575. The Magic Formula to Standing Out in a Crowded Market

Look into other products that exist, look out there and say, who exists? What is their position in the market and how can I do this for mine as well?

Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is.

The Product Boss podcast.

I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what are mistakes they could avoid, how did they turn an idea into successful business? And what are strategies they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers. This is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product boss.

Let's do this. Hey, product bosses. All right, so a lot of times I've been coaching people recently and I feel like they're looking for a magic force formula like that thing that they need to unlock for their product to finally stand out in a crowded market. So what I see a lot of is we've come up with really cool, awesome, amazing products, right? Maybe you're an artist and you have your very specific type of art you're making, or you're creating pottery. Perhaps you're making dog leashes or dog collars or tea or coffee. There's jewelry, there's clothing lines, there's baby and kid products. I've seen so many different products come through the virtual doors of the Product Boss. But I think what happens is there's this missing key to unlocking that next level of your business. And it's this idea of a magic formula. People are like, where's the magic? What do I do? What's going to be the thing? What's the thing? And so I think that this is the thing. This is the magic formula. We're going to dig into it today on this episode. So if you're new here, hey, I'm Jaclyn Seider and I am the host of the Product Boss. And make sure that you follow the show and if you love it, share it with someone that a fellow product boss that could really use a podcast about product based businesses and not about service and all the other things. Because we are here and On a mission to help product businesses grow. Also, I have a freebie for all of you that are listening. I want to help you really figure out how you can build your dream business. So I have the ultimate checklist for your dream business. And all you have to do is head to theproductboss.com dream. It's the productboss.com dream. And it is a checklist that I've put together, that I've seen are some of the things to ask yourself to know if you are building your dream business. All right, so. So good. Jump on in over there. We've got you. Okay. So the key, that magic formula that you're looking for is this idea, I think, honestly, of positioning your product in the market, Right? So product positioning, I think a lot of times we think I named all those different products out there, and it's like, how do you stand out in a crowded market? Well, there is plenty of room. There's room at the top for all of us, for all types of products, right? All the baby clothes, all the toys, all the candles, all the jewelry, all the hat racks and coat racks and wall art and beds and furniture and everything. There's enough room out there for all of us. But the thing that I see is that you need to understand and master the idea of product positioning. And I think this is that magic formula to elevate your success. Because no matter what I teach you in terms of strategy or tactics or sales channels or ways to show up on social media, without positioning your product in the right way, it is very hard to stand out in a competitive market. Okay. Super hard. So let's just talk about a few ways like this makes sense, like, how do we pull it together and talk about it. So when you think about your product, it's not just about where it sits on a shelf or how it appears online. It's actually about carving out this unique space in your customer's mind, a space where your product isn't just seen, but it's sought after. So it's really that art of differentiating your brand in a way that resonates deeply with your ideal customer, your target audience. And you might be thinking, why does this matter so much? Well, because today, in today's market being just another whatever it is that you sell just won't cut it. It just won't cut it. We are inundated by more pieces of media than we've ever seen in our lives, Right? More than we can even handle. And so you really need to define yourself as to why you and not someone else. So that's something for you to think about, right? Like why you and not someone else. Well, there's a couple things to consider here. When you're thinking about positioning, positioning you, positioning your product, positioning the why. And it goes much deeper than we give back or we're a small business. I really think gone are those days, especially in the economy that we have today, where during the pandemic we were able to really hone in on shop small because we were so invested into keeping the small businesses, especially our local small businesses alive and people were home and they actually had more money in their bank accounts because we weren't spending on other things that we were typically spent on. And so we use the power of our dollars to support small businesses. Well, flip to the where we are now. And it feels for years now they've been talking about a looming recession which is not happening currently. Dollars get tighter, interest rates went up, we were dealing with inflation and all these different things. And people are always going to take care of themselves more than the other. So support small is great, but it's not the why. It's not the why. In fact, the why is how does your product make my life better? How does your product meet a desire that I desire? How does your product move me away from pain and closer to pleasure? So you're going to want to understand that and think, okay, that's what I need to do, that's how I'm going to stand out in the market. So we think about bigger businesses that are out there and I don't know, let's talk about McDonald's for example. So McDonald's, we think of it being affordable and fast and satisfying meals. Some people might think of it that way, other people might have a totally different position on it. Right? Good for you. Meals cheap and fast and unhealthy. But they know who they're talking to, they know about who they're messaging to and how they're positioning themselves versus a Rolex watch is positioned to be like prestige and exclusive exclusivity. Oh my goodness, friends, have you heard that we just launched a brand new program called Standout