What Makes You Different?

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Had a meeting with our marketing company and I've been thinking a lot about how you get a product into the hands of your consumer. I've been stuck on this for some time now and I've come to the conclusion, with everything that I've experienced, that what my product or service does makes little to now difference if I can't show what makes me different. It's getting people to be interested in the product without them knowing it. In the real estate business, for example, everyone sells homes, everyone helps others buy homes. Some people tout their differentiateor as experience... *shoulder shrug* meh... There was a guy who owned a glass business in the city I grew up in for 30 years. He decided to retire and leave the business to his kids. Once he realized that retirement was going to drive him nuts, he decided to get a real estate license and thought just because he'd been in the community forever that people would suddenly trust his opinion of the single most important financial decision of their lives. Nothing made him different. Anybody could tell after talking with him for a couple of minutes he had no idea what he was doing. Now I don't say that to discourage people from getting into real estate, I'm sure if he stuck with it, hired on with one of the big brokers, did some floor time, put in the work, assisted a top agent, etc. he would be fine. Godin calls this being different as being remarkable. Here are some simple marketing guidelines to being different:

• Target Market - In its most primitive form, marketing will always come back to who your target market is. Let's take the example of Real Estate, if my target market is people within a certain city, you can't just say "Everybody is my target market." Even Wal-Mart doesn't say that. They have a lot of customers sure, but not everyone is their target market. There are plenty of cities and areas around the world that are not influenced by the Wal-Mart brand. If, in Real Estate you focus on a certain demographic, say, first-time home buyers for example. You can now target those specific clients with advertising. That's not to say that if someone were to come to you as a move-up buyer you would turn them down, you just don't go looking for them in your marketing pieces. 
• Mind of the Target Market - Information is key to understanding what your first-time home buyer is looking for. They are probably a little younger, either living on their own or with parents. What types of things are they into? What do they eat? Where do they spend their excess time? Where do they work? Are they going to school? I would spend hours just thinking about my target market and asking questions similar to these. Open ended questions are great to use. How do they feel about owning a home? What would they feel if they were to know this is my house? Get into their mind and ideas will start to come to you with different ways to reach them. 
• Market your Target Market - Once you have an idea of what your clientele are into you can begin to market towards them. If they're all into the social media scene, they're going to want someone who speaks their language. Get relevant on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Start integrating different aspects of their life into yours. This will give you greater understanding on how to specifically market these buyers. Days of effective print advertising are dying. It still works, to some extent, but the Mad Men radio, magazine, even television advertising is losing its grasp on the future generations. Find out where your market spends their time and get in front of them. 
• Be Different - Your target market of first-time home buyers probably has an image of what a Real Estate Agent is. Mid 40's, little overweight, slimy salesman, commission driven, narcissistic, etc. That was my thought about Real Estate Agents until I met my wife. So what made my wife different was my perception of what a Real Estate Agent is (I wasn't her client before we got married btw). The agents that are successful are the ones who are different. 

Being different requires more than just "knowing stuff". The business owner turned Real Estate Agent that I wrote about earlier wasn't different. He's now back working for his kids at the glass shop. He thought because he knew the city, people were going to come flocking to him. What he didn't realize was that having a business wasn't enough to sell people on using him as an agent. He just wasn't different enough.