One of the first and most important steps in understanding both your competitor’s and your own products is, understanding the key differentiators.  In other words, what influences a customer to buy your products or services rather than your competitor’s?  You can bet that if your employees don’t know, your customers probably don’t know either. Companies tend to spend a lot of time educating and training their employees on product knowledge but do they incorporate this critical piece of information into their training? This is a great opportunity for companies to really stand out when it comes to educating both their employees and customers. Also, a key to having a successful marketing campaign is to position your product or solution correctly. You can’t know where to position your products if you don’t first know how they differentiate in the marketplace.

In addition, consumers are drawn to brands that are different.  Differentiation comes in a variety of forms which can include the following:

1.       How your company(brand) or products connects with your customer base
                    a. This can be done on both an emotional or logical basis

2.       Your customer service or lack thereof compared to the competition’s    
                    a.  Is your call center outsourced or handled in-house?

3.       Your product offering compared to the competition’s
                    a.  For example, the # of sku’s a company offers may offer on their web site
                    b.  How many types of options are available (color, size, etc)

4.       Ease of use- How easy do you make it for your consumers to do business with you?

5.       Do your customers understand how your products or services will impact them?
                    a. Save them money, time or elevate stress, etc.