How To Avoid Becoming A Commodity

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"All things being equal" has to be the worst phrase any marketer will ever hear from a potential customer. It means your only hope of a sure sale is a cheaper price.

Letting your brand become a commodity is a disaster for your whole organization. In effect, it raises all the costs of production, sales and service because it lowers your opportunity and ability to offset those expenses with a favorable return on investment.

So what can be done to avoid this tragedy? Raise the value of what you're selling in the mind of your customers to a higher level as revealed in a BNET.com interview with Paul Boitmann, president of global sales at Newell Rubbermaid.

Faced by a market full of cheap knock-offs, Boitmann describes how Newell Rubbermaid employs a competitive strategy that helps channel partners realize greater total value than just the revenue they make from the merchandise on their shelves.

Their approach is to provide a level of knowledge and expertise that goes beyond just knowing their own product line in order to help retailers improve the success of the entire product category in the store.

Boitmann states "While we want to own the category as a whole, if this means giving a prominent display to a competitor's product in order to maximize the performance of that department, that's the recommendation that we would make."

Newell Rubbermaid's goal is to help retailers lower their risk of buying inventory that isn't going to sell and avoid the resentment generated by channel stuffing. "We're essentially offering a solution to the problem of 'how do I make this category profitable' rather than just supplying them something to resell," explains Boitmann.

So to avoid allowing the buying decision to come down to price, raise it above basic product facts and features. Beyond a delivery date or size availability. Turn your entire organization and your brand into a success solution.

Read the entire interview for yourself.

And when you're ready to present your brand as a more complete solution, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.