How to Compete in an Overcrowded Industry

Penetrating and thriving in an oversaturated market is no small feat, but it is possible. If you have a product or service that is similar to that of many other brands in the market, or if you’re trying to fill a need that has been covered, what’s going to set you apart from your competitors? How will you make a name for yourself in an industry that’s already crowded with top brands?

These are the questions you must ask yourself before entering such a market, and the following strategies can help your business get off the ground and stay successful amongst numerous business contenders.

Perform the Necessary Research

If you’re looking to penetrate the market, you’ll need to determine what’s driving consumers. Learning about your target audience will help you modify your product to fit their needs, making it easier to fill any given niche by providing exactly what consumers are searching for.

This will guide development, advertising, social media practices, and more, so take the time before your business is off the ground to do the research necessary to hone in on what you’re selling and to whom you’re selling it.

Allow for Consumer Personalization

When people think personalization, the mind often wanders to the t-shirt industry—talk about an overcrowded market. The rise of e-commerce capabilities has seen numerous t-shirt businesses like www.rushordertees.com launched across the globe, and to stay competitive, the ability to personalize products has become the new normal.

Personalized products are attention grabbing, help enhance loyalty (your products will never get old as they go through continuous personal transformation), and can provide you with a tool for collecting important information about your target demographic, allowing for further audience targeting across all other product lines.

This personalization tactic has been used in industries of all types—even the sock business. Take a look at luxury sock brand www.stance.com. Beyond their artist-designed offerings unique to the company, they also allow their customers to put their own spin on socks and canvas shoes. This handles a need not filled by your run-of-the-mill sock company that sells black and white footwear.

Offer the Utmost in Customer Service

What will set apart your company from competitors if you sell very similar products that don’t offer a significant amount of differentiation? The people behind the brand. Your level of customer service can have a more significant effect on sales than you might expect.

If customers find your response time lacking, or feel your company doesn’t have their wellbeing in mind, what’s to stop them from turning around and shopping from the closest competitor? Brands in oversaturated industries must provide the best in customer service to have any chance of surviving, let alone thriving.

Customers who have positive experiences generally relay those experiences to family and friends, and this can serve as a powerful way to ensure testimonials and referrals that can garner you a much better brand visibility and widened target audience. Remember your brand is only as good as the customer service it provides.

Go Premium

If you want your product or service to stand out, and you’re looking to attract a high-paying demographic, consider creating a competitive product that’s on the premium end of the spectrum. This is especially true for brands that cannot bring their production costs down, thus rendering them unable to compete on pricing with industry competitors.

When you hear airline reviews and customer service in the same sentence, you’ll likely brace for the negativity to start rolling in. Airline companies consistently rank low for overall customer service each and every year, but one company seems to escape this fate through amazing premium offerings and customer service practices.

JetBlue has managed to retain high customer service ratings, and its above-and-beyond attitude is surely to thank. So what makes JetBlue different? It recently unveiled premium JetBlue Mint services, which offer private suites, reclining chairs, top-of-the-line entertainment, and self-serve snack stations. JetBlue has captured the market of customers willing to spend more to fly comfortably, allowing them to easily overcome a problem faced by many of their competitors.

Article by Kate Anderson: I’m Kate, an organization expert, and I would love to help you live your best, and most organized life. When I first became interested in organization I never could have imagined  all the ways it would improve my life, and I want you to have that experience, too. I started my website, Kate’s Organized Life, and began writing to share my tips on decluttering, organizing, and planning to help other people tackle the task of organizing their lives and setting themselves up for success.