The Law of Focus: How to Avoid Direct Competition (part 3 of 3)

The Law of Focus: How to Avoid Direct Competition (part 3 of 3)
Click on the title to watch the video on YouTube.
Full transcript to the video:

Sing: "Aint nothin’ like the real thing, baby. Aint nothin’ like the real thing."

Hi, this is Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants. Welcome to the third video of a three-part series in which I describe how to avoid direct competition in business by applying the law of focus. These three videos are intended for people with sales growth, customer loyalty, and referral generation on their minds.

In the first video, I describe how competition could be any alternative a customer considers instead of spending their money on the goods and services your company offers.

In the second video, I discuss the first example of two real companies that emerged from being stuck as small-time generalists to become thriving specialists after applying the law of focus.

Example Two: the figure-skate boot maker.

Imagine yourself the parent of a teenage girl who loves figure skating. Still growing, your daughter has outgrown and outworn her figure skates. She needs a new pair. You and your spouse join her in wanting the best.

It takes little asking around to learn that the best figure skates are not purchased as skates at all, but as special-ordered blades attached to custom-made boots. Your daughter would not be happy with anything less.

The best figure-skate boot maker, you learn, operates a small shop a five-hour drive away. The boots cost plenty; reputedly worth every penny.

The figure-skate boot maker occasionally visits the ice rink where your daughter’s figure skating club provides ice time. So, with an appointment booked, your daughter has her measurements taken. Weeks later, you take the family on a car trip to pick up the boots. This is how you get to meet the proprietor.

The company started with its founder who, in addition to being a talented technician, has always had an entrepreneurial twinkle in her eye. She drew on experience repairing shoes and boots plus purses and leather gloves; even some saddle work and bridlery.

It was only after she had custom-made a few pairs of figure-skate boots, then discovered that every one of those customers was thrilled and referring friends, that she began to recognize the potential in focusing on this market.

In time, a steady flow of new customers came to her for custom-made figure-skate boots. They were willing to pay top price for work that she could perform well. As the volume of figure-skate boot orders remained steady and grew, she could perform even better and her operation became ever more profitable. She found it invigorating as an entrepreneur and decided to make it her business focus.

Within two years, her focus on figure-skate boot making allowed her to leverage her technical expertise as well as her business sensibilities. She hired one new person every three months.

The law of focus requires a company to narrow its scope to widen its appeal. This figure-skate boot maker, like the figure-skate blade sharpener, exemplifies how the law of focus, applied intelligently, can help an independent small business to fulfil its true potential. They continue to succeed as their integrated marketing and brand management position them as must-see specialists.

Like the blade sharpeners, the figure skate boot makers stoke great word-of-mouth with sharp advertising. Their advertising is steady, targeted, and articulates authentic key messages to the right people in the right media. The margin of uncertainty is nicely low. Living up to reputation, each company consistently provides excellent service to a growing share of a geographically-dispersed specialty market.

It remains important to be adaptable while serving the target market. This includes accepting what might be called “also” business that complements the company’s focus. Tightly-focused specialists often earn nice profits from a healthy volume of “also” business that they attract because of their strong, clear reputation.

I believe that every independent business has potential to be fulfilled, sometimes better than key people are aware of. Despite company founders typically investing much time, energy, money, and creativity in their venture, there can be an indispensable role for an outside expert to play – the role of a consultant – in helping to ensure that the founding vision comes to fruition as well as it can.

On that theme, let me state this clearly: Better for a business to focus on what makes it irreplaceable to its target market than to decide what its brand promise ought to be.

I serve clients who want to ensure that their independent small business fulfils its potential in alignment with a clear mission or purpose and core values, serving a well-defined market. Applying the law of focus intelligently complements this, helping to avoid direct competition while potentially thriving in a distinct market niche. Check out my related articles at the links below.

Serving independent small businesses in Canada and the USA, I am Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants.

Sing: "Aint nothin’ like the real thing, baby. Aint nothin’ like the real thing."
This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca

The Law of Focus: How to Avoid Direct Competition (part 2 of 3)

The Law of Focus: How to Avoid Direct Competition (part 2 of 3)
Click on the title to watch the video on YouTube.
Full transcript to the video:

Sing: "Aint nothin’ like the real thing, baby. Aint nothin’ like the real thing."

