Differentiation: what makes your product different

HappyHarry said: "Most businesses have a tough time answering this basic business question. If your product is the same as everyone else's in the marketplace, then why will the customer buy yours?"

chahinemm said: "usually by my knowledge 2 main type ... cost strategy (try to base with lower price, simple product features) or differentiation strategy ( go for charging a premium but make damn sure that the product is unique in the industry and has the bells and whitles.) pretty much as quality or price placing yourself inbetween both is dangerous because both sides of the balance can steal ur market share... u usually do this through a market segmentation analysis of what kind of customers u have and who are more likely to buy ur product which will give u a better idea to which direction to go. For instance the one i have blinp.com is pretty much going and starting at price but as im building value over time through membership its going to definitely switch to differentiation which is a major factor interms of business strategy... Well u probably realized i enjoy strategy... :P :) chahinemm"

HappyHarry said: "I agree that "price" is usually the main thing people do to differentiate their product. But competing on price is a slipper slope. You have to truly have the highest volume to succeed with price-wars. Most small guys never have enough volume to effectively compete on price, although they try."

chahinemm said: "[QUOTE=HappyHarry]I agree that "price" is usually the main thing people do to differentiate their product. But competing on price is a slipper slope. You have to truly have the highest volume to succeed with price-wars. Most small guys never have enough volume to effectively compete on price, although they try.[/QUOTE] i agree but smaller guys don't have the resources either to go on quality of product... maybe they could go the extra mile to compensate for the price into the service maybe. but does it occur out there is the question. or customer service has become ubiquitous chahine"

chahinemm said: "[QUOTE=chahinemm]i agree but smaller guys don't have the resources either to go on quality of product... maybe they could go the extra mile to compensate for the price into the service maybe. but does it occur out there is the question. or customer service has become ubiquitous chahine[/QUOTE] so the question that would come up is what is the next step to take to compensate for this lack of differentiation? chahine"

Heather said: "Most service that I get is average to bad. Workers don't care or are indifferent at best. Of course this all changes if you are dealing with higher end products/ consumers. They are willing to pay a premium for goods and services. Cheapskates are still cheapskates."

chahinemm said: "so that would mean its not the business or the customer or the strategy but its the managers or leaders who dpn't know how to lead efficiently to create that motivational approach to make it successfull.!!! if thats the care than what are traits that a leader should have? chahine"