Should you do what every other business is doing?

March 19, 2007

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So you’re researching your competitors businesses - all you need to do is see what they’re doing, offer the same thing, and do it cheaper right? Wrong.

If you want your business to stand out from the crowd, you need to do something your competitors aren’t doing, that way, you won’t have to offer it cheaper, and you never should try to be cheaper - unless you’re a discount store.

Do research competing businesses regularly, to see what they’re doing well, and what they’re doing badly. Copy the things they do well, but try to offer something different - something that competing businesses will struggle to offer.

Think like Warburton’s. A few years ago, Warburtons were a small business. Now their bread dominates the supermarkets shelves. How did they do it? By offering something different - something that their competitors couldn’t copy. They discovered that Canada has superior grain, so they visited hundreds of Canadian grain suppliers and persuaded them to agree to provide Warburton’s exclusively.

Now their bread is hugely popular and their competitors can’t offer what they’re offering.

So, don’t do what everyone else is doing. Follow Warburton’s example, and make yourself different, in a way that can’t be copied by your competition.

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