On The Importance of Standing Out

Name an industry, any industry. There is a good chance that if that industry or field has proven itself to be profitable, there are at least two companies competing in that particular arena. Businessmen and entrepreneurs are among the most opportunistic people in the world, willing to grasp at all sorts of possibilities in pursuit of profitability and stability. Of course, this means that any line of business that can be profitable and doesn’t require an obscenely large initial investment is going to find itself becoming very competitive and very crowded in short order. Not every business has the good fortune of being the main Fort Myers dolphin tours provider, after all.

This situation, of course, is what makes it crucial for a company to find a way to stand out. Every company that has a competitor will need to find some way to be different, to grab the attention of the market. All the products in a single line of business will likely have the same benefits for their buyers, so that’s obviously out of the question. Altering the primary benefit of a product not only means a possible change in its fundamental nature, but also the risk of shipping it off to an entirely different market. This means that finding a way to stand out and be unique must be balanced by the fact that the product can’t change too much at its core. The vacuum cleaner, at the end of the day, must remain a vacuum cleaner regardless of whatever knickknacks are added on.

The features of a product are a good starting point. The benefit is what the product is supposed to do, but the features are the little things that are nice, but aren’t necessary. To continue with the vacuum cleaner example, the product is supposed to suck up dirt and dust. That is the benefit of it. Features, on the other hand, could be compact size – perfect for carrying around the house instead of being dragged – or a blinking light that indicates that the bag is full and needs to be emptied. By having a feature that a competing product doesn’t have, the business makes its own offering seem more unique and adds another potential selling point to subsections of the market.

There are other ways, of course, but tapping the features first is often the easiest way. They’re easier to integrate into the existing product design and can make a great selling point.