Hi, this is Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants. Welcome to the second video of a three-part series in which I describe how to avoid direct competition in business by applying the law of focus. These three videos are intended for people with sales growth, customer loyalty, and referral generation on their minds.

In the first video, I describe how competition could be any alternative a customer considers instead of spending their money on the experience your company offers.

I also raise six questions about customer experience. Good, reliable answers could help your business to avoid direct competition and become better known as the go-to source for a distinct, valued customer experience.

Imagine your company humming along nicely, generating and delivering on a healthy, growing volume of business for happy customers, many of whom keep coming back; many bringing or referring others to you.

In this video, I’ll tell you about the first of two real small, independent companies that came out of difficult times after narrowing their scope and sharpening their key messages to expand their success. That is, after they applied the law of focus.

Each had early success followed by difficult times. Each emerged from its difficult times more focused and less concerned about competitors. Their eventual success has been unmistakably, authentically earned and a result of becoming more widely known for one distinct, essential strength.

I live near the ocean, so let me use nautical terms for what happens during those difficult times that catalyze the transition from small-scale success to real thriving. Key people learn to recalibrate their compass, navigate a better route to success, keep the wind in the sails, and manage on-board resources effectively for the journey to long-term, resilient success.

Example One: the figure-skate blade sharpener.

Imagine yourself the parent of a teenage girl who loves figure skating. You see the good friendships, personal discipline, physical fitness, and other benefits to your daughter – including her happiness. You and your spouse cover most of the costs.

When your daughter was younger, you would take her skates to a local sports store for sharpening. You liked how they would take special care with the spikes at the tips of figure-skate blades.

Even so, you have since learned from your daughter’s friends, their parents, and her skating coach that a certain shop in a nearby city is the best place to go for sharpening.

Those inexperienced with figure skating cannot tell the difference. Figure skaters themselves exude their gratitude for great blade sharpening. That, you learn, comes from this shop an hour’s drive away.

At first, you feel skeptical. Then, you opt to go to the shop in question yourself.

There, you learn not only that this place sharpens an impressive volume of figure-skate blades, but that people from much further away send their skates. You recognize some skaters whose parents make family car trips out of dealing with this place. You see couriers come and go. You even meet the shipping and receiving clerk – somebody whose full-time job is to traffic skates in and out of this shop.

When you meet the owners, you learn a little more about the business. The shop’s history also includes locksmithing and custom machining. They still sharpen lawn-mower blades, knives, and such.

It took some time before they noticed that skate sharpening kept bringing people from near and far willing to pay top price. Customers would book drop-off and pick-up appointments from other cities – most remarkably for figure skate blades. The market for sharpening figure-skate blades held the most potential if they chose to focus on it.

After too many mediocre years as a generalist shop, competing with too many other generalists, they made that choice. The time to focus on operating as a specialty shop had come.

Soon after your return home, you learn that figure skaters who get their blades sharpened at this one shop comprise an elite segment of the regional figure-skating community. Your daughter has become one of the lucky ones, her love of skating strengthened. That you paid top price becomes merely incidental.

Now, what does this tell you about how to get any small business to succeed like that? Here’s a hint: Say the word “sharpening” in the dressing room and every customer of this shop – mostly the top skaters on the rink – instantly know where to go for the best. That’s the law of focus in action.

Sing: "Aint nothin’ like the real thing, baby. Aint nothin’ like the real thing."

Independent small businesses can emerge from challenging times to better fulfil their potential by applying the law of focus. See the third video in this three-part series for more discussion about this, including the second example: another real, thriving company that pulled itself out of tough times. Also, see my related articles at the links below.


This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca

What is a brand? Why should I care?

What is a brand? Why should I care?

Click on the title to watch the video on YouTube.

Full transcript to the video:

Hi. My name is Glenn R Harrington. I suppose you already know the answer to the question, What is a brand?

If you were to ask many, many people whether they know what a brand is, you would find that almost everybody answers yes. Indeed, many would find the question weird or strange, as if you had asked them whether they know what a head is.

The notion of a brand, like knowing what a head is, seems intuitive, as if everybody knows or should know, and asking about it seems out of place.