society. Your eight week product biz breakthrough to getting more customers and standing out in a crowded market. Listen, I know that product business owners, they need to learn how to get paying customers and stand out in a crowded market without all the things, right? Without lowering your prices, without paying for ads, without thinking you need to do all these other things. And you know, Tim Ferriss had this quote and he said, even if you have the best possible version of what it is you're selling, if no one knows about it in the first place, then you don't have a market. So this brand new program is for literally anyone who sells products, whether you're just starting out or you've been in business for years. If you're a business that needs customers and you're struggling to reach your ideal audience and get them to convert to sales, then this is is for you. Now, I am so excited because I'm teaching this totally live. It's the very, very, very first time that we're launching it. I'm teaching it live over eight weeks and it will actually be the only time I teach this live. So if you decide to join in the future, which you totally can, I can't promise that the price will ever be this low. And I know that I will not be teaching it live again. So if you're like, I want this. Let's do this over the next eight weeks. Let's do it together, my friends. All you have to do is head to the theproductboss.comsos theproductboss.comsos because here's the deal. We're going to dig into the four foundational bits of your business that I think so many people have missed. They've gone from coming up with the idea, making the product and jump straight to selling it. But here's the deal. No amount of trainings or courses or tactics or anything that I teach you in any of my other programs are going to work in if you don't have clear foundations in your business. And I know that that's not like the sexiest thing to hear, but guess what is getting more customers. So if you're feeling fuzzy and unfocused and frustrated and you're like, I'm trying to do this, but I don't know what to do. This is the time that we have to go back in and think this is. We have to do so the standout society. The whole goal to this is to have you have a breakthrough in your business over the next eight weeks because I want to help you get more customers. Customers and stand out in a crowded market. So head to theproductboss.comsos theproductboss.comsos and I cannot wait to see you inside. So the thing that you want to think about here is how do you position yourself in the market so that it meets that need and that wants for your customer. So you're going to want to look at other brands that are in the market with you and thinking, where am I similar to them and where am I different? So the purple mattress, for example, there was a whole trend of different mattresses going on over the last few years. Like really sleep became the next wellness type product. And your mattress was one of the key things to keep you well. And so if you think about the purple mattress, they had this different way of creating the mattress out of this weird grid foamy thing. And it was very different than sleep number beds or other types of mattresses that had different types of foams and things like that. They were needing to position themselves. So they were still marketing the same people that wanted a mattress that helped them sleep better, a mattress that was cooler. But it also was something that they also needed to differentiate themselves outside of that as well. So you want to really think about, how am I going to position myself in the market? Now, the other thing to think about is there is a difference between marketing and branding. So marketing is the way that you reach out to your customers. It's the way that you take your message and share it with your customers. That's how we reach them. And then branding is like the feeling that somebody gets about your product, right? It's what they believe to be about your product and how it's going to make them feel better. So imagine that you have two products that are really similar and they were launched into the world, and one fades into obscurity and the other one becomes a household name. Well, what's the difference? Like, why does one thing work and one thing not work? It's the positioning of that product. That's why certain products become synonymous with, like, innovation and luxury and reliability without you saying a word. Because that's the thing that's, like, really powerful and persuasive. That's the thing that's going to move your brand to the next part. So I want you to think about products that perhaps have existed. Why do we refer to Kleenex as Kleenex when there are tissues for your nose and they exist outside of that, Right. They were really able to position themselves as Kleenex. Now, I know I'm talking about really big brands, but I want you to know that when I came out with Cuffs Couture, none of us have really invented anything new. I. My quote is that you can't reinvent the wheel, but you can redesign it. I've been using that since I started my company back in 2007. You cannot reinvent the wheel, but you can redesign it. So wrist wallets or things that attach to your arm or your leg or your body to hold credit cards and cash and whatever have existed. I decided to redesign it so that it was an accessory that I could wear out with girlfriends if we were dancing at a club or we were going to a restaurant or something. It looked like a fashion accessory. The same thing with the tire. The wheel was invented way, way back in the day, and now there's just improvements on the tires that we use on our cars. And so the idea here is, I'm not asking any of you to be. Even if you are inventors, they're inspired by something else. There's very few of us that are going to come up with inventions that have never been thought of or have never been creative. We are going to have variations or advancements on inventions that have already been created. Right. But the idea here is, why you and not someone else? Why will yours stick around? So, Cuffs Couture, when I did this, I knew that if I was successful, someone would knock me off. I was actually just coaching someone earlier today, and she was saying, I have this idea. It's something for a kid's product. I want to put it on Amazon, but I'm afraid if I do that, I'm going to get knocked off. And I said to her, this exact story I'm sharing with you. I had a friend that worked