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Marketing Your Competitive Advantage

Marketing is the processes used to get your message and product to your customers and potential customers as effectively as possible. If you’ve ever had to go door to door with your child selling candy bars for a school fundraiser, you understand the basics of marketing. The school has probably identified a sales target for you and your fellow candy bar sales people. Your job is to find the most effective way to reach the target. You want to edge out the competition by setting yourself apart from the candy salesperson down the block. Before hitting the street with your box of candy bars, you’ve sized up the market. From previous wanderings around the neighborhood you know who will bring out their wallets and who will kindly (or not so kindly) say no thanks. You may even have an idea about what type of candy bars your neighbors prefer so you can choose your candy supply accordingly. You use this information to sell to the folks most likely to buy.

Guess what? You’re a marketer. You have used your knowledge of your market to promote your product in order to meet sales goals. But how do you apply your candy bar sales experience to promoting your business? A great place to start is to determine what attributes your company has that provide you with a competitive advantage in the marketplace and then capitalize on those attributes. Competitive advantage means the features of your company that differentiate you from your competitors. Three main categories are:
  • Cost—You provide similar services to competitors, but at a lower price.
  • Quality—Your services may be priced similar to competitors, but you offer a wider variety of services or greater quality of service than your competitors.
  • Customer service—Customer service means you respond to customer issues and inquires faster and with better results than competitors.
The additional value you create for the customer by focusing on one of these key areas differentiates your company from competitors, providing you with competitive advantage. For example, when selling candy bars, your cheery demeanor may give you an advantage over other roving candy salespeople. One thing to remember—you can’t be everything to everyone. Trying to lead in all differentiating categories can drain your resources and cause you to lose sight of your true strengths in the market.
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