However, sticking with anatomy for a moment, most people do not know what a pineal gland is or what a pineal gland does. Once a person learns what a pineal gland is, and how it works, there is a good chance that that knowledge is taken as interesting; easily integrated as useful in self-care toward a happy, successful life.

How does this relate to what brand is or of why you should care?

Think of the singers in a choir. Just before the choir leader gets them all to start singing together, every singer in the choir believes that he or she knows the first note to start the song. When the choir leader gives the cue to start singing, every choir member sings the first note with some certainty that the first note as he or she sings it is correct. Even so, in the next moment, many in the choir adjust their pitch.

Of course, a choir does not sound right til every singer sings together with the rest; everybody on pitch. This often requires singers to adjust their pitch in those first seconds, even though they felt certain at the outset that they would sing the correct note.

I am discussing the notion of a brand to allow you to find better harmony with others, and, like I said about understanding the pineal gland, to take the knowledge as interesting for easy integration into brand management toward a successful business, career, or project.

Consider the branding of livestock. This was particularly important when the land now known as the south-western USA had been taken from the aboriginal people and put to use as grazing land by cattle ranchers.

Early ranchers could not separate their herds on such vast lands with fencing, so they branded each animal with a distinct symbol to identify their own herd. This way, herds could mix and ranchers could count on each-other not to make meat of another rancher’s livestock.

When a brand is burned into a steer’s hide, the scar remains indefinitely. It might change somewhat over time. Still, it is a simple, distinct impression burned into flesh that lasts.

Outside of livestock identification, this is important to understand about the brand of a business, charity, or other kind of venture: A brand is a simple, distinct impression in the mind that lasts. It typically forms on the first impression. It can then be validated or further moulded on subsequent encounters or simply with the passage of time.

There is my answer to the question, What is a brand?

Some people believe that a brand, like the scar burnt into the hides of livestock, is simply an identifying symbol. Others would define a brand more broadly as a name and look, such as the name Coca-Cola together with that particular shade of red and that trademark way of rendering the company’s name. A brand generally includes these but is not defined by them.

It is more accurate and more inclusive to say that market perception defines a brand, rooted in direct personal experience, then connected to public opinion – reputation.

Of course, it is also possible that an impression formed in the mind becomes confused on subsequent encounters. This raises the question, Why should I care?

Remember when Kiss took off their make-up? Remember when a national chain bought-out your neighbourhood independent grocery store? Remember when your local community credit union got acquired by a big, regional credit union and became more like a bank? Each of these exemplifies how a market – from Kiss fans to people loyal to the local community credit union – found change foisted upon them.

These brands changed fundamentally so that market perception had to change. Despite brands being personal perception connected to public opinion, sometimes the tail can wag the dog.

Consider this: You can never step into the same river twice. Flowing water is not static. The height and the width of a river vary. The speed of the flow varies. Yet, the name and location of a river might not change for many, many years. A river is dynamic. Brands are like this.

Even though people might hold fixed opinions or feelings about this brand or that, a brand can be dynamic and changing. Yet it can also be strong and reliable. Here again arises the question, Why should I care?

People tend to appreciate consistency and reliability. For example, if you go to a hair stylist and find that your hair is washed at a different sink each time, or maybe your hair is cut in a different chair each time, you might not like that. If you’re like most people, you’d find comfortable familiarity in having your hair washed at the same sink every time, and your hair cut in the same chair every time. This preference for consistency and reliability applies with brands, because brands are rooted in direct experience and we all prefer to repeat the familiar, the pleasant, and the comfortable.

For a brand to generate loyalty and steady profits, reliability and good value are important. Meaningful differentiation from other brands, too. Changing with the times is essential, then, while accommodating people’s preference for comfort and familiarity. These apparent contradictions make managing a brand an on-going process.

Stewarding market perception takes time and effort, plus attention to the market and awareness that every occasion when people encounter a brand can validate, confuse, or adjust how the entity behind the brand may be perceived in or out of sync with its mission or purpose.

Consider the pineal gland. Everybody has one. It’s small. It’s important. Few people know much about it. Now, do you want to find out more?

There’s something else important about brands: Sometimes, all you need is a brief introduction to intrigue you into pursuing more complete discovery. Watch my Joe’s Hotdogs videos to pursue that idea further.

I am Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants.
This and the Joe's Hotdogs parable brought to you by
Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc
www.articulate.ca