On March 4, 2009, Cox Media in San Diego held a seminar titled How to Market Your Business in a Challenging Environment.
The speaker, Jim Doyle of Jim Doyle and Associates focused on how “Concentration is the Key…To All Economic Success.” Doyle asked us in the audience to list the top three shampoos we could think of. Once we all wrote down our shampoo thoughts, he mentioned how our brain has files and we store only about three names in each of those files. Since there are hundreds of different shampoo options, that category is pretty full. So, he asked how many people wrote down Head & Shoulders. About 15 people shot up their hands. Then he mentioned, if he had asked us to write down our top three choices for dandruff shampoos, most likely the majority of us would’ve written down Head & Shoulders. The point, he stressed, is that it’s dangerous to be all things to all people in your business because most people don’t have enough file space in their brains to remember your company.
So, how do you present and advertise your business in a different way so that you’re one of the top three in your category?
1. Come up with a strategy before you do anything. And, if you’re trying to be all things to all people, how can you focus on a niche that you can own in people’s minds?
2. Find the strength of your business. Make your stake there. If you don’t know, ask yourself what is the point of entry, the thing people come in for first?
3. Where’s the opposition? Is some other business known for your strength? Have they advertised enough that they already own that strength in the minds of consumers? If they have, is it worth it to go up against them or can you own a different strength?
4. What are your resources? How much money do you have to spend and if you’re going up against a number one competitor do you have enough money to do that? If not, narrow your focus.
Doyle gave us an example of how a company, The Base Camp, in Billings Montana focused in a big way on a narrow target. They are an outdoor apparel company. In the past they had held a sale in November before the holiday season. They were doing OK, but worried that people were coming in for the sale in November to do their holiday shopping. They wondered, were they giving discounts to customers that would’ve already come in during the holiday season. In 2003, they changed their strategy and decided to have a Black Diamond Glove sale in November. They charged $14 a pair. That year, they sold 700 pairs. Three years afterward, they sold 6,000 pairs and drove their total sales up by 40%. Two years after that, in 2008, they sold 12,000 pairs. They are currently the number two retailer, after LL Bean, for Black Diamond Gloves.
What is your Black Diamond Glove story?
