Stand Out, Push Your Product to the Edge

Many companies sell average products to average people. It’s easy to be in the middle. Neither greatly loved nor hated, they just want to get by with enough sales to generate a good profit. They prefer to avoid controversy or the cutting edge of their industry. They don’t generally stand out too much, but instead try to keep the status quo. Comfort is good for them.

But what if you do want to stand out? What if you do want to garner attention and distinguish yourself from among your competition? Then you need to be remarkable. You need to have something about your product that is different enough that people take notice. One way to do this is employ the process of edgecraft.

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s book Free Prize Inside and it has me thinking a lot about edgecraft. What is it? It’s finding the edge of a problem — something that will make your product or service more remarkable. Pushing the limits. Godin mentions that in order to stand out, you can’t just be a restaurant that has moderately good-looking staff. You need to have supermodels or weight lifters or identical twins. Something that stands out.

So think about this in relation to your business. What small tweaks can you make that pushes your product closer to the edge? Something that’s easily implemented, something that you think you can actually do — not just something that sounds good. Where’s the hole in your market? What is your competition missing that you can grab and implement?

Sometimes it’s the small innovations that propel products to the top of consumers’ interest. It’s putting Silk soy milk in the refrigerated section next to the regular milk. It’s making invisible braces or pumping up water with vitamins. Think about it in relation to your product. Take some time to think about the way-out, seemingly crazy ideas and some that are more manageable. Somewhere in there you just might find something that’s right for your business.

Then make it happen. If you want to grow, break free of that comfortable position you find yourself in. Get noticed. Become remarkable. And then come back and tell us about it.

image: morgueFile