The need to make a difference

The creativity of entrepreneurs makes their enterprise different. Together with flexibility and speed, entrepreneurs use it as their weapon in battling big business in the marketplace. But being different is not enough. Making a difference is more important. Being different will generate awareness. Something different will be noticed. However, making a difference will lead to sustainable revenues and profits. But one cannot make a difference if one is not different.

To become different requires that the entrepreneur knows the supply side. He/she must take stock of what is being offered by the competition. By sheer observation, the entrepreneur should be able to see what the competitive position or unique selling proposition of each competition is. The entrepreneur will surely find out that the positioning landscape differs in each micro-market where he/she is present. Knowing the position of each of the players will be a fundamental basis for being different.

To become different requires that the entrepreneur knows the demand side. The entrepreneur must understand what the customers need and want. There are many ways of determining this. In a previous article, we also said that knowing your customer need not be expensive. The entrepreneur will find out that customer needs/wants are different in each micro-market served. Knowing the customer intimately will inform the entrepreneur about what will truly make a difference. This difference is the basis of the customer’s own decision-making process in responding to the question–who will I buy from? The entrepreneur must present his/her enterprise as the different firm that makes a difference.

An entrepreneur in the retail food business pioneered a fast-food concept in the commercial area of a high-density residential district. It was meant to cater to both the transients (non-residents who had transactions in the area) and the residents. The concept was so successful that the original size of the enterprise grew beyond expectations. To say that there was a 20-fold growth in revenue and scale would be an understatement.

Other entrepreneurs also noticed the growth in the market. They too set up their enterprises. But the pioneer offered something different that made a difference. By the time the other small players came in, the pioneer already had a great reputation and was branded as a place for good food. In other words, the pioneer had brand equity in the area. The only different thing the new players presented was the fact that they were new. Being new was not good enough. The market demanded a brand. The brand was the difference.

The uncovered demand for fast-food service in the area was so large that it attracted a big branded player which set up business in the major corner of the same area to take advantage of the fact that brand was the difference demanded by the market. Definitely, it already had a national brand that could surely make a difference in the area.

Instead of cowering in fear, the pioneer in the area continued to listen to the market, which presented two opportunities where a new difference would matter. The first was to challenge the big brand power on the same terms. The position the pioneer took was, "I’m a local area brand which is available only in your area. The big brands are available elsewhere. That’s my difference. All the other big brands are in the malls, the work places, and other regularly visited venues. Why go to them in my area? You will not have the same chance to eat my food in other areas. Eat in my place now that you are here."

The difference worked and resulted in an undisturbed sales volume even if the big brands came in. The pioneer had a difference that could not be copied and it appealed to the local people.

The second difference discovered was how a family who patronized fast-food places arrived at its decision to do so (which was confirmed by some of the advertisements of the big branded player). It was observed that the decision to eat outside the home is made by parents but the children decide on where to eat. Parents agree with their children’s choice because the consequences of not acceding are unwanted, i.e., the child will not eat the food serves and/or the child will have a tantrum and will turn the meal into a miserable experience for the parents.

The pioneer also observed that parents eat more than their children. The difference it offered to its clientele was the fact that kiddie meals of the big brands could be brought in as long as the parents ordered from the pioneer’s menu. As a matter of fact, the pioneer not only allowed the kiddie meals but even offered to buy the kiddie meals as part of their customer service. This was a difference that the market appreciated and which the big brands were not allowed to do. Indeed, the pioneer offered something different that made a difference.

Many wannabe entrepreneurs think that just becoming different is enough. They use their creativity to be different from all the other players in the market. Their being different might catch the eye of the market but it does not necessarily catch the customers’ pockets. Again, being different is a comparison with what is available. Making a difference is meeting what the customer is looking for. What matters is being different in a way that makes a difference. An entrepreneur must not only dare to be continuously different, an entrepreneur must continuously make a difference.

(Alejandrino J. Ferreria is the dean of the Asian Center for Entrepreneurship of the Asian Institute of Management. For further comments and inquiries, you may contact him at: [email protected]. Published "Entrepreneur’s Helpline" columns can be viewed on the AIM website at http//: www.aim.edu.ph).