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Guest post by: Douglas Long Become an Author

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I live in Australia. Recently I was doing some shopping and, while waiting for service, I casually read the signs alongside the counter. One in particular caught my eye. Hidden among the other small signs indicating prices and products and written in red on a white background was an A4 card with the words "HFM only stock Australian product".

Over recent months there has been much in the Australian press about retailers sourcing product from outside Australia. Go to your local butcher, fishmonger, fruit and vegetable vendor, etc, and, especially, your major supermarket chains and the probability is that much of the product is sourced from outside Australia. Many in the Australian community are concerned about this and people such as the entrepreneur Dick Smith constantly exhort us to think about the source of product when we are buying anything. (Of course, Australia is not alone on this. In my visits to other countries I regularly encounter messages exhorting people to buy that which is locally produced wherever possible.)

I'd never seen this sign before - I mostly buy from local specialist shops rather than from supermarkets because I believe the supermarkets need competition and small local retailers are the best source of this. But the sign still made a difference in my attitude to HFM - it made me feel even more positive towards them.

I looked again at the prices shown in the shop where I was waiting. They were very comparable with those in the supermarket next door - clearly there was no premium for buying specifically Australian product. When, a few seconds later, I was served, I commented that the sign ought to be larger and that HFM should make more of this. The person at the counter didn't really seem to understand what I was saying. He smiled and agreed but, next day, nothing had changed.

The statement that "HFM only stock Australian product" is a strong marketing claim that sets it aside from its larger competition. It is a critical point of differentiation. Yet it seems to have been made almost as an aside by someone who obviously knows its importance yet doesn't seem to know how to make the message stand out.

It set me thinking.

How often do all of us have clear and important points of differentiation yet we either fail to recognise them or we fail to make them clearly and prominently enough. (I, for one, am sure that this is an area in which I screw up quite often.)

It reminded me of a statement I heard long ago: "If the trumpet doesn't make a clear call, who will get ready for battle?" And also of another statement once heard at a seminar: "if you don't blow your own trumpet, someone else may use it as a spittoon!"

In today's highly competitive environment, whatever goods and/or services we are offering can easily be confused with commodities - the similarities are such that prospective customers/clients toss everything together and, in lieu of clear differentiation, make buying decisions on price or familiarity. This can make things especially difficult for the small operator or for the new entrant to any field.

Points of differentiation should be trumpet calls.

How clear is the trumpet call of what makes you different and why people should buy from you? It needs to be very clear. It needs to be loud. And it needs to be frequent.

Some questions that may be of help:

1. What is it about whatever it is you are offering that makes it different from that offered by anyone else? What is your point of differentiation?
2. What does this mean for your prospective customers/clients? What is the unique benefit they will get from dealing with you?
3. What is a short, sharp, powerful "tag" that encapsulates these?
4. What is the best media for getting this message to your prospective customers/clients? Why? How? When?
5. What other media should you consider using? Why? How? When?
6. What metrics will you use to monitor the effectiveness of your trumpet calls?
7. What is the best way for following up leads created by your trumpet calls? How? When?

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