As many of you know, I have built from the ground up my candle company, Hart Design Co, and I wish I had a dollar every time someone had told me in my entrepreneurial journey what an over saturated market the candle industry is.
I would be a rich woman and wouldn’t even need a candle business in the first place because so many people have, perhaps not intentionally, but they have tried to discourage me from being in the candle industry due to an over saturated market.
The reality is the candle business is growing year-over-year, and I really only need 1% of this market to be successful.
I have learned over my journey as an entrepreneur that you are far more successful when you have a positive mindset.
Now this doesn’t mean that you’re not realistic. It doesn’t mean that you don’t do your homework, and you don’t do your market research. What it does mean is that you don’t listen to the naysayers or to the people with negative comments when they say that you are in an over saturated market.
Because there are ways that you can differentiate your product offering and stand out in an over saturated market!
What is a unique selling proposition (USP)?
The first way to differentiate your brand in a highly over saturated market is to understand your unique selling proposition or USP.
A unique selling proposition is a clear and compelling statement that differentiates your product or service from your competitors.
It highlights your unique benefits, the qualities or features that make your product or your offering stand out, and it convinces customers why they should choose your product over someone else’s.
Your USP should be clear, relevant and address a specific need or pain point of your target audience.
It should be unique to you and what your business provides, and differentiate you from your competitor.
It should also offer value and make a specific promise or guarantee to your customer.
Examples of a unique selling proposition
- Melts in your mouth, not in your hand – M&M’s
- When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight – FedEx
- Gives you wings – Red Bull Energy Drink
You can see how each of these statements are clear and concise.
If you don’t have a clear and concise unique selling proposition right now, then I suggest start to explore what that is for your business.
Evaluate what makes your product unique. Analyze your competitors’ strengths and their weaknesses, and where you fill in those gaps.
It can take time to develop a really strong unique selling proposition and one that your customers will continue to recognize over time.
How to build a strong brand identity to stand out in an over saturated market
The second way you can differentiate your product in an over saturated market is to build a strong brand identity.
Key components of a strong brand identity
- Consistency of your visual elements such as the colors, fonts and logos
- The product images for your business
- The tone and voice that you use
- The values and the mission of your brand
- The emotional connection that you have with your audience
- The story that you tell about your brand’s history and the mission and the people behind it
- It’s about crafting a customer experience that creates a positive and a memorable experience for those that come into contact with your business
- And creating a culture of credibility, trustworthiness, and expertise in your craft
- It’s also about building a community around your brand that fosters a sense of belonging and loyalty among your customers
So, when utilizing a strong brand identity, being consistent is key and having consistency across all platforms and creating a compelling narrative about your brand’s mission and values and utilizing that to connect with your customers.
Why is social proof so powerful?
The third way to differentiate your product in an over saturated market is to leverage social proof.
I see so many businesses that never ask for customer reviews and testimonials.
I think a lot of and I know a lot of business owners struggle with this because it definitely leaves room for negative testimonials publicly.
And yes, it can give us anxiety when someone leaves a critical review of our business but here’s the thing, when you are seeking to create a very positive customer experience, you really don’t have anything to worry about.
There will always be a dissatisfied customer in some form or fashion.
But in my experience, with over 17 years in sales, it is actually the dissatisfied customer that leaves you the opportunity as a business owner to shine.
Now, how do you do that?
It all comes down to the way that you respond to that customer, both publicly and privately.
You always want to respond with integrity and with kindness no matter what the situation is.
You never want to point blame and you certainly never want to be on the defensive.
But if you listen to episode 109, Counter-cultural Leadership Principles with my mentor, David Miketinac one of the biggest lessons that he taught me is to always seek to understand first.
And so, if you approach these situations seeking to understand the root of the issue, and you respond with a listening ear, and you seek to take care of the customer and the problem, and you don’t respond in a defensive manner, then I always find that 9 times out of 10, that customer will become a loyal customer for life.
They will share with all of their friends the positive customer experience that they had with your brand, and in turn, that will help differentiate your brand in an over saturated market.
Another huge benefit of customer reviews and testimonials is that it helps your SEO or search engine optimization.
Anytime you can create a way to incentivize or get your customers to leave Google reviews, that is very helpful for your SEO.
Innovate your product offering so you can stand out in an over saturated market
This means continuous improvement with your products.
Regularly updating and iterating your products.
Offering exclusive products or limited editions.
You can also create scarcity to help boost demand.
It’s also a great way to test the market to see if it’s a particular product that you may potentially want to offer year-round.
One of the biggest challenges that business owners face is the challenge of being too comfortable with our product offerings.
And in a in an ever-evolving market, you have to constantly be innovating and being creative with new product offerings that your customers want to see.
I recently did a podcast episode with Dwayne Jeffries on how to use consumer market trends to build your product-based business, I highly encourage you to go back and listen to that episode.
It will give you an insider’s glimpse into why you should be paying attention to market trends and how you can utilize those trends to iterate and constantly evolve your product offerings to help you stand out among a saturated market.
Dwayne also did a full in-depth report on the 2024 and 2025 market trends for the She Sells Differently members.
So, if you are interested in being a part of the She Sells Differently coaching community, you can learn more here.
Creating engaging content
This is one of the most difficult challenges for business owners because we are so involved in the higher-level strategies of running a business that creating engaging content is often one of the last things on our mind.
But creating engaging content is everything from content marketing to developing a plan for blogs and social media.
- How are we growing our SEO?
- Are we educating and entertaining our customers with content?
- How are we balancing informative yet fun content?
- How are we actually creating user generated content and encouraging our customers to share their experiences with our products.
Those are things that we have to be thinking about with engaging content as business owners in ways that we can help set our products and our brands apart in an over saturated market.
So, the 5 ways that you can differentiate your brand in a highly saturated market is understand your unique selling proposition, build a strong brand identity, leverage social proof, innovate your product offering and create engaging content.
I encourage you to find one of these strategies to work on implementing in your business this week.
