It underpins the way you do business, the future direction you take...even the kind of people you hire. On the other hand, when you get it right, people choose you over competitors that are bigger, closer, longer in business, cheaper or even more familiar like an existing brand or a service you have used before.
It has to be something you can deliver everyday. Secondly, no others in the marketplace have already gone there. Also, it has to be relevant and answer a real need in the marketplace.
The thinking
Imagine your business involves a product that has a lot of positives, but suffers a bit of a stigma like "Bamboo".
You know your interest in bamboo flooring is primed to make an impact soon. But it hasn't captured the imagination of the marketplace, even though it is sustainable, renewable and hard-wearing.
The problem seems to be a stigma left over from cheap imports of other products made of bamboo, that has left the brand "Bamboo" damaged as something low in value, Asian and undesirable.
So how do you make an impact in this type of market legacy.
You realise you need to change the market perception of your product. You decided to find a new way about talking about your product. A new name can change the perception of your customers. It also separates you from competitors that are also beginning to import a similar sounding product.
The name you choose to call your product is "Mosowood".
Being able to trademark this name not only separates your type of flooring from competitors, but by branding it at source, now allows you to grow a distribution market for this brand of bamboo flooring as well. So you have increased your business from import/retail to national and international wholesale distribution as well.
About the positioning.
By far the greatest attribute of "mosowood" is that it is hard wearing. By hardwearing, it is actually stiletto proof! Wooden floors have always suffered from the permanent marks made by thin heels. You realised that this is a major advantage over wooden floors as many of your customers are women and this has been one of their greatest concerns.
The existing rating system for hardness of floors is a somewhat obscure system that doesn’t make sense with consumers. So, in the process of finding a new positioning, you also decide to create a new rating system. "The Stiletto Rating" which measures the depression a stiletto will create on any type of wood surface. You discover this is trademarkable and proceed to do this as well.
Unlike pine and cedar, that have a poor stiletto rating (mark easily), your "mosowood" is one of the hardest rated woods matched only by a rare type of WA hardwood, which is nearly extinct.
Mosowood on the other hand, is made from bamboo, which is grown in a sustainable farming environment, making it "the hardest sustainable wood on the planet".
This positioning places your product in the forefront of peoples minds that have concerns about the durabilty of their surfaces and want an eco-rated product. You know that both of these issues are increasing as concerns of prospective clients.
Mosowood—"The hardest sustainable wood on the planet"...with the highest Stiletto Rating®.