at Forever 21 when I was launching Cuffs Couture. And he was actually an advisor for me. And I said to him, I was like, okay, what should I do? And he was giving me advice. And then I was like, well, what if you guys knock me off? He was in charge of merchandising at Forever 21. He's, well, if we knock you off, we'll probably knock you off for one season and then move on. I was like, okay, good to know. And it was more of, like, bigger companies. They're probably not gonna. Well, here's what I wanna say, actually. If you grow big, there will always be copycats. You will always be knocked off. So this is why it's so important to position yourself in the market. As first to market, we can look at TiVo. Remember TiVo from my friends? It was like, the first thing that we recorded. It was our dvr. It was the first thing that we were able to record live TV. TiVo is gone. Eventually, all of our cable networks were able to figure out how to record. Right? You had the DirecTV recorder that was inspired off of Tivo and now our, I don't know, somehow magically we don't have recorders anymore and it's just in our TVs. So there's always going to be an advancement and it is oftentimes hard to be first to market. But I'm guessing the majority of you are not first to market. And that's okay because this is the same thing that Tony Shale said for Zappos when they created zappos.com the story is that can you sell shoes? He was like bringing shoes to sell online. So Zappos sold shoes to start, right? And people were like, you're nuts, you're crazy. No one's going to buy shoes off of a website. Everyone needs to go to a shoe store. Yes, my friends, back in the day we used to go to shoe stores. You had to put your feet in those cold silver things, figure out your size, try on shoes, walk around with them and then decide if you were going to buy them. He's I want to sell shoes online. People are starting to sell stuff online. So he looked at the market share and he saw that 5% of shoe sales were being made through catalogs, where people flip through a paper catalog and then sent in a mailer with a check and said, this is a shoe I want. So he saw that if he could get 5% of the shoe customer market that he could be highly successful. And cut to now look at that business that grew. So we do not need to have the entire market share for us to have our small businesses and live beautiful, amazing lives. Like with dream businesses that create our dream life. All we need is a small amount. All we need is a small amount. I know so many of you just want a hundred thousand dollar business, right? Or perhaps you're like me and you wanted to get $100,000 salary or maybe like my masterminders, you want to be a million dollar, multimillion dollar eight figure business. It doesn't matter where you are. You have your dream life and your business, your dream business to help you get there. And it does not have to be everybody. It just has to be a small amount of people that really resonate with you, that understand the position of your brand and that want to buy from you. So then the other part of that is once you identify this and people can understand you as a brand and then the next part is like, how do you market to them? Like how do you reach them? Because I think a lot of times when you master your product positioning, it's like holding the key to A secret garden. It opens those doors to opportunities that you never knew existed. But then here's where it gets tricky. Crafting a positioning strategy that's authentic and impactful isn't about following a template. It's really about understanding the core of your brand. Understanding the core of your customer. Right? It's niching down and saying, who's my ideal customer? What is the ideal product for them? This does take insight and intuition and a bit of chance and also getting over some mindset stuff to get in the way. So now you might be thinking, like, how do I achieve this, Jacqueline? This all sounds great. So. So I think what it does is it takes you diving deep into asking the right questions and also thinking about, who am I going to learn from to know how to do this? Because the truth is that there are nuances to positioning your product. There are nuances into building a brand. There are nuances into thinking like, who is my target customer, my ideal customer, and that niche, right? And how do I then get that message out to them? And that is what getting, like, really great product positioning will be the game changer for your business. That is the thing that's going to unlock that next level of your business. This is the thing that might be missing also as you're doing it. So look into other products that exist. Look out there and say, who exists? What is their position in the market, and how can I do this for mine as well? And so if you're looking for more help, like I said, I came up with that freebie for you that we can really dig in about how to build your dream business. It's theproductboss.com dream theproductboss.com dream because in there, I want you to identify what you're doing and what maybe still needs help, right? What are you nailing in your business right now? And what are things that you're like, ooh, I think I need to dig into that and work on that more. And over the next few weeks, we're going to keep talking about this on the podcast. Make sure to follow me at the product boss on Instagram. We're digging into this because this is that next level to unlock. And it starts with you really understanding the secret formula to this is understanding your product positioning. It's understanding why you and how do you stand out in the market. And it can be you could sell anything, anything. But when you can capture their attention, this is how you take people from being just an audience to converting into buying from you. And then turning into being a loyal customer. And this will work no matter where you sell. So once you unlock the secret that this magical formula and you understand it and you're able to start really positioning yourself the right way, positioning your products, positioning your brand, this is going to be the thing that just like people will see it and be like, I get it. Oh, I understand it. Oh, that's why I need it. I've seen it happen so many times for my students and I want it to happen for you as well. All right my friends, again, theproductboss.com dream for that freebie and I will see you on the next episode.

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