Monthly Archives: November 2012

Premature Differentiation: The Final Chapter

The title is a bit misleading this time, because part 3 is actually concerned with when a focus on differentiation is NOT premature. When is that? When the people you are trying to reach have a high awareness your category (what it is you are selling) and a high and positive awareness of you as a vendor. If you are in this leadership position, you can focus almost exclusively on points of difference because the background information is already known.

Premature Differentiation Part 2

Even when potential customers understand your product, focusing too early on differentiation can hurt your sales. Even if people know what a car is, you still have to market differently if you’re Hyundai (at least in the US market) rather than Mercedes.

On the Differentiation Progression diagram, I call this market position Low Vendor Awareness. Potential customers understand the kind of widget you sell. But they but either don’t know your company, don’t know you make that particular widget, or just don’t see you as a category leader. Put in the customer’s voice, Low Vendor Awareness is just a fancy way of saying, “I know what a car is, but who the hell are you?” If you’re in this phase, your job is to create credibility and get considered.