must be perceived to be unique. To create a substantial differential advantage in your Brand, you must first create a point of difference in the way customers perceive your Brand – one that is so successfully unique in the minds of your customers that no other brand can substitute for it. Uniqueness does not in itself necessarily motivate traffic, sales or repeat visits. Nevertheless, it must be perceived as being unique, before any other values can be attached to it.
Your Brand must be important to your core customers. Many retailers assume that the most important benefit is Price. This is true for some customers, but for many others, Price is only the beginning and for most, it is an unsustainable competitive advantage. Your Brand’s point of difference must be delivered and sustained with style and substance. Together, these three factors will help you to achieve a compelling, competitive advantage that delivers a superior customer benefit and can only be challenged by the competition over a long period of time and at great cost.
Some Options for Brand Differentiation –
