The Competition and Your Brand

There are many things to consider about your competition and your brand when you are designing a branding campaign. Many businesses fail because they do not consider their competition.

You need to do proper research about your competitors, learn what makes you different, why the customers should choose you, and much more as you establish your brand.

Researching the Competition and Your Brand

You must always research your competition before you begin your brand. Every business must know who their primary competitors are. It is important to know if your company is on top of the list in the industry or exactly where you stand.

When researching competitors it is important to be thorough and learn everything about them that you can.

Ask the following questions when trying to understand the competition and your brand.

How are you similar? Do they have the same products as you? What types of ad campaigns to they use that are successful? What campaigns to they use that are failing?

What Sets You Apart From the Competitors?

A very important factor when you are researching competitors of your products and services is that it is that you have that is different. If you have to, make a list of everything you have that they do not and vice versa. Determine what it is about your company that works.

Many the competitors left out a vital piece of information that they should be focusing on the product that they are not. This could be a perfect solution to getting a foot in and immediately ahead of the competitors.

When you determine the positive aspect that is different that sets you completely apart from the competitors it may be this information used for your ad campaign.

You never want to look the same as the rest of the companies in your industry. Don’t be afraid to step outside of the box and go different. This is how consumers will remember you.

If you all look the same then it will be no difference to the customers when they make a choice that they are going to buy from. Never forget this when examining the competition and your brand

Why Should Customers Shop From You?

Another part about setting yourself apart from the competitors is determining why the customers should shop from you and not the other guy. What is it about your business that makes you the right place to shop from?

If you offer sales or free shipping and the competitors don’t then you should use this as a focal point right up front. If you have a product that the competitor doesn’t then you should use this too.

Show the customers why you are the better place. There are many ways to do this. You may have a customer service team that is available 24 hours a day and the other companies may only be open during normal business hours. This would be a focal point.

The reasons that customers should shop from you need to be clear and concise. You need to be entirely different than the rest of the businesses in your industry. Setting yourself apart from the rest is the best thing you can do because it will cause the customers to remember you specifically. There will be no confusion of which company you are in a group of businesses that look the same.

Establishing Brand

Once you have determined your mission, vision, audience, and separation from the competitors you can begin to establish your brand.

There are many things that you need to do to establish your brand so people will begin to remember your name. These things include getting inside of the customer’s mind, get endorsements, find hot prospects, and use the public relations firms to your advantage.

These few things will go a long way when making an effort to establish your brand and yourself amongst the competition an in the market.

Establishing a Place Inside of the Customer’s Mind

One of your biggest goals in the competition and your brand process is establishing a place inside of the customer’s mind. At this point, you have a good idea who your audience is supposed to be.

You know what their income level is, their age, and possibly geographical details. This information is relevant in establishing an actual audience for competition and your brand.

Your goal is to prove to the customer they have a need for your product or your service. The customer needs to find a reason why they need you.

The branding techniques will tell the customer that your product resolves a problem they may have, fulfills a need they have, and makes their life much better if they purchase it. There has to be a reason to purchase the product and a positive aspect of why it is the best option to use it.

The Competition and Your Brand

When you get inside of the customer’s head the customer will believe they absolutely have to have the product. As you see many infomercials talk about how someone will become rich if they use a product or how their health will be better you need to establish the benefit of the customer so you can make them truly believe that their life will be much better when they use your product.

This also means that you have to build trust and credibility with the customers. Many products do a fantastic job of proving to the customer why a product or service is beneficial and needed.

However, they fail to establish credibility or trust with the consumers. Your reputation is not at stake but it is questioned at this point so you need to provide proof that you are going to deliver the promises you are making to the customer.

Endorsements

The public and consumers listen to public figures. When you have the ability to get an endorsement on a product then you need to take advantage of it. However, you cannot wait for an endorsement to come to you.

Your public relations manager may need to contact some of these figures to see if they are interested in endorsing a product. One thing to keep in mind is that endorsements may cost quite a bit of money if you are trying to get a public figure to back your product.

There are many ways to get endorsements. You may attend events where a public figure is going to be. This includes getting back stage at concerts or shows where you can have access to the person. You also can call their managers and talk to them about endorsing a product.

One thing to keep in mind about endorsements is that you need to find a figure that matches the audience also. If your target audience is teenagers then you want to find an endorsement that the teenagers know and trust.

Someone that the teenagers think is hip and would want to buy the product when they find out the person uses it too.

The last thing you would want to do is get an endorsement on your product by an older individual who is well known and respected by an older audience that the teenager audience has never heard of. This would be a waste of money and time on your part.

Hot Prospects

As a marketer, when branding your business or product you need to be on the lookout for hot prospects and opportunities at all times.

These need to be taken advantage of when you can. It is important to use every opportunity to get your product exposure in the right methods. These methods may be trade shows or other public events.

When you attend trade shows and other events the goal is to look and be professional. If you just have a table set up with a few products on it then customers may not take you seriously.

Attending events like this require professional flyers, banners, signs, and other things to get the attention of attendees. It is important to look prepared and professional.

The more events you attend the more your name gets out there. When you create banners and signs you may find a situation where someone would like to display your banner or sign.

Do not charge someone for this. This is a benefit for you because it is free advertising, minus the cost of the banner. It will give you exposure and help you with branding your business and product.

Hot prospects need to reach out to the targeted audience for your product or service. Do not attend events that your audience is not going to be at.

If there is no way that an elderly crowd will be interested in what you are offering then you are only wasting your time to make a big presentation to them at a trade show. Know who the audience is going to be at the public prospects for gaining exposure.

Using Public Relations Pros to Your Advantage

Media attention needs to be used to your advantage. There are many ways to do this. One thing to keep in mind is that your product and your brand do not have to be fully established yet to gain the attention of the media. What is important is that you use the media to help you get established.

The media can be used in many ways. Press releases are one of the best things you can do to get the exposure you are looking for and help you create a place in the industry of the business.

A press release is usually used for announcing grand openings for new businesses, new product launches, big sales and events, or anything else new that is happening within a company.

The elements of a press release should include the event itself, why people will benefit going to it, the location, date, and time of the event. If you don’t tell people where to go it will do you no good.

You should also provide your company contact information in case the media wants to call you to get an interview or even write a story on the company.

Customers may have questions. Without contact information it could cost you a lot of business. Also, always include your website address in a press release so people can go to your site and learn more about who you are.

The Competition and Your Brand

Press releases are sent out to as many media outlets as you can send them to for the targeted audiences you are trying to reach out to. These media outlets include news stations, newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and more.

When a media outlet receives a press release they may do a few things. They may immediately respond and use it for the next big story that hit the press and tell the public all about it. They may put it aside for when they are waiting for a slow period and then use it as a story or they will do nothing at all.

Sending out press releases doesn’t cost a business anything. It is cheap and you do not need to worry about cost. It never hurts to send out press releases even if the media is not interested.

The point is that you have to at least try to use public relations to your benefit. It may be that one event or announcement you have about your business that is used by the press. That one small bit of exposure could go a long way for you with competition and your brand.