Rubber Chicken Two

As I mentioned in Part One, my Rubber Chicken is a prop in a presentations. The point being, most people see chicken as a commodity and when they do, the only differentiator is price. When your business offering is seen as a commodity the competitor with the lowest price gets the business. You have to find ways to differentiate. Maple Leaf Foods in Canada is marketing chicken under the brand name Prime Naturally and they state the chicken is "vegetable-grain fed with no animal by-products." It sells for a higher price than the unbranded generic chicken in the meat case. In the U.S., Perdue Farms has been promoting their brand of better quality chicken for many years. Perdue is often used as a case history in marketing courses.

When the family picks up chicken from KFC they are buying a differentiated product. No one's chicken is exactly like KFC's which means for the family that is sold on KFC they will pay more for their favorite. They don't comparison shop and they don't negotiate at the counter trying to get it for less they just keep on buying KFC.

It's very important to find ways to differentiate. To give you a sense of how important, consider the title of marketing expert Jack Trout's book "Differentiate of Die: Survival in our era of killer competition." Add value, add service, create exclusive offers. Study how others achieve this. It's a great way to grow your business because you a growing higher value transactions not just low margin volume.