DIFFERENTIATING YOUR BUSINESS FROM YOUR COMPETITORS

Differentiating your business from your competitors by creating a market dominating position (MDP) involves a five- step process.

Step 1: Determine your strategic position in the market. What specific niche market or segment of the marketplace should your business focus on? Determining this involves combining the skills your business has with the unmet needs of your targeted prospects, and then designing your product or service to fulfill those needs.

Domino’s strategic position was “fast, hot pizza for hungry college kids.” For Starbucks, “delicious hand-crafted beverages that makes life better.”

Step 2: Determine your primary MDP.

This is the most dominating advantage that separates you from your competitors. Domino’s Pizza claimed it could deliver its pizza in 30 minutes or less, or they would give it to you for FREE! This was the primary advantage that met the needs of their newly defined market position - hungry college kids who wanted food fast.

Step 3: Determine your supporting business model.

How will you specifically deliver what your strategic position and primary market dominating position promises? What changes, if any, do you need to consider making to your business to ensure you deliver consistently on your position and your promise?

Domino’s Pizza built a supporting business model enabling them to consistently provide their promised primary advantage – fresh, hot pizza delivered within 30 minutes.

To make good on this promise every time, they were forced to create a supporting business model where they built low-cost, plain-vanilla stores strategically located near college campuses.

And since college kids aren’t the most reliable workers on the planet, they were forced to hire additional delivery staff and have additional drivers on a stand-by basis. Together, these innovations allowed them to consistently meet and often exceed their primary market dominating position.

Step 4: Determine a secondary MDP.

What additional competitive advantages does your business offer that your customers will perceive as being different from your competition? Domino’s secondary benefits might include special pricing, assorted sizes, a much broader selection of toppings, or additional menu items.

Step 5: Create your MDP statement or elevator pitch.

This is a simple statement you can create by combining steps one through four. This helps you to state unequivocally what differentiates you from your competitors to your targeted prospects and customers.

Domino’s market dominating position is neatly summed up in its slogan, “fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less or it’s free.”