Is Your Firm Different from the Competition?
Source: Golden Practices
The following excerpt, from the May 26, 2008, blog entry of Michelle Golden (titled Four Ways to Differentiate & Why Negative Ads Are Run), is reprinted with permission.
Differentiating professional service firms is enormously difficult to get firms to do.Off the top of my head, it would seem there are only four main ways to differentiate a professional service firm:
- Specialize. Specialize in a narrow market niche where word of mouth is sufficient, or in a broad niche, promoting it proudly and loudly.
- Humanize. Feature the people of the firm, humanizing them by showcasing their individuality and highlighting their unique strengths, and team strengths. Sometimes accomplished by poking harmless fun at one’s own firm or profession.
- Personalize. Feature the personality (i.e., culture) of the firm, or a truly unique aspect of the firm or its processes, in a memorable way. Best done with a clever ad series or other public positioning.
- Criticize. Try to get others to see how your firm is better which is, by definition, pretty nearly impossible other than to elevate your firm through reducing your competitors. Typically accomplished by bringing attention to known negative attributes of a firm, or profession in general, or by exploiting negative stereotypes.
For the complete blog entry, click here.
From Golden Practices, the blog of Michelle Golden, president of Golden Marketing, Inc., http://www.goldenmarketing.typepad.com/.
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