A little business can have a BIG impact-even in a big-business world!
| How can a small business compete with all of the big guys in their industry? He can look credible and well established, while capitalizing on the advantages of his size-flexibility, responsiveness, and a true customer-relationship focus.Sell air?!
Air machines are not that different from each other and the person filling his tire is unlikely to care which machine does the job. In this case the customer is not the tire filler but the store or gas station where the machine sits. Air Depot’s strategy was not merely to sell air or air machines, but to provide SERVICE to that customer. Air Depot and The Genimation Group developed a marketing strategy where they took advantage of every aspect of working with smaller businesses. But at the same time they made Air Depot look just as professional and accommodating as the big businesses in their industry-and they added a personal dimension the big guys couldn’t match. Here is a sample of their USP…
“Air Depot is a leader in the pay air industry because we take time to listen to you… the customer. We are not the largest manufacturer of pay air machines, but that was never our goal. Our primary goal is to serve you, our customers, by providing you with the finest equipment we can possibly manufacture and “WOW” you with extraordinary customer service.” Here is a sample of the brochures that were sent out to its potential customers and distributed as trade show materials.
The information packet sent out to each potential customer also included testimonials of past customers and a running total of all the “over delighted” customers that Air Depot has served. The Results: This positioning gave Depot the kind of response that would have taken much longer (and a larger marketing budget) to achieve. |
