Differentiate or Die: How SMEs can use GTM successfully to conquer the market? (Part II)

This is the second part in a two part series on 'Go to Market' Strategy. Take a look at the part I of the series

One of the best strategies is to own an attribute. An attribute is a characteristic, peculiarity or a distinctive feature of a person or a thing. Attribute ownership is probably the number one way to make your product different and that differentiation is the most critical thing to have in today’s market when we are spoilt with choices. Yes this differentiation makes you unique in few attributes and appeals to a certain section of the people and this slicing and dicing and creating an appeal for this section by owning an attribute is the strategy one has to follow. Those who try to be everything for everyone are a sure recipe for disaster.Yes it is easier said than done about owning an attribute but in real world trying to list the attributes with the ownership details itself is a herculean task by itself. Once you find that magic sauce, you need to attach to it like a parasite and all your communications should reflect it and you need to differentiate on this as if that is the only thing you do – remember marketing is a game (or a war) fought in the mind of the prospect and in today’s spoilt for choice world, you differentiate or you die – it is that simple.You can differentiate on anything it is just that you need to think hard and long on that. Where there is a will there is a way to differentiate.

There are many examples in the history of marketing how from automobiles to toothpastes create attributes and cling on them and become owners of that attribute. As late as few months back a toothpaste created an attribute called “Sugar Free” clung onto it and started slicing & dicing the market and found a market of diabetics and those who watch their health and infact is a big market in India for sure. When we started S7 Software we did the same, we clung to the “Migration” mountain and we tried very hard (by means of all of our communications) to make S7 synonym with migration services and we were pretty successful (& of course that led to acquisition in a wayJ). In my next article let me write about what are the different ways to differentiate with examples and how to differentiate even if are using a negative attribute.

There are lot more strategies and learning in this topic and I will keep them for ensuing articles which I like to write hopefully once in fortnight but in the meantime if you have any questions, concerns or if you disagree with me, please do drop me an email to [email protected]

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Currently the CEO of i7 Networks, Nextgen Bandwidth Analytics Company, Manjunath M Gowda’s expertise includes setting up, managing & running software companies (business) in India. Being a successful entrepreneur, he is extremely good in creating Go to market (GTM) strategies, segmentation, competitive analysis, strategic placing and monetizing ideas.

Twitter: manju_s7

Linkedin :http://in.linkedin.com/in/manjunathgowda