Graham McGregor is a marketing advisor.
OPINION: I recently caught up with an old client called Larry.
I hadn’t seen Larry for over 10 years, and he gave me a call to see if I would like to have some of the books in his business library.
Larry had been in the radio industry for many decades and as he had now retired he was trying to find a good home for some of his books.
Larry and I had a coffee and a good chat and I happily took away a few dozen of his books.
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Some I have passed on to people who I thought might find them useful. And a number I am reading myself.
One of the books I’m reading from Larry is called The Power of Simplicity by Jack Trout.
Jack was the business partner of marketing legend Al Ries and I have enjoyed many of the books they wrote together.
In Chapter 7 of The Power of Simplicity, Jack makes this interesting comment: “If you are not different you’d better have a low price.”
It reminded me that being different is a great way to make your business stand out in a crowded marketplace.
By shrinking product sizes, companies can charge more without actually increasing prices.
Luckily there are hundreds of simple things you can do to make your business different from your competitors.
Here are 3 ‘be different’ marketing strategies to get you thinking.
Strategy 1: The Catchy Nickname
This is one of the simplest of all ‘be different’ marketing strategies. Here’s a great example of how well this can work.
The Hugging Butcher:
17 years ago Lori Prokop scraped together her savings to attend a seminar being put on by Ted Nicholas,a direct marketing master and copywriting genius.
She got his attention during the break and told him the story.
She and her husband had been struggling with their butcher shop, almost to the point of closing the doors, as the entire parking lot was ripped up and was unusable for six months, totally destroying their customer flow.
So how could she get more customers in?
Ted started asking some questions and found out that her husband was quite a tall man, and he loved to hug people as well.
Ted gave her the one single piece of advice that turned their lives around almost immediately.
He said “when you get back home, first thing I want you to do is call your butcher shop The Hugging Butcher – advertise it everywhere, new signs and all over your marketing.
“Use direct response style marketing and make that husband of yours ‘the hugging butcher’ and have him stand at the front door and hug everyone that walks through – men, women and children.”
She followed Ted’s advice to a T. Quicker than she ever could have dreamed, business was booming.People couldn’t wait to visit the hugging butcher.
Soon, they were able to raise the price and commanded the highest price in the market they served – and clients lined up at the door.
After a few years they sold that business for a very large sum of money. Amazing what a simple differentiator can do for a business.
Now she runs a multi-million dollar consulting business, teaching similar techniques to those that Ted teaches.
All Ted Nicholas got Lori to do was add a catchy nickname to their business. The catchy nickname was three short words: The Hugging Butcher.
And that’s all it took for the business to become incredibly well known along with a huge increase in sales at the same time.
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If your business is seen as being different in a positive way, you can often do remarkably well, says Graham McGregor.
Strategy 2: The Unusual Guarantee
A simple way to make your business different is to have an unusual guarantee.
Here’s a good example: Bug’s Burger Bug Killers, Inc. from Australia has a fantastic guarantee …
“You don’t owe one cent until all pests on your premises have been wiped out. If you’re ever dissatisfied with BBBK’s services, you will receive a refund for up to 12 months of the company’s services …
“PLUS fees for another exterminator of your choice for the next year. AND, if a guest spots a pest on your premises, BBBK will pay for the guest’s meal or room, send an apology, AND pay for a future stay. AND if your facility is ever closed down due to the presence of roaches or rodents, BBBK will pay any fines, as well as all lost profits PLUS $5,000.”
What difference did this guarantee make?
BBBK became a $30-million-a-year business and captured 80% of their market while using this guarantee.
Strategy 3: Added Value
Added Value is one of my favourite ‘be different marketing strategies. Here’s a great example of how well it works.
Marketing expert Mal Emery has bought and sold dozens of businesses and helps business owners to create massive increases in sales and profits.
When I interviewed him a while ago, Mal explained that a great way to increase sales for any business is to use unexpected added value.
He told me how he did this with a coffee shop he owned many years ago.
When a customer bought a coffee, Mal gave his clients a glass of iced soda water at no extra charge.
Now of course the clients’ reaction was ‘I didn’t order that, why am I getting that?’
Mal trained his staff to tell the story: “The free soda water is to cleanse your palate so every single time you take a sip of your coffee you get to taste that beautiful coffee again and again and again.”
He also put a little chocolate on the side of the coffee cup with the name of the coffee shop, Hasty Tasty, on the chocolate. This was all unexpected added value.
What was the perceived value of this coffee?
Well back in those days it was $1.50 to have a coffee and when you added the soda water and a chocolate it was worth about $3.50 to the customer. However it only cost Mal a few cents to provide this extra added value.
Now someone paid Mal $1.50 and they got $3.50’s worth of value. So who do you think they told?
They told all their friends
so his sales exploded.
He went from zero sales to $10,000 a week in five months and was able to sell this business for $230,000 by applying the principle of added value.
The good news in marketing is that if your business is seen as being different in a positive way, you can often do remarkably well.
Take Action:
How could you make your product, service or business different in a positive way from your competitors?
“In real estate it’s location, location, location. In business it’s differentiate, differentiate, differentiate,” said Robert Goizueta, former Coca Cola chief executive.
Graham McGregor is a marketing advisor. You can get his free marketing guide ‘The Plan B Sales Solution’ at www.simplemarketinganswers.com
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