If you were a washing powder, which one would you be and why?

No, this is not an audition for Blind Date (been there, done that!) but actually a great question to ask yourself to help you market your products or services.

I am re-reading Michael Gerber’s “E-Myth Revisited” again – something I recommend everyone who runs their own business to do at least once every 18 months – and I have just read the chapter where he introduces the Entrepreneurial Model.

He writes: “The Entrepreneurial Model looks at a business as if it were a product, sitting on a shelf and competing for the customer’s attention against a whole shelf of competing products (or businesses).”

What he means by this is that it isn’t your actual product or service that is critical to your business success, but the way that you offer it to your market.  If we go back to my question “If you were a washing powder, which would you be and why?”, you soon realise that the only difference between all the washing powders out there are the way that they are marketed.

They all wash clothes, but to compete on a shelf at Tesco or Waitrose, a washing powder has to stand out from all the rest.  Tough, when you think about the brand loyalties that most consumers have, often passed on from their parents.

So stop focusing on your product’s/service’s features and start thinking in terms of the benefit you offer and how you get this message across to your customers.