What is Your Company’s Side Door?
Take a look at this 4-minute video to find the “White Space” for your product. Don’t get lost among your competition…go in through the “Side Door.”
([00:02]):I want to talk today about finding that white space for your product. One of the things that we need to do in a direct to consumer campaign and what you as a company need to be doing is finding that opportunity, that white space that nobody else is occupying. So that way we can create a campaign that fits specifically that audience specifically for what they’re looking for. And more importantly, where your competitors are not in the retail world, they call that going in the side door. An example of that would be five-hour energy, five hour energy was a product that instead of trying to make a five hour energy, which was like 12 ounces, like everybody else, the monster energy drinks and the red bulls and all those other types of products, which are owned by huge conglomerates, like a Coca-Cola or Pepsi or red bull itself and getting shelf space, provide our energy.
([00:57]):Would’ve probably been impossible. So the gentleman who started five, our energy figured, you know, he only needed this much of the energy liquid because he wasn’t trying to cure thirst. He was trying to get people to get energized and he found this product and he developed his own and he said, well, why don’t I just make a bottle? That’s this big? So, he can get natural energy instead of all this sugar and all this liquid in a 12-ounce canned, and I’d have to fight out with everybody else. And I probably wouldn’t win because those big conglomerates are going to squeeze him out of the opportunity. So what he did is he created these five ounce, five hour energy bottles and said, you know what? I’m going to put ’em on cash register as you walk out. So now today it’s like, you expected to be there at every seven 11 or the grocery store or the drug store.
([01:54]):The five hour energy bottle is everywhere. So what he was able to do was get into the energy market through the side door, not doing what everybody else is doing, but found his shelf space on the counter, walking out. So I bring that back to a direct to consumer company. So although he entered the market from the side door, what we really try to market customers doing is trying to figure out what that white space is. A lot of times clients come in and they talk about where they’ve been successful, what they believe their product, problem solves, and who has been buying their product. That’s all very, very valuable to information. But interestingly enough, a lot of times that universe could be too big. So if you can find a white space where your product can do better because of your unique selling proposition, you don’t have to own the whole market.
([02:53]):You can own that niche or that white space. And if you own that white space and you really market hard and you really market smart, and you’re very effective there and very frugal, and really put your dollars to where that market is, you can have a huge business and not try to get lost in the blur of everybody else. So really think about where is the specific space in that white space for my product or service, don’t try to solve everybody’s problem. And don’t try to take out everybody because that’s a very, very expensive venture. And as it relates to retail, it is any way coming in the side door. You’re not trying to compete against all the big guys. You’re trying to find your audience, your space. And once you find that you can grow and you can scale and you can be extremely, extremely effective, profitable, and have a very successful business.
